China: fragile superpower

What kind of superpower will China become, cooperative or aggressive?

Susan Shirk, a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, has spent years thinking about this critical question.

In China: The Fragile Superpower, she opens up the black box of Chinese domestic politics and reveals a fragile communist regime struggling to survive in a society turned upside down by economic growth and open markets.

Shirk argues that the West'sgreatest danger is not China's economic or military strength but its internal fragility.

She makes the case that it is usually rising powers that provoke wars, and unless Western states understand the fears that motivate Chinese leaders, they are likely to misread and mishandle China - and find themselvesin an avoidable international conflict.