Contrasting Visions United States, China, and World Order

The complex relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China has become strained in recent years, particularly with the accidental bombing in 1999 of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and last year's collision between a Chinese fighter and an American reconnaissance plane. While the two nations maintain relatively stable relations, they are often at loggerheads on a variety of issues, ranging from missile defense to international trade. Some in both countries contend these differences set them on a course towards inevitable antagonism and possible conflict. Such disagreements are unavoidable, owing to fundamentally different views on how the world should be ordered. But these differences need not be a source of conflict. Indeed, each side has little to gain from confrontation with the other. Bates Gill, a noted China scholar, examines four key "pillars" of world order and provides a framework to more clearly recognize, understand, and respond to the "contrasting visions"of China and the United States. He believes that Sino-American friction has its roots not in a "laundry list" of various contentious issues, but rather in the more basic questions of how the world is to be ordered. From this vantage point, the book illuminates these obstacles and provides a path to overcome them.Gill, Bates is the author of 'Contrasting Visions United States, China, and World Order' with ISBN 9780815731498 and ISBN 0815731493.