Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian (eds.), China and the New International Order

Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian's edited book studies the issue of how China has been transformed and reshaped as a consequence of the new international order and how China's role has been redefined. The book also attempts to study the domestic sources of China's international behaviour. Its central premise is “how China can reshape the international order depends on whether China has such a capacity, which is a function of its domestic development. On the other hand, how the world can reshape China also depends on whether China's domestic forces accept or resist any external influence they face” (p; 3). The importance of this premise is based on the Fairbankian analysis that “most of the dynasties in China collapsed under the twin blows of inside disorder and outside calamity; that is domestic rebellion and foreign invasion”( Fairbank, 1968; p. 3 cited in p. 5).