Looking for Balance China, the United States, and Power Balancing in East Asia [Hardcover]

Debate surrounding China's rise, and the prospects of its possible challenge to America's preeminence, has focused on two questions: whether the United States should contain or engage China; and whether the rise of Chinese power has inclined other East Asian states to balance against Beijing by alignment with the United States or ramping up their military expenditures.

By drawing on alternative theoretic approachesmost especially balance-of-threat theory, political economic theory, and theories of regime survival and economic interdependence, Steve Chan is able to create an explanation of regional developments that differs widely from the traditional strategic vision of national interest.

He concludes that China's primary aim is not to match U.S. military might or the foreign policy influence that flows from that power, and that its neighbors are not balancing against its rising power because, in today's guns-versus-butter fiscal reality, balancing policies would entail forfeiting possible gains that can accrue from cooperation, economic growth, and the application of GDP to nonmilitary ends. Instead, most East Asian countries have collectively pivoted to a strategy of elite legitimacy and regime survival based on economic performance.

Steve Chan is College Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the author ofChina, the U.S., and the Power-Transition Theory: A Critique, andEnduring Rivalries in the Asia Pacific.By drawing on alternative theoretic approachesmost especially balance-of-threat theory, political economic theory, and theories surrounding regime survival in multilateral rather than bilateral contexts Steve Chan is able to create an explanation of what is in motion in the region that differs widely from the traditional strategic vision of national interest. Chan challenges the application of balance-of-power theory to today's Asia . . . Chan employs historical analysis and intelS&