ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the interpretations of China's rise featured in the United States and European Union's policy discourse between 1989 and 2009. It examines data from a variety of sources pertaining to China's military and economic power, its human rights record and certain facets of its foreign policy behaviour to illustrate how specific interpretations are justified by their proponents. The chapter isolates six overarching interpretations that relate to specific areas of China's rise. It shows that there are real differences in how China's rise is perceived, influencing policy responses. The chapter argues that attempting to establish an 'objective' view of the 'reality' of China's rise is redundant – the evidence shows that policymakers react to how they subjective perceive actors and events. It shows that the logic of power-transition theory has influenced the reasoning behind American threat perspectives, particularly in relation to military issues.
