Introduction

This book considers the evolving relationship between China and the international system, and the interaction between a China of profound change in its identity, capability, and influence, and an international system that is itself experiencing a process of far–reaching transformation. How are the two shaping and influencing each other? This subject is not new. Indeed, the problem of China and the international has been at the center of the scholarly interests in the problem of the rise of China (Brown et al. 2000; Economy and Oksenberg 1999; Ikenberry 2008; Hachigian et al. 2009; Kent 2007; Goldstein 2005; Johnston 2003, 2008; Lanteigne 2005; Medeiros 2007; Womack 2010; Kang 2007; Buzan 2010; Mearsheimer 2010).