China shares borders with 20 other countries. Each of these neighbors has its own national interests, and in some cases, these include territorial and maritime jurisdictional claims in places that China also claims. Most of these 20 countries have had a history of border conflicts with China; some of them never amicably settled. This book brings together some of the foremost historians, geographers, political scientists, and legal scholars on modern Asia to examine each of China's twenty land or sea borders.

This book brings together historians, geographers, political scientists, and legal scholars to examine each of China's twenty land or sea borders. Each chapter details the history and status of boundary setting and disputes and the ongoing management of transnational interactions--trade, resource exploitation, fishing rights, and population movements. Country coverage includes Afghanistan, Bhutan, Brunei, Indonesia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, The Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

This diverse collection of papers ranges from full historical accounts to sharp battle-field reports, from Mao Zedung's musings on war to the machinations of wily British politicians bent on breaking their word. The study of China's dealings with border problems through the centuries shows imperial aggressions, bluff and deceit, cartographic trickery, diplomatic forgeries, wilful follies and stubborn refusal to correct mistaken policies. There is, however, a brighter side too, with an occasional statesman-like reversal of stance, and examples of patient, persistent negotiation undoing intractable knots of contention. Within the clash of states, there appears the human element of accident, the errant botanist whose hunger for new plants ultimately sparks war, the lords of the imperial marches whose land-grabs and deceits stand revealed in the long run; low political ambitions undoing carefully negotiated treaties. All of this throws light on one of the most important questions of the day: the character of the People's Republic of China as an actor in international affairs.

Lustgarten's book is a timely and provocative account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and the nation's obsession to transform its land and its people.

One of the most significant factors for contemporary international relations is the growth of China’s economic, military, and political power. Indeed, few analysts would dispute the observation that China’s power has strongly influenced the structure of the international system, major-power strategic relations, international security, the patterns of trans-border economic activities, and most importantly, the political and security dynamics in Asia in the twenty-first century. This book maps the growth of China’s political, economic, and military capabilities and its impact on the security order in Asia over the coming decades. While updating the emerging power dimensions and prevailing discourse, it provides a nuanced analysis of whether the growth of Chinese power is resulting in Beijing becoming more assertive, or even aggressive, in its behavior and pursuit of national interests. It also examines how the key Asian countries perceive and react to the growth of China’s power and how US rebalancing would play out in the context of Beijing’s political, economic, and military power. China’s Power and Asian Security will be of huge interest to student and scholars of Asian politics, Chinese politics, security studies and international security and international relations more generally.

What are Beijing’s objectives towards the developing world and how they have evolved and been pursued over time? Featuring contributions by recognized experts, China Steps Out analyzes and explains China’s strategies in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America, and evaluates their effectiveness. This book explains how other countries perceive and respond to China’s growing engagement and influence. Each chapter is informed by the functionally organized academic literature and addresses a uniform set of questions about Beijing’s strategy. Using a regional approach, the authors are able to make comparisons among regions based on their economic, political, military, and social characteristics, and consider the unique features of Chinese engagement in each region and the developing world as a whole. China Steps Out will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese foreign policy, comparative political economy, and international relations.