This study on Chinese debates regarding international relations is quite timely, as the changing role and status of the PRC in world politics is currently one of the most heatedly debated topics in the broader political science literature. The book examines Chinese scholars’ views and interpretations of the country's rise to global power status, and thus adds an inside-out perspective that is reflective of the deeper historical and cultural foundations of Chinese politics. The starting point of analysis is the 1990s, when China's status changed from being a passive observer to becoming, in Chinese terminology, one pole of the new multipolar world system.

The possible impact of China's rise on the international system and its power contributions alongside those of the major actors involved therein have been subjects of discussion for the past three decades. Scholars of international relations have come up with two rather incompatible scenarios: neorealist theoreticians predict an inevitable clash of claims and a struggle for hegemony between the United States and China, while scholars relying on liberal and ideational interpretations of world politics instead argue that growing global interdependencies might facilitate international cooperation, and thus make possible the peaceful integration of a rising China into the international system. While international observers of China often apply analytical frames derived mainly from the context of European history, Chinese scholars meanwhile are now attempting to devise their own frames of analysis. The development of the field of International Relations (IR) studies in China has been examined and documented in several monographs and academic articles by other authors ever since the 1990s; Wang Hung-Jen provides a rather brief overview of some of these works before coming to the main part and contribution of his own research: the analysis of four selected case studies on China's relations with the US, Japan, Southeast Asia and Taiwan (caveat: the latter is not part of China's external relations and thus has to be analysed in light of the one-China principle).

Influenced by the main assumptions and frames of role theory (and by the writings of the Taiwanese scholar Shih Chih-yu), Wang Hung-Jen presents a new history of China's external relations. As he correctly outlines in his case studies, Chinese IR research is no longer limited to one single narrative but is characterized by the coexistence therein of multiple theory schools and competing interpretations. China's rise is causing dynamic changes to take place in China's role within the international system, which is consequently prompting shifts in China's bilateral relationships. Again, these new constellations have required modifications to be made to Chinese scholars’ research on the country's rise.

In general, this book makes an interesting contribution to the literature on current IR debates in China and adds a content-based view to the literature on the “Chinese school” of IR that has so far primarily been reflected in the light of the sociology of knowledge and the history of science. However, the role theory approach presented also carries some weaknesses and leaves various questions unanswered. First of all, the identification of the dominant theoretical approaches taken in Chinese scholars’ writings for each historical period discussed in the four case studies is not always clear and convincing. More information about the selection and processing of data, especially in light of the numerous Chinese academic publications available, might be illuminating. As it stands, at some points one is left wondering why certain scholars are directly quoted in the text while others are not even mentioned at all. Second, to group Chinese scholars’ writings under the main frames of “Western” IR theories such as (neo)realism and liberalism might be misleading. The author himself concedes that the field of Chinese IR is based on the eclectic integration of various theoretical approaches, and that as such it is often not easy to identify an author's affiliation with only one particular school. Furthermore, the main “Western” theoretical assumptions, as Wang also outlines, have been adapted to the Chinese context and mixed with local conceptual elements. Again, many articles that were published in the early stages of modern IR research in China did not explicitly position themselves within the tradition of one of the main theory schools, rather being descriptive assessments of recent or past events in Chinese foreign relations.

Nonetheless, these are ultimately only minor points – as this book does not in any case claim to investigate the development of Chinese IR theory in detail and over time. Rather, it is concerned with identifying the roles of ego and alter, and their interrelation with China's rise, as the key determinants of Chinese scholars’ assessments of the country's external relations. While the rise of China has been measured by academics and observers in terms of quantifiable economic (or military) power for quite some time, Wang's book brings in a socio-cognitive level of analysis that sheds light on China's ongoing search for a new role – and, consequently, also new identity – in the evolving global system of the 21st century.