The book is part memoir, part history, part description, and part issue analysis of the dynamics of U.S.-China relations from early 1989 until the last days of the Clinton administration. Political scientists looking for great theoretical insights will be disappointed, but for those who want to understand the nature and evolution of U.S.-China ties, this is the best book to read on the subject.

Seven major themes are interwoven throughout the text. (1) The U.S.-China relationship can be seen as operating on three levels—global, domestic, and individual leader. (2) Leaders confront two vary different constituencies—global and domestic. (3) Interdependence and external demands create opportunities for nationalistic appeals. (4) China is the largest late modernizer and a growing force in international affairs. At the same time, Chinese leaders and citizens see China as having been victimized by the international system for a long time. (5) Secure and effective political leadership in both countries is a key to managing the bilateral relationship well. (6) The challenge of managing this relationship will only grow in coming years. (7) Despite differences, the United States and China share many important interests, and this gives the relationship more durability than is commonly thought.

Lampton sees four main or potential turning points in U.S.-China relations during the period 1989 to 2000: maintaining the relationship after the Tiananmen massacre of 1989; Clinton's linking and delinking of human rights and China's most-favored-nation status in 1993–94; the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995–96; and the series of events between April and November 1999, when the United States first turned its back on major Chinese concessions for a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, then bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, and finally concluded the bilateral accord on WTO accession. These historical events provide the structure for much of the work, but there are chapters on security issues (with a tour d' horizon of China's international relations), economics and human rights, global institutions, the role of third parties in the bilateral relationship, the images by which each side sees the other, and how their media portray each other.

This is the first book to read on Sino-American relations for the 1989–2000 period, but it is not flawless. The major problem is that the book tries to be a bit of everything. Is it a history of the relationship? Is it an overview of issues? Is it an analysis of conditions in which the relationship is likely to be good (or bad)? Is it an analysis of conditions in which the relationship is likely to be good (or bad)? Is it justifying a series of policy recommendations? Is it designed to show the importance of the National Committee on United States–China Relations (this reviewer is a member of that committee)? Because Lampton tries to do some of all these things, he provides less depth on a number of issues than might be the case if there were a clearer sense of what the book is supposed to be.

A second problem is that of a bias (which I share). Lampton is deeply committed to U.S.-China relations and more generally to the policy of engaging China. As a result, more critical views of U.S.-China ties do not get the type of play that one might hope. This can take several forms or directions. Some expect the Chinese Communist Party will fall from power (or, indeed, believe that the United States should work to hasten its fall), but Lampton does not say much about the implications of these beliefs for the relationship. China's growing military capabilities and human rights abuses are discussed, but they donot receive a balanced treatment or are not constructed into an effective dialogue with the “comprehensive engagement” school of thought.

Implicitly, Lampton presents a view that is sympathetic to the primacy of the executive branch of government and to business in the setting of U.S.-China ties on the U.S. side, a view that is critical of the role of Congress or the role of public opinion in the framing of American policy toward China. Thus, when Lampton examines how individuals matter in the policy process, he highlights congressional critics of engagement (no member of Congress is singled out for advancing U.S.-China relations) and, for an example of an individual who advances the relationship, highlights Maurice Greenberg of the American International [Insurance] Group, who was a major supporter of the National Committee on United States–China Relations. The section on Greenberg almost reads like a thank-you note for the work he did for the committee when Lampton was its president.

These criticisms do not detract from the vast majority of insights provided in this book, which is, as stated earlier, the best work on the subject. But will those who do not share Lampton's views on engagement be persuaded by his analysis? Unfortunately, for all too many people, U.S.-China relations are no longer an issue on which rational argument can contribute to the setting of good policy.