Titles very often exaggerate what books can really offer. In this case, quite the opposite seems true. That is, the title of the book is somewhat too unassuming for its rich contents. Yes, the book is only about one bilateral relationship, that between China and South Korea. However, this particular relationship, as the author aptly notes (p. 141), is indisputably a “primary test” for China's commitment to regional stability and peaceful rise.

This book consists of seven chapters and many tables, figures and appendices. Just like the title, part two (chapter one) is too modest, if not unclear, about what the volume really aspires to accomplish. If you only read the introductory chapter, you would simply – and wrongly – assume that this is one of so many highly descriptive, historical and uninteresting books on bilateral relations.

Part two (chapters two and three) lays out a key framework of analysis for the volume. Anyone who has ever published a book on any bilateral relations knows how difficult it is to put them in an explicit yet coherent theoretical/analytical framework. Ye attempts just that here and seems at least partially successful. In order to account for what is generally known as the puzzle of “hot economics with chilly politics” (jingre zhengleng) in Sino-South Korean relations in the 21st century, the author proposes a multidimensional model of bilateral relations and, in doing so, introduces a model of four-level games (level-I of conventional diplomacy; level-II of intra-state bargaining; level-III of traditional public diplomacy; and level-IV of new public diplomacy).

The real yolk of the volume, in my view, is part three (chapters four through six). Among them (although chapter four on the impact of social forces on Sino-South Korean “soft clashes” is also interesting), chapter five really stands out as Ye examines how compatible China's and South Korea's motives for a mutual Free Trade Agreement (FTA) were. How both Beijing and Seoul managed to break their own records by quickly facilitating the FTA deal is empirically and persuasively analysed by utilizing six interesting hypotheses and regression analyses.

Debatable is probably chapter six on “external players” in Sino-South Korean relations. As South Korea is a close ally of China's rival (i.e. the US) and, at the same time, the enemy of China's only ally (i.e. North Korea), the key idea for this chapter has been well articulated. Yet, the statement that “Xi Jinping's unprecedented one-nation visit to South Korea in 2014 amounted to a de facto death of China's equal-distance diplomacy” (p. 124) appears to need more time for an ultimate test. In the same vein, the author's remark that “[a]s China gradually switched its priority to reginal stability, the nuclear crisis was no longer a source of controversy” (p. 125) awaits a final verdict as well.

All in all, this book is a welcome addition to Chae-jin Lee's China and Korea: Dynamic Relations (Hoover Institution Press, 1996) and my Between Ally and Partner (Columbia University Press, 2006). It nicely covers nearly a decade since the publication of the latter book. Yet, Ye chose not to adopt a chronological approach but a thematic one with abundant displays of innovative ideas and methodological sophistication. For a book which has not relied at all on original Korean sources, it surprisingly succeeds in maintaining a sound level of objectivity and balance.

The volume does have some room for improvement. First of all, it is not quite clear what exactly the author means by the “new era” and “new dynamics.” As these terms appear repeatedly in the book, they should have been more clearly defined early on. Second, as for the main argument that Sino-South Korean relations are complicated and multidimensional with multiple conduits, it makes one wonder what is really new there. Third, despite Ye's claim that the book is not about specific events and incidents, it is somewhat ironic that chapter five focusing on the China–Korea FTA stands out as the best.

This book offers a meaningful additional case of political–economic interactions in bilateral relations to the field of international politics. To the field of China studies, it also provides a useful addition to the study of Sino-South Korean relations for the 21st century.

This book can be used as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate seminars on China's foreign policy or Northeast Asian security. Of course, given that “what South Korea can select is not so much which game it is willing to play as which side (the US or China) it is willing to stand with” (p. 130), scholars and policy experts of the Asian region at large may also benefit from it.