China Goes Global: The Partial Power, by David Shambaugh, OUP USA, RRP￡20/$29.95, 320 pages

China is now the world’s second-largest economy and the only plausible challenger to the US as dominant global superpower. So it is hard to disagree when David Shambaugh asserts that the country’s rise is “the big story of our era”.

And yet, oddly enough, Professor Shambaugh’s China Goes Global is dedicated to proving that the rise of China is not such a big story, after all. With admirable clarity, he asserts early on: “The elements of China’s global power are actually surprisingly weak and very uneven. China is not as important, and it is certainly not as influential, as conventional wisdom holds.” Nor is this just a snapshot of today’s situation. “China has a very long way to go before it becomes – if it ever becomes – a true global power. And it will never ‘rule the world’.”