Elizabeth Economy says the United States and China face a long march to mutual respect.

Clean-energy technology is expensive and the United States is spending far too little on developing it.

As China's economic might expands, Beijing not only wants a greater stake in international organizations but also to remake the rules of the game.

A heightened bilateral relationship may not be possible for China and the United States, as the two countries have mismatched interests and values.

Failure to plan for predictable problems has turned China's coming-out party into an embarrassment.

China's environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.

Selected by The Globalist as one of the top ten books of 2004, The River Runs Black is the most comprehensive and balanced volume to date on China’s growing environmental crisis and its implications for the country’s development. Based on historical research, case studies, and interviews with officials, scholars, and activists in China, this book provides insightful analysis of the economic and political roots of China’s environmental challenge as well as the evolution of the leadership’s response.

Elizabeth C. Economy says, "If the United States and China can begin the process by taking a step back to establish a new narrative for the relationship that minimizes competition, sets aside intractable issues, and keeps global and regional issues where they belong—in a multilateral framework—there will be the potential for the two countries, like the frog in the well, to take two steps forward for every one step back."

Elizabeth C. Economy argues that unless the leadership in Beijing changes course, China faces increasing isolation.

Elizabeth Economy argues that China's energy challenges show no signs of abating while Chinese leaders are working feverishly, if imperfectly, to meet them.

Elizabeth Economy argues that the biggest challenge that China faces may be lack of access to clean water.

Elizabeth Economy and Adam Segal argue that the failure of a U.S.-China "G2" frees up the United States to make real progress with China by cultivating alliances elsewhere.

Political change is happening all the time in China, though the government is not leading the charge. Rather, the Chinese people are advancing political change through advocacy by nongovernmental organizations, communication via the Internet, and political protest.

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Both are accurate. China certainly "has risen" to become a global economic power: in only three decades, it has transformed itself into the world's second largest economy, largest exporter, and largest provider of loans to the developing world. At the same time, China is rising: its economic and political system, as well as its foreign policy, is still developing. To state categorically that China "has risen" is to accept that the China of today will be substantially the same as the China of five to ten years from now, and few people in or outside China would accept such a conclusion.

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