Steve Tsang is Director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. He is also an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College at Oxford, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He previously served as the Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and as Director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham. Before that he spent twenty-nine years at Oxford University, where he earned his D.Phil. and worked as a Professorial Fellow, Dean, and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony's College. He has broad areas of research interest and has published extensively, including five single authored and fourteen collaborative books.Olivia Cheung is Lecturer in Politics at the Department of European and International Studies and Affiliate of the Lau China Institute at King's College London. She is also China Fellow at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Previously, she was Research Fellow at the ChinaInstitute at SOAS University of London. She obtained her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.

• DedicationIllustrations PrefaceAbbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: China's Global Strategy under XiChapter 3: Analytical Framework: Sino-centric Party-state RealismChapter 4: Making China's Foreign PolicyChapter 5: Tianxia: An Alternative International OrderChapter 6: Instrumentalist Approach to Reshaping the International SystemChapter 7: Instrumentalist Approach to Global Economic EngagementChapter 8: Sino-centric Party-state Realism at work: Taiwan and the Ukraine WarChapter 9: Strength and Weaknesses of China's Global StrategyPostscript (by Steve Tsang) NotesBibliography Index

In this masterful treatment the authors present a convincing portrait of Xi Jinping as a transformational leader who has replaced Deng Xiaoping's cautious approach to international relations with a Sino-centric party-state paradigm that will transform the liberal world order in China's image. Limiting the effectiveness of Xi's strategy, they argue, is the reality that, although many states are not troubled by China's vision of multi-polarity as a path to its global pre-eminence, they are concerned that they may become collateral damage in Xi's ratcheting up of military intimidation.