Includes bibliographical references and index.

Continuities in China's Pacific Asian centrality -- Thin connectivity : traditional Chinese centrality -- Sharp connectivity : Western modernization and de-centered Pacific Asia -- Thick connectivity : the re-centering of Pacific Asia -- China, Pacific Asia, and reconfiguring a multinodal world -- Global power rivalry, Pacific Asia, and world order.

"Brantly Womack argues that China's regional context is the key to both its economic success and its major political challenges. Pacific Asia is now the world's largest and most cohesive economic region, and China has returned to its center. China's regional experience and challenges will therefore shape its global outlook and prospects"--