June Teufel Dreyer's Middle Kingdom and Empire of the Rising Sun provides an authoritative and accessible overview of the great civilizational rivalry between Japan and China. Dreyer sets the context by providing a crisp account of Sino-Japanese relations from the ninth century to the onset of the modern era. In the aftermath of multiple wars between them, including a long and brutal conflict in World War II, Japan developed into a major economic power but rejected any concomitant military capabilities. With the addition of a new epilogue, this paperback edition brings the narrative up to the present day and focuses on trade beginning to rise again after 2016. Dreyer focuses on the issues that dominate China and Japan's fraught current relationship including economic competition, resurgent nationalism, military tensions, and globalization. For anyone interested in the political dynamics of East Asia, this integrative history of the relationship between the region's two giants is essential reading.
