From the author of the Sunday Times number-one bestseller The Storm, Within a very short period of time, relations between China and the rest of the world - especially the United States and its Western allies - have deteriorated badly. What was characterized in the UK as a "Golden Era" is new discussed in openly hostile terms. China is seen by the West as a technological, economic and political threat that involves a long-term struggle between two incompatible and rival systems, from which there can only be a winner and a loser. China's perception of the West, on the other hand, is that it is in terminal, long-term economic and political decline. The result of this clash of perceptions and of interests is considerable geopolitical tension. But it coexists with close and seemingly growing economic integration through trade and investment, despite some attempts at "decoupling". The outcome is what has been described as a "cold war" or a "hot peace" - a complex and unstable mixture of mutual suspicion and hostility combined with practical commercial cooperation. The objective of this book is to try to look through the changes in perception and to establish if they are justified and where they may lead. Book jacket.