In a recent interview posted on the Northwestern University website, Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China co-author Benjamin I. Page, a professor at Northwestern, explains how Americans perceive the rise of China as a world power. Here he answers the question of what is the greatest threat to U.S.-China relations:

The greatest threat is Taiwan. The status quo is probably OK but that is the strange situation in which the U.S. claims that there is a one-China policy, but at the same time gives military aid to Taiwan. But as long as Taiwan doesn’t try to be independent, that’s stable. The biggest single danger is that at some point, which almost happened a short time ago, the Taiwanese might have a government that insists on independence and that could lead to a major struggle that the U.S. could get dragged into.

If you’d like to read more about this book, check out the excerpt from the first chapter posted on our website.