The book argued that conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China would dominate the early decades of the 21st century and advocated various steps to counter what the authors saw as the Chinese threat to the US.

Munro, a friend of Bernstein's, was the former Toronto Globe and Mail correspondent in Beijing, and had been expelled from China in 1978 for writing about human rights, after which he had worked for Time in Hong Kong.

The text of the book was written by Bernstein from beginning to end so as to maintain a consistent writing style, with Munro contributing factual content for inclusion in it.

[3] The book opens with a quotation from Chinese general Mi Zhenyu quoting him as saying: "[As for the United States] for a relatively long time it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance .

[5] Additionally Bernstein and Munro expressed the view that China's rulers blamed the US for the actions of the student demonstrators prior to the Tiananmen square massacre.

[1] Donald Zagoria, writing in the May/June 1997 edition of Foreign Policy, described the book as "pessimistic" and criticised it for "overlook[ing] the common interests that both the United States and China have in maintaining regional peace in Asia".