Steve Chan, Trust and Distrust in Sino-American Relations
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797018823982 |
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Review 103
Steve Chan, Trust and Distrust in Sino-American Relations.
Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2017, 261 pp., US$ 35 (paperback).
ISBN: 9781604979978.
DOI: 10.1177/2347797018823982
Since the year 2000, and more importantly since the Global Financial Crisis of
2007–2008, Sino-US relations have been described as the most significant
relationship in international politics in the twenty-first century. China–US
relations have certainly captivated the attention of policymakers and international
relations scholars in the last three decades as evidenced by the cottage industry of
studies about the contemporary relationship at the economic, political and strategic
levels. Scholars of international relations have exhausted the extant theories in an
attempt to decipher the complicated relational dynamics of these two superpowers.
Yet, something seems to be amiss in the current studies. Steve Chan, in his book
Trust and Distrust in Sino-American Relations, proposes that we should consider
the role of interstate trust to understand Sino-US relations going forward.
Overall the book is well organized. Chan sets out the tone in Chapter 1 for the
rationale of the book. In this chapter, he sets the context of why it is important for
us to study the role of interstate trust in international relations. The author
suggests that the extant international relations theory has missed out on the
concept of interstate trust as an important variable that can enrich our
understanding of interstate relationships, particularly at the major power level.
He proposes in this opening chapter that incorporating the concept of trust into
the analysis of Sino-US relations not only enriches our understanding of this
important superpower relations but can also provide us with a window to
understand the future of this relationship.
Chan makes six major arguments in his book. First is that the existing mutual
distrust between the two countries is deeply rooted and not entirely unjustified.
Second, trust is not just a bilateral matter. Third, trust is built on the basis of
equity, parity, empathy and reciprocity. Fourth, how a state acts in stressful
situations and when is free to behave without constraints tends to reveal its true
character. Fifth, democracies’ more transparent policy processes help to disclose
their preferences and motivations. Finally, strategic restraint holds the key to
building mutual trust.
In Chapter 2, Chan dissects the concept of trust to make it more manageable
for analytical purposes. Chan defines trust as ‘one’s judgments about another
person or state’s future intentions’ (p. 48). Conversely, distrust is defined as
‘attributing malevolent intentions to the other party’ (p. 51). From these definitions,
he works on to operationalize the concept of trust/distrust by proposing that
several indicators—listening to the other’s words, making sense of the other’s
deeds, using armament and alliance behaviour, treatment of weak neighbours and
domestic minorities and whether a state keeps its promises or not. These are
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