Book excerpt: This book presents eight separate essays and provides the reader with a unique perspective and objective judgement of where China will stand by the end of the current decade. It is suitable reading for foreign policy practitioners, academics and anyone interested in one of the world's fastest-developing countries. The eight essays cover the following topics: China's internal politics; China's military; China's economy; China's international image and its international relations; China's legal development and China's western regional development plans. China 2020 assesses where these issues stand today and highlights their likely trajectory over the following decade. A unique feature of this book is that it looks in particular at the policy impact, both for China and other countries, and all the most and least likely outcomes for China's development in these areas. - Concentrates on the practical policy impacts and the expected outcomes each of the above areas will have - Deals with issues like the opening up of China's undeveloped western area. A subject with little coverage in other mainstream books on China - Takes a short to mid-term view of China's development, so that the period is highly definable and the contours of what might happen are already clear