No Constraints: China's Global Quest for Partners and Influence

By Patricia M. Kim

A sweeping account of China's global strategy from Mao to Xi, revealing its effort to court strategic partners, outmaneuver rivals, and reshape the global order on its own terms

Beijing wants global influence without global entanglements. That ambition is not new--it has been decades in the making. Rather than building rigid alliances, China has cultivated a vast web of partnerships that span ideological divides. These ties--with Russia, North Korea, states in the Global South, and key US-aligned powers--are designed to avoid entanglement, counter containment, and increase Beijing's leverage amid intensifying global competition. No Constraints offers an unprecedented look at Beijing's evolving global posture, revealing how it is driven by a persistent fear of strategic encirclement and a relentless drive to break free of it.

In a study spanning China's Cold War alliances to its search for partners today, Patricia Kim reveals how Beijing has managed and mismanaged its most important relationships. She demonstrates how China's embrace of authoritarian regimes, coercive tactics, and assertive regional policies have often reinforced the very threats Beijing seeks to diffuse. Its rejection of formal alliances raises doubts about whether China's partners would offer real support in a time of crisis. At the center of this story stands China's most consequential and complex relationship with United States. Kim argues that this bilateral dynamic, marked by engagement, rivalry, and mistrust, has shaped Beijing's global strategy for more than half a century--and will continue to do so for decades to come.

Written by an internationally recognized expert on Chinese foreign policy, No Constraints offers an unflinching assessment of what Beijing's global strategy signals for a world where alliances are fluid, order is contested, and global leadership is increasingly up for grabs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 069126807X
• ISBN13: 9780691268071
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 288 Pages