Former Financial Times Beijing bureau chief Geoff Dyer's new book, The Contest of the Century: The New Era of Competition with China - and How American Can Win, has many readers in the West. In recent years, there have been books by Western experts on China's rise and how the West can deal with it, among which Henry Kissinger's On China is the most well-known among the Chinese.

Strategic narratives about China are largely dominated by Westerners. Even in China, Western experts are strong suppliers for strategic concepts and perspectives, and almost no bestseller on geopolitics here was written by a Chinese.

Many people believe a rising China will inevitably run head-on into the US, which will be China's top challenge in the next few decades. Many predictions and curses are lingering, almost all stemming from the West.

The Chinese public, quite unfamiliar with geopolitical studies, lacks interest in serious analyses about world power competition. There are some discussions over external conflicts, but usually only a few specific incidents.

In Chinese academia, the current fashion is to focus on social criticism. The importance of China's geopolitical challenges is severely underestimated.

"National interest," a key word in US public opinion, is hardly a buzzword among the Chinese public. Such a public opinion atmosphere apparently does not encourage in-depth geopolitical studies. If a Chinese book draws only a meager audience in China, it will stir up even less interest by people from other parts of the world.

Chinese voices in the international public opinion arena are very weak. Officials are not able to effectively respond to external censure, and scholars' works rarely impress their Western counterparts.

While mainstream media leaves the world an insipid impression, China's new media is overwhelmed by strong sentiments. All these barely provide any solid pillar to the nation's competitiveness in the international public opinion sphere.

China is being described by Westerners as an ambitious challenger to the global order. They urge the US-led West to face up to and cope with the contest with China. They mistake China as the cause for Sino-US tensions, and hype up legitimacy for the US to confront China.

China needs its own Samuel Huntington. Beyond arguments with the West over specific disputes, China has to join in the competition with the West over strategic thinking and the capacity of presenting national narratives. Mechanisms should be established to foster scholars who can produce truly influential works and answer core questions about the rise of China.