And why not? In this context, Beijing could ensure that China is the richest, most economically secure, and most influential country in the world. With this power, it will undoubtedly ensure that it is the center, the prime beneficiary, and effectively the director of the global economy. If China becomes dominant in such a way over Asia it will have a controlling influence over roughly half of the global economy. Beijing would not directly control them, but it would be the center and leader of the system, and would have immense leverage to enforce its will. This would likely take the form of formally independent states in Asia orienting their economic, foreign, and security-and ultimately even their domestic affairs-around Beijing’s preferences. Beijing’s behavior, and at a deeper level China’s interests, all point in the direction of Beijing pursuing a form of soft imperial control-what we might call hegemony-over Asia. But now the answer seems fairly clearly to be yes. Now is China actually going to pursue this goal? This could have been the topic of a good debate a decade ago. If Beijing could dominate Asia, it would be in a very strong position to dominate the world-and us. Asia is now again the center of the world, upwards of 50% of global GDP going forward. So how could China pose such a threat to our interests? By dominating Asia.
But China on its own is not strong enough.
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