Enter the Dragon: China Regains Its Place in the World and a U.S. Strategy for Cooperation and Confidence Building

摘要

The People's Republic of China is recovering the global role it held for much of the world's history. The rest of the world must adjust to China's return to the world stage. However, a close study of Chinese history and China's wars reveals that China has not sought to project its power far beyond it home territories. Chinese dynasties and governments have found the challenge of maintaining a unified China a constant struggle and have not sought to establish domination over territories far from the Chinese homeland by military means. The U.S. and the Commander of PACOM face the difficult challenge of maintaining a strong U.S. presence in East and Southeast Asia while China recovers its strong regional role. The process should be characterized by competition and cooperation and not by military confrontation. The U.S. and China are so closely linked economically that a major war would cause incalculable damage to the world's economy. With the skillful application of a range of confidence-building measures, accompanied by a strong U.S. military, diplomatic, economic and cultural presence in Asia, PACOM can lead the peaceful return of China to world affairs.