It’s the long-range ambition of the People’s Republic of China to create a new world order with China at its head. Xi Jinping, since 2012 the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has reinvigorated the party’s commitment to its Marxist-Leninist foundations, resulting in an ideologically aggressive foreign policy, especially toward China’s neighbors. But Beijing’s strategy for a Sino-centric world order requires more than ideological exertion. China, which is now second only to the United States in defense spending, has a powerful military capable of winning a strategic regional war in defiance of American primacy. A victory against a U.S. ally would destroy our dominant geostrategic position in Asia.
In his rigorously argued and compelling book “The Strategy of Denial,” Elbridge Colby focuses on the military element of China’s ambitions. The book outlines how China, as it has grown wealthier and stronger, has also pursued regional military dominance. The U.S. stands in China’s way as the greatest power in Asia and the leader of an “anti-hegemonic” coalition whose strategy is to thwart China’s designs for regional dominance. China seeks to neutralize this coalition by attacking its most vulnerable members and demonstrating that U.S. defense commitments cannot protect them.
