Daniel Markey

The United States considers China to be its major rival on the world stage, and the point itself is difficult to dispute. What's less well understood is that the US and China have very different conceptions of what "the world stage" is. China's approach, as detailed here, has been to identify and fill under-served niches; it is non-confrontational and will back down quickly if its foreign ventures are threatened. Nevertheless, the US feels that China's enterprises in Eurasia - an area show more traditionally ignored by US policy - represent a power play, sort of like when there's an empty continent in Risk and you just hold it to build up. show less