China's Rise and Power Shifts in Asia

From the escalating maritime sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea to Sino-Indian border conflicts, there seems to be a dramatic transition from a U.S.-led interdependent security order into a disintegrating world, filled with antagonistic powers ready to challenge each other over geopolitical, ideological, social and economic matters. China today projects political, military and economic strength to rival the United States. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are the landmark initiatives in its drive to shape the global economic architecture. Combining the transformative power of state-controlled market economy and the resilience of authoritarian rule, China adapts certain tenets of neo-liberal capitalism such as welcoming foreign investment, deregulating its labour market, and building infrastructure, while maintaining tight control over government, military, public security and information. As a state-controlled economy employing gradualist reforms in a post-communist era, China's one-party rule produces a durable type of autocracy, outlasting Soviet communism, and makes itself a model of development for other developing nations to follow. Meanwhile, the failure of Washington to denuclearize North Korea and Iran destroyed the perception of the United States as being capable of controlling the global arms race. Detecting a shift in the balance of power in China's favour, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping has advocated a new global order built on multilateralism.