Should the World Fear China?

For Washington, China is a strategic competitor: the only country with both the will to reshape the world order and, increasingly, the means to do so. For Europe, the People''s Republic is a ''partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival''. For NATO, it is a ''decisive enabler'' of Russia''s war against Ukraine. Yet Beijing''s image is far more positive in the Global South, of which the PRC considers itself a part.

Zhou Bo''s essays unpack China''s own view of its role today. The PRC is operating not only in a world becoming less Western, but--more importantly--a West becoming less Western; and the key to its outlook lies in Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific as much as in Europe and the White House.

Are Moscow and Beijing really so closely aligned? Where are Sino-Indian relations headed? Is China a new Cold War foe for the West? Or will economic ties inevitably bring the two powers closer together?