An economic and military superpower with 20 percent of the world's population, China has the wherewithal to transform the international system. Xi Jinping's bold calls for China to "lead in the reform of the global governance system," suggest that he has just such an ambition. But how does he plan to realize it? And what does it mean for the rest of the world?

In this compelling book, Elizabeth Economy reveals China's ambitious new strategy to reclaim the country's past glory and reshape the geostrategic landscape in dramatic new ways. Xi's vision is one of Chinese centrality on the global stage, in which the mainland has realized its sovereignty claims over Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China sea, deepened its global political, economic, and security reach through its grand scale Belt and Road Initiative, and used its leadership in the United Nations and other institutions to align international norms and values, particularly around human rights, with those of China. It is a world radically different from that of today. The international community needs to understand and respond to the great risks, as well as the potential rewards of a world rebuilt by China.

Elizabeth C. Economy is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an award-winning author and internationally renowned expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. Her books, The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State, By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World, and The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future (2nd ed.) are widely acclaimed and her writings have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. A frequent guest on nationally broadcast radio and television, she consults regularly for the U.S. government and corporations. Politico Magazine has named her one of the "Ten Names that Matter on China Policy.”

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables

Chapter 1: Politics and the Plague

Chapter 2: Power, Power, Power

Chapter 3: Reunifying the Motherland

Chapter 4: The Dragon's Bite

Chapter 5: From Bricks to Bits

Chapter 6: Rewriting the Rules of the Game

Chapter 7: The China Reset

Acknowledgements

Notes