China and the global pushback

If the "Chinese model" of leadership was credited for the country's post-1979 success, it must also be indicted for the present decline

For some strange reason, many people in the world believe that China’s leaders are astute but inscrutable strategists, with an unusual ability to both think long-term and do long-term. Why do I say strange? Well, look at the scorecard as it stands today.

First, from well before the global financial crisis of 2008, China had begun deliberately antagonising every single one of its large neighbours and bullying the smaller ones. This pushed countries from as far as North America, Australia, the Western Pacific and the Indian subcontinent together into a closer embrace. Now these happen to include the world’s strongest military,