Beijing’s long-term goal is not to achieve some sort of parity as a superpower, but to dominate as much of the globe as possible

Last week China pulled off the incredible feat of landing a science probe on the far side of the moon. It is a testament to China’s new prowess as an advanced technological nation. At the same time, China’s president-as-long-as-he wants-it Xi Jinping extolled his military to prepare for war as he threatened that China’s reunion with Taiwan is inevitable, even by force if necessary.

There is hardly a week that some new major measure is not announced by China. These include the “belt and road” initiative to connect China to Europe using rail and road transportation; a high level of foreign aid that now brings Chinese engineers and construction workers, as well as billions of Chinese Yuan, to nations in Africa, South America and Asia; the Chinese navy’s participation in anti-piracy patrols off the Horn of Africa and its harassment of U.S. naval vessels in the South China Sea; an initiative to build a railroad in Kenya from the interior of that nation to the Port of Mombasa to speed Chinese trade from there to the Chinese mainland; Chinese initiatives to build a railway through Myanmar, to add to an oil and a gas pipeline connecting China to the port of Kyaukpyu on the Bay of Bengal, thus allowing Chinese commercial traffic to bypass the Malacca Straight chokepoint; the establishment and expansion of a freight and naval base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and the possible establishment of a second base possibly in Namibia; the building and expansion of reefs into island bases in the waters of the South China Sea; and free trade treaties with nations such as Australia. No doubt more such developments will be announced in the near future.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/david-j-bercuson-china-seeks-dominance-not-parity