Strategy Without Hubris: How China Rose by Managing America’s Reaction

Oriana Skylar Mastro, Upstart: How China Became a Great Power (Oxford University Press, 2024)Why didn’t China’s rise trigger containment sooner?For three decades, Beijing’s economic weight expanded dramatically, its military modernized at speed, and its diplomatic footprint widened across every region. Structural theories of power transition would lead us to expect sharper and earlier confrontation as capabilities converged. Instead, the U.S.-Chinese rivalry deepened gradu...