China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.
—Ai Weiwei: Weiwei–University presentation, 2013

Public attitudes toward China’s future have turned from celebration of its development to concern about confrontation with the United States. China’s leaders repeat their pledge to make China a global power, a serious rival to the United States. The United States responded to the challenge by offering the principal regional countries other than China a multi-lateral trade agreement that commits countries to more open, competitive trading arrangements and supplements the military-political role the United States has taken since the end of World War II.

China responded both economically and militarily. It established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with fifty-seven partner countries. The Bank has $100 billion to lend for infrastructure in Asia. China has the dominant role and the purpose is to bind countries economically to China. Of less importance, the renminbi is now included in the International Monetary Fund (imf) basket used to calculate the sdr or Special Drawing Right. Since the sdr has very little current importance, and the U.S. dollar is the main international currency, China’s interest in making its currency an alternative to the dollar is, for the present at least, unlikely to have much importance. Markets for dollars are large and liquid. Markets for China’s renminbi are not.

Militarily, China has launched an aircraft carrier, upgraded its army, and developed a landing strip on a man-made island in the South China Sea. This is a provocation because several countries claim that