I wrote a column recently about how a longstanding assumption of America's China policy — that economic integration between the two countries is an unalloyed good — has now been overtaken by events. But this isn't the only area in which China's rise is forcing a re-evaluation of old beliefs.
Now I'll delve into another issue with enormous implications for U.S.-China relations and American interests: the rise of China as a more globally oriented military power.
For years, most experts believed that China's military challenge to the United States was regional in nature — that it was confined to the Western Pacific. After decades of tacitly free-riding on America's global power-projection capabilities, however, Beijing now is seeking the capabilities that will allow it to project its own military power well outside its regional neighborhood.