China has been quick to use its rising economic strength to punish countries that defy it. That capacity for coercion will only grow as China masters new technologies and puts itself and its companies at the heart of the increasingly interconnected digital world.
Tokyo, Washington and like-minded governments are trying to blunt China’s ability to bend them to its will. A strategy of “collective resilience” can be an effective counter to this mounting pressure. Using this approach, those governments will work collaboratively to reorganize sectors of their economic relationship with China, to deflect these attempts at coercion and limit their impact.
The need for new thinking about national security has become evident as policymakers in Tokyo begin discussion of a new national security strategy. The starting point for any such discussion is the evolving security environment. Strategists are well acquainted with traditional threats posed by regional adversaries and their ever-more capable conventional, nuclear and asymmetric forces.