in practice it was hard to avoid China dominating discussion of policy toward Asia. First, there was the sheer size of the country’s economy—which, by 2015, was five times that of India, the other would-be Asian “superpower.” Second, China, by the nature of its political system and the scope of its strategic ambitions, posed a much more direct challenge to a U.S.–led world order than an American ally, such as Japan, or a fellow democracy, such as India.
