Having failed in its attempt to change China’s behavior by first ignoring it and then dispatching the Seventh Fleet, the Clinton administration decided that the only way to transform China was by elevating it into the ranks of the great powers. The idea was to bind China in a web of international agreements and make it an international player with a seat at all the world’s tables so that it would have a stake in maintaining the status quo—the global financial and economic system dominated by the United States.
