The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

China responded with its own white paper, “China’s National Defense in the New Era.” While more moderate in some parts—it talked about areas of cooperation between China and the United States, including their respective militaries—it too defined the “new era” as one of great power “strategic competition.” In the Chinese version, the fault lay with America’s “growing hegemonism, power politics, unilateralism.” The United States, it said, is pursuing “absolute military superiority” and has “undermined global strategic security.” The Asia-Pacific, it said, “has become a focus of major country competition” because “countries from outside the region”—that is, the United States—“illegally enter China’s territorial waters and the waters and airspace near China’s islands and reefs, undermining China’s national security.” China, it declared, would resist all threats to its position.