The strategy worked remarkably well, and the CCP exploited its twenty-year grace period to the fullest. China sucked up Western technology and capital, dumped its products in foreign markets while keeping its own market relatively closed, installed Chinese officials atop international organizations, and proclaimed its peaceful intentions while building up its military. It was a master class in how to use the illusion of win-win diplomacy to conceal a ruthlessly win-lose approach to global politics.22 Yet it couldn’t go on forever.
