Strategic thinkers in China are comparing current world politics to the historical era leading up to major conflict. The article suggests that China's future stability will depend less on its economic might and more on establishing a credible political vision.

In Beijing, strategic elites have started to see world politics as sliding from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States era. However, if China believes the old order is falling apart, its future will depend less on economic power and more on presenting a reliable political vision. For much of the past decade, the dominant framework for understanding China-US relations has been the Thucydides Trap. Since Graham Allison popularised the term, the relationship has been cast as an...