For four decades, the Chinese juggernaut has been marching forward. China has enjoyed a peace dividend in this period, and its rise has been — by and large — peaceful. By the end of the last decade, the world, including the US, the P5 nations and India, had more or less reconciled to a future dominated by the G2 — the US and China. From a Chinese standpoint, the US was the only competitor and equal. But then, things started changing dramatically, as they often do. First came the pandemic, delivering a body blow to the image that China had...