Yan Yilong on American Hegemony (Part 2)

"China's overall strategy is not to collide head-on but to maintain strategic composure, continuously enhance its strength, and exhaust the opponent's power"

Today’s edition is a guest post by Jacob Mardell, a friend and former colleague of mine at MERICS. Jacob is currently an editorial coordinator at the media NGO n-ost, as well as an independent consultant and analyst on Chinese foreign policy. – Thomas

If you haven’t already, please check out yesterday’s newsletter – this is the second part of Yan Yilong’s (鄢一龙) piece on American hegemony. The two halves make sense separately, but are more interesting as a whole.

This second part includes Yan’s recommendations and his sketch of what the Chinese alternative to American hegemony looks like.

Firstly, Yan argues, China must seek “comprehensive control” (综合制权) over the USA, meaning total strategic advantage in the war, rather than direct confrontation in any one particular battle. He roots this idea in Chinese exceptionalism, making the classic Chess-Go comparison of confrontational vs. long term approaches.

Secondly, he suggests that, although the American alliance system is doomed to fail, Ch…