ISAS Working Papers

During the 19th National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China in October 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a ‘new era’ for China and for the world. The announcement seems to reflect China’s emerging confidence in its capability to reshape the regional and global geopolitics on its own terms. This paper argues that, in view of the evolving power structure in the Indo-Pacific region, it is probably premature to make that assumption. China’s bid to increase its influence in the Asian region is likely to exacerbate existing threat perceptions and may lead to the formation of informal coalitions to balance China’s influence in Asia. This could lead to heightened security dilemmas and possibly big-power conflicts in Asia.