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It chronicled China’s descent into the ‘century of humiliation’ following the Opium War and, since 1949, its subsequent revival and rise to power under the leadership of the Communist Party. Perhaps this visit was Xi Jinping’s symbolic pledge to the Chinese people to rectify past injustices and return China to the unchallenged primacy it once had in Asia before the arrival of Western imperialism. But in the past few years China’s effort to reclaim a place of honour and leadership in Asia has led it into quarrels and conflict with its neighbours. Why? It is not because China’s neighbours oppose China’s peaceful rise. On the contrary, they have welcomed China’s rise because it has brought prosperity to all. The reason for tension is that new zero-sum territorial and...