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What does China´s rise mean for the future of Asia, and of the world?

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"China", Napoleon once remarked, "is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." In 2014, President Xi Jinping triumphantly declared the lion had awakened. Under his leadership, China is pursuing a dream to restore its historical position as the dominant power in Asia.

From the Mekong River Basin to the Central Asian steppe, China is flexing its economic muscles for strategic ends. By setting up new regional financial institutions, Beijing is challenging the post-World War II order established under the watchful eye of Washington. And by funding and building roads, railways, ports and power lines-a New Silk Road across Eurasia and through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean-China aims to draw its neighbours ever tighter into its embrace.

Combining a geopolitical overview with on-the-ground reportage from a dozen countries, China´s Asian Dream offers a fresh perspective on the rise of China´ and asks: what does it means for the future of Asia?

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Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. "One Belt, One Road": Financing the New Silk Road

Belt and Road Initiative
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Asia´s infrastructure arms race
2. Marching West: The Economics of Power in Central Asia

Xinjiang
Central Asia
Russia
3. In the Heat of the Sun: Advancing Down the Mekong

Laos
Cambodia
4. California Dreamin´: How China "Lost" Myanmar

Gateway to the Bay of Bengal
5. A String of Pearls: Fear and Loathing in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean
Pakistan
India
Sri Lanka
6. Fiery Waters: Mapping the South China Sea

Vietnam
Conclusion

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Miller, Tom
Tom Miller is managing editor of the China Economic Quarterly, published by research company GK Dragonomics, and a former Beijing correspondent of the South China Morning Post. Tom has a degree in English from Oxford and an MA in Chinese Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. After teaching for a year at Shanghai University, he studied Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University and at China´s Central Academy of Drama. Resident in China for more than a decade, Tom lives in Beijing with his wife and two children. This is his first book.

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