Beijing just can't seem to put the 19th century behind it in ways that could imperil this "Chinese Century."
The 20th belonged to a United States that is now doing its worst to retrace Rome's steps. That followed the Pax Britannica of the 1800s. Our current 100-year window is China's for the taking. With 1.4 billion people, vast state wealth and huge territorial ambitions, what could get in the way of China's turn to dominate humanity? Beijing's hubris.
The obvious risk is China failing to curb financial excesses that are apparent to everyone outside President Xi Jinping's bubble. It's distressing, for instance, that Beijing is trying to head off a Japan-like debt crisis by borrowing with increasing abandon. But Tuesday's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling against China, and China's refusal to heed it, highlights an underappreciated risk to Asia's biggest economy: its trajectory toward rogue-nation status.