Of all the factors that shape a country's global fortunes, geography is the most immutable. A country is where it is. The advantages and disadvantages that come with its location typically shift slowly, if at all. That's what makes China's bold effort to remake the strategic landscape of Eurasia so remarkable. Beijing is placing a trillion-dollar wager that it can transform its strategic geography from a constraint into a powerful geopolitical asset.
This would be quite a turnaround, given all the liabilities of China's geography. On its maritime periphery, it faces U.S. treaty allies and strategic partners that provide a springboard for the projection of American power into the Western Pacific. To the north, there is an ambitious Russia, which has more often been an enemy than a friend. On China's western and southern flanks, there are countries such as Vietnam and India, which can be expected to oppose Beijing's rise, and the Central Asian states, which have traditionally been a site of competition with Russia.
If the United States has the advantage of being surrounded by fish and docile neighbors, China has long been ringed by rivals.