This week, President Obama makes his first state visit to China. What kind of country will he find there? We tend to imagine China as a monolith: 1.3 billion people sharing the same language, history, and culture. The truth is far more interesting. China is a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character.
Although the article's title of the nine nations of China is not meant to suggest political fragmentation, I don't see why this description of China doesn't provide the basis for such a possible split:
With a state both cruel and failing economically, governing a continent-sized population with a history of fragmentation, I don't know why we need to guess which course the government of China will follow. The continent of China is big enough that it could follow all the possible paths.
A Pacific Century doesn't automatically fall into Peking's lap--even if we try to give it to them.
