In China's Galaxy Empire John Keane and Baogang He target a development of enormous
significance: China's return after two centuries of decline and subjugation to a position of
prominence in world affairs. The daring thesis is that China is a newly rising empire of a kind
never before witnessed: a galaxy empire. The first to be born of the digital communications era
this young empire is economically and politically powerful and heavily armed. Its
gravitational push-pull effects are impacting every continent--and even outer space where
China is competing with the United States India and Europe to become the leading power.
The galaxy empire interpretation rejects clichéd misdescriptions of China as a "big power" or
monolithic "autocracy" and it explains why China defies older definitions of land sea and
air-based empires. The book charts the developments that have made its rising empire so novel
including the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative the rapid rise of a global Chinese middle
class and internal colonialism in Tibet and Xinjiang. The book notes the protean
shapeshifting qualities of this young empire. It therefore warns against the political and
military perils of simple-minded friend-versus-enemy thinking and "Big China Bad China"
politics. But it also proffers a forewarning to China's rulers: while every rising empire aims
to shift the balance of power in its favour no empire lasts forever and some are stillborn
because they indulge illusions of greatness and reckless power adventures.
