THE LONG VIEW

In 1944, as World War II exhausted the British Empire, Keynes stood at Bretton Woods and proposed international institutions that would preserve Britain's financial influence long after its military power faded. Today, Xi Jinping stands at APEC and proposes supply chain cooperation that would preserve China's manufacturing dominance long after its growth miracle ends. The insight is haunting: powers don't embrace multilateralism when they're rising - they discover it when they're tired. China's "extending chains" rhetoric isn't about generosity; it's about creating golden handcuffs that bind the world to Chinese systems even as its demographic dividend disappears. The most sophisticated form of power isn't forcing others to follow your rules - it's making them want to. This is how empires transition from hard to soft power, from muscle to architecture. Watch carefully: the next decade will see China building the supply chain equivalent of the World Bank and IMF, institutions that appear universal but embed Chinese preferences so deeply that dismantling them becomes unthinkable. This is how dominance outlives dominance.