The history behind the U.S. competition with China

President Richard Nixon paved the way for a new relationship with China in the 1970s, but it came at a time as Beijing’s influence was growing globally. "I think China's rise is inevitable. It's not rising. It's already risen. But the question is how China would behave," said former People’s Liberation Army Senior Colonel Zhou Bo. Zhou is now a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. He began his service with the PLA in 1979, a time when China’