I believe that before China might be successfully compelled by external forces to do anything it doesn’t really want to, those external forces must at least possess a consumer base thus trade import/export bargaining chip compatible with China’s nearly 1.5 billion consumers. Even then, China’s restrictive control over its own business sector thus market may actually give it an edge over corporation-manipulated Western-nation governments heavily lobbied by corporate interests salivating for access to the huge Chinese populace.

Military threats from abroad likely wouldn’t intimidate Chinese officials; if anything, foreign sabre rattling would just make China more obstinate. The only other thing that might have an effect on them involves their economy, via the international marketplace. … Maybe some securely allied nations combining their resources could go without the usual bully-Beijing trade/investment tether they’d prefer to sever, instead trading necessary goods and services between themselves and other interested non-allied, non-China-bound nation economies.

Then, again, maybe such an alliance has already been covertly discussed but rejected due to Chinese government strategists knowing how to ‘divide and conquer’ potential alliance nations by using door-wedge economic/political leverage custom-made for each nation (‘wedge diplomacy’?). Perhaps every country typically placing its own economic and big business bottom-line interests foremost may always be its, and therefore collectively our, Achilles’ Heel to be exploited by huge-market nations like China.

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