A nation must think before it acts.
The recent US emphasis on a geoeconomic confrontation with China in the developing states could spawn an economic version of the domino theory. Geoeconomic domino theory assumes that if Beijing’s economic influence is not stopped in a developing state, America might witness more developing states incorporated into the Chinese economic orbit. The falling economic domino eventually can reach the developed economies. Nonetheless, there are reasons to expect that the developing economies would not fall to China one after another. China’s gains in the developing regions in material capacity, ability to govern key issue areas, and ideological appeal are also dubious. In conducting geoeconomic competition with China, the United States should concentrate on the developed economies—Western Europe and Northeast Asia—that have a significant impact on the balance of power.