Article originally published in the LSE IDEAS China Foresight Forum blog.

There is genuine bewilderment at Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to unleash his “wolf-warrior” diplomats on an askance world, aggressively asserting Beijing’s interests in cosmopolitan Europe, the Himalayas’ icy heights, and the Western Pacific’s troubled seas.

It is not just democracies on the receiving end of China’s prickly assertiveness, however. Vietnam and the accommodating Philippines have not been spared. Nor have the once-privileged citizens of Hong Kong, as Xi exposed “one country, two systems” as a rhetorical artifice, devoid of substance or meaning. Comply with our demands, or suffer the consequences, is Beijing’s unequivocal message to those who don’t toe the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s line.

Punishing countries for non-compliance seems so counter-productive to China’s own interests that even its most ardent supporters are struggling to understand Beijing’s rationale and objectives. Why is China lashing out so savagely and what does it hope to achieve? Is this a considered strategy, a thin-skinned reaction to unaccustomed criticism, or the zealotry of over-enthusiastic officials?

All three is the answer. The broad parameters of China’s strategy for becoming the dominant state in Asia, and eventually the pre-eminent global power, were set in stone decades ago. The CCP has worked assiduously, and with single-minded purpose, to achieve these goals.