"So if you look back over the long history of China, they've never tried to take over the world, but they've been quite aggressive in their own neighborhood... in carrying out their own purposes and interests in their sphere of the world"
About this Quote
Thompson’s line is calibrated to sound like sober realism while quietly smuggling in a policy conclusion: China is not a cartoon supervillain bent on global conquest, but it is still a problem - especially for the people living next door. The phrasing does two things at once. It reassures domestic audiences who don’t want another existential “they’re coming for us” panic, and it justifies a harder posture in Asia without the burden of proving Beijing has world-domination plans.
The subtext is strategic: “never tried to take over the world” lowers the temperature, then “quite aggressive in their own neighborhood” raises it in a direction that makes U.S. involvement seem prudent rather than paranoid. “Sphere of the world” is an old-school great-power term, echoing spheres of influence as if they’re natural facts rather than contested claims. That choice normalizes the idea that big states carve out zones - and then positions the United States as the counterweight that keeps one power’s “own purposes and interests” from becoming everyone else’s reality.
Context matters. Thompson, a politician speaking to an American audience shaped by post-9/11 security thinking and renewed great-power anxiety, is offering a China frame that avoids Cold War melodrama yet keeps the threat legible. It’s a rhetorically useful middle lane: not invasion, but intimidation; not apocalypse, but pressure. The argument’s power lies in its implied map of responsibility - if China’s ambitions are regional, then America’s mission is to remain a Pacific power anyway.
The subtext is strategic: “never tried to take over the world” lowers the temperature, then “quite aggressive in their own neighborhood” raises it in a direction that makes U.S. involvement seem prudent rather than paranoid. “Sphere of the world” is an old-school great-power term, echoing spheres of influence as if they’re natural facts rather than contested claims. That choice normalizes the idea that big states carve out zones - and then positions the United States as the counterweight that keeps one power’s “own purposes and interests” from becoming everyone else’s reality.
Context matters. Thompson, a politician speaking to an American audience shaped by post-9/11 security thinking and renewed great-power anxiety, is offering a China frame that avoids Cold War melodrama yet keeps the threat legible. It’s a rhetorically useful middle lane: not invasion, but intimidation; not apocalypse, but pressure. The argument’s power lies in its implied map of responsibility - if China’s ambitions are regional, then America’s mission is to remain a Pacific power anyway.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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