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The United States is the world’s only superpower. By any economic or military measure, it enjoys vast supremacy over all other states, individually or in alliance. But the existence of a single superpower does not necessarily imply global hegemony. Regional structures can strongly diverge from the pattern of the global structure. Regional balance of power systems have coexisted with a single superpower at various times in history. Now, in the first half of the twenty-first century, a bipolar regional balance of power coexists with America’s global role as the sole superpower. The United States does not possess hegemony over East Asia, but shares with China great power status in the regional balance of power. As the weaker state in the regional balance of power, China is balancing U.S. power through both internal and external mobilization of resources. Domestically, it is prioritizing economic development as an instrument of great power competition. It is also emulating the United States, insofar as it has adopted a market economy and has stressed the technological sources of power. Internationally, it is relying on the international economy as a source of capital and technology. It also cooperating with Russia to enhance it military capability and to use Sino-Russian common interests vis-a-vis the United States to enhance its security. China and Russia have already developed an incipient counter-American alliance. They now lack the capabilities to enable their combined power to resist growing U.S. power. But neither country has to become America’s equal for their combined power to enable challenges to U.S. power. Rather, China and Russia each have to develop sufficient domestic stability and devote sufficient resources to military modernization so that they can draw confidence from each other’s capabilities and thus be able to engage in heightened tension and to risk war with the United States. When this occurs, U.S. global reach will once again confront global challenges, undermining America’s ability to focus its resources on one power in one region, thus restoring a global balance of power through the combination of a "partial rise" of China and Russia and a corresponding "stretch" of U.S. resources over multiple theaters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]