Introduction

We are indeed living through an extraordinary period. The staggering rise of China over the last 15 years and the relative economic decline of the USA have led to the intensification of debates about order building in the Asia-Pacific. Much has been written about pending power transition in the Asian region and its implications for regional and global order and stability. Unlike power shifts, which are short-term trade-offs and a redistribution of power among nation-states, power transition signifies a significant exchange of power between two competing nation-states. The consequences of power transition, accordingly, are long term and systemic for the international system. Predicated on assumptions from Power Transition Theory (PTT), this debate has dominated publications, international relations-related social media outlets and workshops among scholars in recent years. For many observers, the looming China–US showdown is about changes to the existing world order, with China as the challenger to the US hegemonic power (Mearsheimer, 2014; Montgomery, 2014; Jones et al., 2013; Kavalski, 2013; Walton, 2015).