China eroding US dominance by Donald Alford Weadon Jr

What is the best metaphor for this situation, which lacks both the linearity of checkers and the exquisite dynamism of chess? Perhaps it is the national game of China - wei ch'i or "Go" - where control of the board is the crucial objective and the timeline is slow and deliberate. As in this 4,000-year-old board game, China is using economic wedge maneuvers to expand its financial influence, harden its economic achievements into political interests, and ultimately achieve control of the "board". Note how a string of Chinese actions defending Iran at the UN dovetailed with a series of large China-Iran energy deals.