Image from Christopher J. Pehrson’s “String of Pearls: Meeting the challenge of China’s rising power across the Asian littoral” The "String of Pearls" is a geopolitical theory regarding China’s rising maritime power through efforts to augment access to critical ports and airfields. Theoretically, this string of pearls stretches from the South China Sea through the Indian Ocean to energy exporting areas such as Africa and the Middle East. This expansion calls China’s relations