How a stronger China could redraw Pacific naval alignments

Would a stronger interwar China bring the US-Japan rivalry forward, and what would happen to China?

Possibly, but a strong China makes the alignment fluid; procurement choices and the first successful diplomatic partnership could matter more than the historical blocs.

This counterfactual changes the regional balance by giving China a stable state and a growing fleet. Clarke's interpretation then treats both China and Japan as potential challenges to the American position in the Far East. Procurement relationships and early diplomatic agreements become variables in the imagined alignment. British-supplied China gives one configuration, while German and Italian backing supplies the premise for an alternative British-American-Japanese grouping. These are conditional branches of the historical scenario, rather than a claim that existing alliances would automatically reverse.