In 2008, Stratfor published The Geopolitics of China: A Great Power Enclosed , the second in a series of monographs describing the underlying geopolitics of key countries and explaining their current positions within that context. In the eight years since its publication, despite major changes in the global situation, the monograph has largely stood — largely, but not completely. Since then, a new imperative has emerged for China, one that is pulling it into a much more active global posture despite economic, social and political undercurrents at home. At the core of the monograph is an assertion of China's strategic imperatives — the core compulsions and constraints on the state imposed by the interaction of geography, economics, politics, security and society throughout history. As we stated at the time, China has three overriding geopolitical imperatives: Maintain internal unity in the Han Chinese regions. Maintain control of its buffer regions.