A China that seeks more political pluralism, or even federalism, will be less willing to assume dangerous nationalist positions regarding the South China Sea or Taiwan. A Chinese leadership that learns the virtues of internal negotiations and regional interdependence may also be more willing to accept the strictures of international interdependence. A useful starting point is the knowledge that in a modern interdependent world, no large state can be held together for long without an extensive amount of political pluralism and federalism - the Soviet Union, for example, collapsed because of its lack of pluralism. In addition, federal entities require the rule of law to settle disputes and thus the real and long-term challenge for China is to develop a civil society to provide the basis for the rule of law. In the meantime, it makes sense to take China as we find it, with only an occasional glance forward to how we might wish it to be.
Realism argues for a more decentralised strategy.
An essential component is insisting China abide by the rules of the international system. If that means WTO membership can only be ensured through greater dialogue with provincial officials, then so be it. If trade sanctions have to be imposed at the local level because that is where intellectual property right violations are taking place, then the policy could be made attractive to officials in Beijing. The risk of pretending that decentralisation is not a reality is that Deng's successors might have the illusion that they can re-impose central control, thereby stimulating fissiparous tendencies. The worst mistake we can make is to take China as it pretends to be.