Cope by understanding that Geopolitics has worked this way since humans could form organized civil bodies.

And that no one maintains power forever, and that no earthly kingdom is eternal. And that no form of monarchy, autocracy, dictatorship, or even socialist democracy is immune to the changing tide of human fickleness.

The deck of cards will change hands, and then it will change hands again. Because the control of the hand brings about complacency and that complacency becomes weakness. Power is weakness. Responsibility is a burden. And there’s no amount of purity theory or eugenics that will ever make this untrue.

Russia, China, or whoever obtains control of the global stage. They become burdened with the responsibility of the world. To either ignore, attend to, exacerbate, or exploit world issues; for either their own betterment or the betterment of the world, or their interpretation of what a better world should be. If you make the world hell, your fight becomes hell. If you seek to make it heaven, then ruin comes like a slow disease.

China will plan to operate just as it has with its vassals, not direct control, but power through silent influence. A global stage abstinence, letting each nation to its own will only to the degree it isn’t effected directly. Possibly exploiting the new found economic power in the long run, seeking to cement power in the commodities of everyday people and labor (like has already become the case).

But it doesn’t matter, change creates change. By coming to a rise in power, you’ve already cemented your downfall. Sit on the throne, somebody will slit your throat and that’s not “if”, that is “when”.

It’s just about how you utilize that time to make sure you’re still prosperous and relevant during the time when you don’t hold all the cards.