Are we witnessing a transformation of who is top dog in the world? China seems to be in ascendancy whilst America stumbles on a variety of levels, not least of all, economically.
Hugh White is professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute. He reviews the re-alignment between the US and China in an op-ed piece "America rotting to the core" in The Age.
"For we have been told not to worry about China's growing strength, because America is even stronger. No matter how far China rises, our leaders have said, America will be the world's omnipotent power. ''You can do anything,'' the Prime Minister told the US Congress just six months ago.
This has always been naive. As long as China keeps growing fast - and our entire economic policy assumes it will - the laws of arithmetic guarantee that it will soon overtake the US to become the world's richest country. And wealth is strength, as America itself has shown for over a century.
But until now it has been easy to assume that America itself is not in decline: that the global power shift is driven by China's growing strength, not by American weakness. China might grow stronger, but America would remain a uniquely vibrant, resilient and innovative country, and a beacon to the world.
Now one has to wonder. It is possible that we are witnessing not one but two remarkable national transformations, as America stumbles while China ascends. If so, that will make the shifting power balance between them much faster, more destabilising and more risky than we thought."
Hugh White is professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute. He reviews the re-alignment between the US and China in an op-ed piece "America rotting to the core" in The Age.
"For we have been told not to worry about China's growing strength, because America is even stronger. No matter how far China rises, our leaders have said, America will be the world's omnipotent power. ''You can do anything,'' the Prime Minister told the US Congress just six months ago.
This has always been naive. As long as China keeps growing fast - and our entire economic policy assumes it will - the laws of arithmetic guarantee that it will soon overtake the US to become the world's richest country. And wealth is strength, as America itself has shown for over a century.
But until now it has been easy to assume that America itself is not in decline: that the global power shift is driven by China's growing strength, not by American weakness. China might grow stronger, but America would remain a uniquely vibrant, resilient and innovative country, and a beacon to the world.
Now one has to wonder. It is possible that we are witnessing not one but two remarkable national transformations, as America stumbles while China ascends. If so, that will make the shifting power balance between them much faster, more destabilising and more risky than we thought."
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