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Opinion | With China’s coming economic ascendancy, how will the US react?
- China is now expected to leapfrog the US by 2028, and amplify its power projection to a new level
- To the US, this will be an ego-shattering moment, as it has long leveraged its economic advantage into strategic power
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In step with China’s evolution from a poor country to the world’s largest economy in waiting, it has amplified its projection of power to a new level. It is evident from the bilateral meeting with the United States in Alaska last month that a new, more assertive China has emerged.
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As China overtakes the US as the world’s biggest economy, an even greater level of power projection will be on display, and those who get in Beijing’s crosshairs will feel its full wrath: two of the most visible examples now are Australia and Taiwan.
China is now expected to pull ahead of the rest of the world by 2028, five years sooner than previously estimated, thanks to its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Trump administration’s mismanagement of the same.
To the US, this will be an ego-shattering moment, as it has leveraged its economic advantage into strategic power since at least the end of the second world war. For China, this is simply a reversion to a long-term mean.
How did the world get here? History will show that the shadow of ineptitude was long and wide with regard to China’s rise – although the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia”, in 2011, was an official acknowledgement that it took Chinese development seriously.
Yet, events starting with Richard Nixon’s visit of 1972 have been obvious markers of China’s ascension. It has remained steadfast in its commitment to economic development, but allowed for strategic opportunism, thus becoming the world’s factory.
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