CHINA's CENTURY

According to the
Global Language Monitor, which tracks the top 50,000 media sources throughout
the world, the “rise of China” has been the most read-about news story of
the twenty-ªrst century, surpassing the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Iraq
War, the election of Barack Obama, and the British royal wedding.1 One reason
for the story’s popularity, presumably, is that the rise of China entails the
decline of the United States. While China’s economy grows at 9 percent annually,
the United States reels from economic recession, costly wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and massive budget deªcits. This divergence in fortunes has
produced two pieces of conventional wisdom in U.S. and Chinese foreign policy
debates.2 First, the United States is in decline relative to China.
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/Chinas_Century.pdf