January 22, 2024
Rumors of China’s Decline Are Premature and Dangerous
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang pitched his country as a solid investment destination. The Chinese economy, Li said, has “huge potential,” and choosing it “is not a risk, but an opportunity.”
His audience listened skeptically. After decades of unstoppable Chinese economic, demographic and military growth, the past two years have seen more trouble than triumphs. That has led some analysts to worry not about the rise of Chinese power but instead the irrevocable decline of China’s economy.
China continues to rise and seems bent on regional domination and international revisionism.
These fears are utterly premature. Worse, if they represent the assumptions on which U.S. policy is based, America will fail to rise to China’s challenge. The chief near-term risk is not that Beijing’s ascent will fizzle, but rather that Washington will fail to muster the strength necessary for an adequate response.
Read the full article from The Washington Post.
More from CNAS
-
Pyongyang silent on Trump’s stated overture to Kim
Video
Dr. Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow with the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, joins CNN to discuss the likelihood of a meeting bet...
By Dr. Duyeon Kim
-
Japan Is Emerging as a Regional Security Power Broker
Commentary
While Japan’s re-emergence as a security partner in the Indo-Pacific may not be welcomed by its geopolitical antagonists, Tokyo’s multilateral approach to preserving the statu...
By Derek Grossman
-
China Presses a Weakness in America’s Tech Policy
Commentary
America’s semiconductor strategy now must confront not only who controls the factories, tools, and materials required to make chips, but also who controls the language those c...
By David Feith
-
CNAS Insights | Japan isn’t rearming. It’s adapting to a new era.
CNAS Insights
Japan’s defense posture is changing and changing fast. Military spending has increased sharply over the past four years. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are acquiring long-r...
By Richard Fontaine
