Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

hedda_foil

(16,899 posts)
Wed May 21, 2025, 12:25 PM May 2025

Op-Ed: In the Future, China Will Be Dominant. The U.S. Will Be Irrelevant.

What do you guys think about this NYT op-ed. To me, it's frighteningly likely. Talk me down?

By Kyle Chan

Mr. Chan is a researcher at Princeton University who focuses on Chinese industrial policy.

阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版
For years, theorists have posited the onset of a “Chinese century”: a world in which China finally harnesses its vast economic and technological potential to surpass the United States and reorient global power around a pole that runs through Beijing.

That century may already have dawned, and when historians look back they may very well pinpoint the early months of President Trump’s second term as the watershed moment when China pulled away and left the United States behind.

It doesn’t matter that Washington and Beijing have reached an inconclusive and temporary truce in Mr. Trump’s trade war. The U.S. president immediately claimed it as a win, but that only underlines the fundamental problem for the Trump administration and America: a shortsighted focus on inconsequential skirmishes as the larger war with China is being decisively lost.

Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the pillars of American power and innovation. His tariffs are endangering U.S. companies’ access to global markets and supply chains. He is slashing public research funding and gutting our universities, pushing talented researchers to consider leaving for other countries. He wants to roll back programs for technologies like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing and is wiping out American soft power in large swaths of the globe.
--much more--

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/opinion/china-us-trade-tariffs.html
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Haggard Celine

(17,654 posts)
5. Yes, I think Xi and Putin got together and
Wed May 21, 2025, 12:39 PM
May 2025

figured out what to do to remove the U.S. as the world leader. I wonder what they gave Trump so they could accomplish this. Trump would definitely sell us out, no doubt about it.

Haggard Celine

(17,654 posts)
9. I just don't understand why
Wed May 21, 2025, 06:59 PM
May 2025

no one up there is doing anything. I have no doubt they're being threatened and I'm sure a lot of them are being bribed. So little people have integrity these days. I hate seeing the news, but I feel I'd better watch it for the good of my safety as well as others.

 

Silent Type

(12,412 posts)
4. Think Democrats shouldn't have bashed Obama and Clinton over their trade efforts. That helped give us trump 1.
Wed May 21, 2025, 12:37 PM
May 2025
 

brush

(61,033 posts)
7. All is not lost yet. Xi's economy has severe housing and economic problems...
Wed May 21, 2025, 12:52 PM
May 2025

and Russia does too with the price of oil down on top of the devastating cost of the Ukraine war.

tman

(1,250 posts)
10. I think there's a high chance neither will be as dominant as they both envisage
Wed May 21, 2025, 07:11 PM
May 2025

I don't think China's view of the future world order will materialize.

David__77

(24,500 posts)
12. I think this is very US-style framing as if one country can and must dominate the world.
Wed May 21, 2025, 09:29 PM
May 2025

The days of a single country exercising “dominance” are coming to a close, as they should.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Op-Ed: In the Future, Chi...