Since last year, some have argued exaggeratedly that a G2 of the US and China will dominate the world after the fi nancial crisis. The US may be declining and China rising, but it will be another two or three decades before China's economy equals that of the US.
After the fi nancial crisis, the annualincome per capita in US will be $46,000, almost 14 times of China. Therefore, although the economic gap between the two countries is narrowing, it will be a long time before China equals the US in this regard.
China's ever-increasing influence will probably mean it becomes a world leader in the following three decades, and achieves a fairly equal bilateral relationship with the US.
However, it shouldn't be ignored that in the future multipolar world, India, Russia and Brazil will also rise, and Europe and Japan's infl uence will be no less than China's.
Many Americans still see China through a Cold War lens. It's difficult for them to understand how a nation led by a Communist party can effectively use the stock market and other capitalist tools. Nevertheless, most US offcials and enterprise leaders have already agreed that China is no longer what it was.
That is the exact reason why more and more high-profi le Americans believe that the US-China strategic talks will defi nitely facilitate the establishment of a closer cooperative relationship between the two countries.
US national debt might be heavy, but it is completely capable of paying its foreign loans in the near future.
