Clinton: China or Europe Will Replace U.S. as Top Power

NewsMax.com ^ | 5/02/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Ex-president Bill Clinton predicted this week that either Communist China, which helped bankroll his 1996 reelection campaign with hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions, or the European Union, would replace the United States as the world's number one power within the next 30 years.

"In all probability, we won't be the premier political and economic power we are now," Clinton told the Washington Post in an interview from Mexico on Thursday. Saying the shift would occur within "a few decades," the ex-president cited the growth of China's economy and Europe's already formidable economy as factors that would doom continued U.S. supremacy.

Clinton said the question of whether China or Europe would replace the United States depended on how their respective governments invested in military might. While Europe's defense investment has been minimal since World War II, China now has the fastest growing military budget in the world.

In 1996, the Clinton administration approved the transfer to Beijing of key missile guidance technology which enabled China to hit most major U.S. cities with its intercontinental ballistic missile fleet.

Clinton offered his prediction to the Post in an attempt to clarify comments he made to an Australian audience in February, where he warned "This is a unique moment in U.S. history, a brief moment in history, when the U.S. has preeminent military, economic and political power. It won't last forever. This is just a period, a few decades this will last."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

China/Taiwan
Clinton Scandals

[jslade]

If his wife becomes president, she will all but eliminate our armed forces. Can you imagine her as commander in chief?

She will be taken out with extreme predjudice.

[John Valentine]

Europe? Don't make me laugh. Clinton is an idiot for even suggesting such an unlikely thing. The only way Europe's economy will eclipse our is if we all move over there, and they all move over here.

As for China, sure, they have been enjoying hefty growth rates, but look where they started. It will be increasingly difficult for China to maintain the pace, and when youy combine that with the fancy bookkeeping they have been indulging in, they could be looking ad something even worse than a slowdown- an actual retrenchment.

In thirty years, the absolute advantage of the United States over all and every part of the world in economic anc military terms will be even wider than it is today.

[bart99]

"We keep letting illegal aliens into our country this will be true. Clinton is just predicting what he engineered."

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This could lead to a lessening of our power, as could a degradation of our military once again.
We need to do something about our immigration laws. The reason China might become a power is no one else from ANYWHERE can go there. And Europe? Ha! In 30 years Europe will be an extremist fundamentalist Islamic region. *sigh*

[Fizzie]

Re: your post #9, Dog. Well said!!

[John Lenin]

This is the thrid of fourth time he has mentioned this in the past few months. Makes you wonder what his agenda is.

[JoeSchem]

I believe it will be China's century unless they mismanage their economy.

Clinton has failed to incorporate recent population demographics. China is going to reel from the impact of its one-child policy, and Europe's highly-educated native population is contracting rapidly, replaced by immigrants from Third World nations. Of course, a similar phenomenon is happening in the United States, but to not as great a degree.

Nothing lasts forever, but news of Uncle Sam's death has been grossly exaggerated. I am old enough to remember hearing about the Premier of the Soviet Union pounding his shoe on the table at the UN and declaring, "We will bury you!" A lot of conservatives bought into that sense of historical inevitability, that the US was Rome in the final days, but Armageddon is still on hold.

What I care about most, however, is not that the US endures but that its ideals endure. If China or Europe do gain ascendancy, it will only be sustainable if they adopt the same ideas of freedom and liberty that have made America great.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

the only way this happens is if the looney left get their socialist agenda through and I dont see that happening (call me an optimist) communism and socialism will lose out to capitalism every time

[LibKill]

KKKlintoon is herebye invited to kiss my @ss, repeatedly.

America will stand or fall on our own merit, but not on the dictates of the butcher of Waco.

[AlbionGirl]

The United States will remain top dog as long as it chooses to. Europe does not have a promising economy (no matter the protestations of C-cup bill), and in order to be a Superpower you have to have a dedication to military supremacy, military adequacy won't ever be good enough.

Europe and China are incapable of military supremacy because they are imitable societies in this regard.

That can change of course, but their cultural ethos tend towards leisure, indolence and atrophy in Europe; collective accomplishment, stifling traditions and xenophobia in China.

We are vital they (especially Europe) are moribund. Europe is literally moribund, China more figuratively so.

In the main, in all spheres of human progress, again, we create, they mimick because of our cultural superiority which is due to our long established freedom to create.

As long as that equation remains the same, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will rule like the GOLDEN DAYS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Our greatest enemies are multicultural factionalization and fundamentalism, but the socio-economic fludity inherent in our capitalist economy provides a solid fortification against these foes.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.."IS it SAFE?" = HILLARY on Armed Services Committee..

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629

HILLARY RODHAM
BILL CLINTON

Friends of HO CHI MINH
during the Vietnam War

[bart99]

I think as long as China ignores a national health sytem of any sort, perhpas SARS or some other disease will hurt them mightily. A lot can happen in thrity years.

I wonder if Clinton wants to go back to fleetwod mac dancing and letting France spy on the US for OUR enemies and let Germany and Russia (and France) break any sanctions the UN, the anti-US UN, that they choose to.

Hmmmm no wonder he thinks they'll be powerful. Clinton wants to fiddle wihile the US burns. Ah Rome..... once so powerful. We aren't gonna burn...... and we are not going to play with cheaters like France and Russia and Germany.

I think this article is bogus or Clinton has become really sick. But that's just my humble opinion.

[abclily]

I suspect Billy Blythe is expressing Miss Hitlery's plans for our military.

[abclily]

Socialist countries spend their money buying votes and have not maintained their military. Now socialist countries are jealous of the US might. Pitiful.

[rimmont]

"I believe it will be China's century unless they mismanage their economy."

Predicting, at this point, either E.U. or Chinese preeminence in the next century, is absolutely ridiculous. Both of these societies, particularly China's, are full of so many potential "downsides" both economically and socially, they make America's position looking into the future, even with its many problems, look positively enviable.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Saying the shift would occur within "a few decades," the ex-president cited the growth of China's economy and Europe's already formidable economy as factors that would doom continued U.S. supremacy.

What a freepin' scumbag! He forgot to cite the efforts of America's DemokRats to weaken our economy, our military, and our populace as the most crucial factor in his plot.

[rimmont]

The position of the United States, relative to the rest of the world, is a position created by and for the United States, a nation built upon the highest principles and aspirations of mankind. It is not merely a "seat" which can be filled by a nation like China. If the United States goes away, no one country will dominate, and the world will decend into total chaos. The fact that Clinton apparently does not understand this is downright frightening.

[Walnut]

thers no chance of that happening as long as we keep people like clinton from ever becoming president again