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

[rimmont]

"If the United States goes away, no one country will dominate, and the world will decend into total chaos."

No one country will dominate or lead because no one country will have the credibility to do so, morally, economically, or militarily. Unless, of course, the United States is cloned.

[BnBlFlag]

The U.S. has been the preimminent world power since 1865, although we deliberately drew the forces down after the WBTS, we could have rapidly built them back up at any time.

[alrea]

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

they already cook their numbers. business can't compete without some rules.

[rimmont]

My estimation of Clinton's intelligence has fallen dramatically since he left office. If the power of the E.U. and China grow to rival that of the U.S., there will be no such thing as a "top power" in the same sense that one exists today.

[El Gato]

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.

Of course the Impeached One took a meat ax, or more like a chain saw, to our military budgets, and even with the increases since Jan 2001, and after 9-11 (which were mostly for one time expenses, not new equipment or infrastructure, nor to raise the number of troops) we are still below anything post WW-II and pre-SinkMeister in terms of fraction of our GDP.

[DoctorMichael]

I can't believe a US President would utter this crap in a none-too-helpful foreign country at this time.

Then again, this IS Clinton.

[expatpat]

As long as the US maintains most of the principles which made it great, it will continue to be pre-eminent. Its demise will come as a result of rot from within, i.e., by a degradation of the US, not by enhancement of Europe or China.

[El Gato]

EU is in serious trouble - the birth rate is far less than the death rate. America doesn't have that problem.

Actually the situations are similar. While it's not a bad here, the increases in both the EU and US are due to immigration, legal and illegal, and the birthrates of the immigrants, particularly the illegal ones.

That said, I think we've got enough people. At some point lots of people stops being an asset and starts being a liability. China and India are past that point and we are near it somewhere, IMHO. Quality counts more than quantity. Ask a Baathist.

[alrea]

China is like Enron with sovereignty and a few nuclear weapons.

bump

[luckystarmom]

Well, if we keep the likes of you and your kind away from the Presidency, then our country will stay on top.

Let's pray that after President Bush there will be another person to follow in his footsteps.

[harpo11]

I'm sorry, but it is so hard to think of the married former president, Clinton, without thinking how much he disrespected and dishonored the office of the presidency in the Oval Office by sticking his penis in some young intern's mouth while talking to a Congressman about sending our young men and women in the military to Kosovo.

I know we were told by many that it was "his personal life", "none of our business", "move on" and "everyone does it". Some even congratulated him on how bold and audacious he was to do such a thing right in the People's home and office, even while his wife and daughter may have been at home, too. Many admired him for outwitting the republicans and running circles around them. While others simply didn't care that lying, perjury, and having over 1,000 FBI Files on preceived political opponents was anything to be concerned about.

He had a wonderful and grand opportunity to make this rare and awesome privilege into a bright and shining moment, but he chose to cheapen and stain his presidency and continues to do so by appearing to denigrate the goodness and greatness of our country, our heritage, our traditions, our current President, in an almost wistful desire to see America lose her superpower status whether economically, and/or militarily.

Unfortunately, he is not the only one it seems to suggest such an event, Madeline Albright, Talbot Strobe, and many sadly on the left appear to agree.

I just don't get it.

[facedown]

No, stupid,...

I don't have time to waste on your confused reply, but I would suggest you learn some manners.

[Cacique]

Traitors always believe that those they betrayed for, will win.

[Wolverine]

The DNC's Chinese Money Laundry--

The Year of the Rat:

How Bill Clinton Compromised American Security for Chinese Money

BY Kenneth R. Timmerman

[Portfolio manager]

Maybe China will prevail. But I agree, they will have to become more of an open society and more free enterprise.
As to Europe, Billy Boy, fagetaboutit!! They are devout socialists and atheists with little idea of what is about to hit them...an aging baby boomer population with very few
kids to support them in their old age.(hey ma-wasn't abortion great?) So Western Europe will be bankrupt with rising taxes and more social strife between the younger and older generations AND the white Europeans and the increasingly Muslim population.No wonder they didn't want to tick them off by supporting regime change in Iraq!

[Wolverine]

Clinton-Gore Illegal Campaign Fundraising, Chinese Espionage, 
and U.S.Technology Transfer to PRC

 

 

[rimmont]

After WWII with Europe, Japan, and the Soviet Union in ruins, the United States found itself in the position of being an unrivaled super power. Over time the Soviet Union rebuilt, and grew to rival the United States. When the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was back on top again as an unrivaled super power.

It is probably inevitable that other powers will rise to rival the U.S. in the future, but this should be seen as a normal state of affairs with no one power being totally dominant as the U.S. has been. This may be what Clinton was saying. I hope so, because if he was saying that China or the E.U. will have the same kind of hegemony the United States enjoys today, he is ignorant.

[Always Right]

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.

They forgot to add the last part of the quote..."if the American people are stupid enough to elect my fat-ass wife as President."

[faithincowboys]

It sounds like Clinton wishes this to be. It's rare when you see precisely what a persob thinks. Clinton desperately wants this country to go down, and he spent every moment of his ignoble tenure willing it.

This is not unlike Howard Dean's comment (Clinton's is actually more offensive, I wonder if Kerry will attack Clinton like he did Dean.