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

[aruanan]

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

This was said by a guy who uses cigars and Macadamia nuts as erotic objects. Remember that liberals were also gushing over their trips to both the USSR and Cuba as having been to the future and seeing that it worked! Besides, the USA + the New Europe (including Australia) will greatly outweigh anything China or the Old Europe can come up with.

[Freak Flag]

Look at demographics, Europe is aging fast and will die off . China, on the other hand, is having a bubble of males (look out), then their population will colapse . If we make it out of the next decade on top no one could catch US for a century .

[Filibuster_60]

Give China another 20-30 years of relative stability and it'll become the dominant power in Asia, but not worldwide. That'll have to wait until the second half of the century.

[Poohbah]

I think the SARS thing will get a little bigger there and then subside.

I don't thin it'll get a "little bigger."

Their delay in handling this mess gave the virus a head start--and it's on a J-curve.

They are building facilities and will keep folks inside.

A day late and a yuan short.

Will be interesting to see if they can get out front of the thing.

They were so thoroughly bulls**tting themselves early on that they lost their lead time.

What worries me is that this is how the Spanish Influenza got started. Nothing big, no need to worry. It was followed by a "HOLY S**T!" event a few months later.

[aruanan]

Every dog has their day in the sun.

Every dog has its day in the sun.

[Dr. Frank fan]

One way they can catch the U.S. is if the U.S. becomes more socialist where heavy taxation stops significant economic growth.

Bingo, which is what leftists want.

We have to tax ourselves heavily to hinder significant economic growth, in preparation for that inevitable day where we're no longer the superpower, due to our hindered economic growth, which was caused by the heavy taxation advocated by the people who insisted we prepare for our own inevitable downfall....

[Filibuster_60]

While China has many problems I don't think that staying in one piece will be as challenging as it proved for the USSR. And I don't think SARS will have such a cataclysmic effect on their society as Chernobyl in USSR, but we'll have to see.

[mass55th]

"In all probability, we won't be the premier political and economic power we are now,"

Especially not if your b*tch wife gets into the White House!!

[Poohbah]

China, on the other hand, is having a bubble of males (look out)

If I were the Chinese, I'd worry deeply about this.

Long before they come of military age, they'll be a veritable Old Testament plague of juvenile delinquency.

[longtermmemmory]

we must stop the euro from being a reserve currency.

globalization is americanization.

[ffusco]

Non Sequiter
The Euros and Chinese have no morals - so how will they beat us.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Well China has always had the population. Who was mesmorized 40+ years ago?

I don't know, but I do know that when I try to pin down all the "China will overtake us" people, the only real substantial thing they are basing this on is the fact that China has lots and lots of people.

I look for the money to be the most powerful force and the government to follow.

I'm not sure what that means. Like I said, if China's government does actually significantly reform, they have plenty of potential. Failing that, however.....

[Rome2000]

SHRILLARY!

[Mustang]

They may have "growth potential"...but they lack a soul.

Mustang sends from "Malpaso" News.

[breakem]

It means I believe the economy will effect the government positively more than the government will be a negative factor.

The people and natural resources give them potential. It's theirs to realize of ignore.

[Free ThinkerNY]

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

Hitlery's Dream

[cake_crumb]

"Look at demographics, Europe is aging fast and will die off ."

At the rate most of the EU is going, all the member states will make up one very unstable Islamist country very soon.

[clyde asbury]

It used to be that **Japan** was going to replace us as the dominant power. Their economy has been in recession now for a decade, with no end in sight.

Nobody - least of all Bill Clinton - knows what's going to happen.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I don't give a RATS arse what slick says.

But over the next century China stands a fairly good chance of becoming a global superpower. China has many obstacles in front ofthem, but they have many of the components of growth already in place.

Europe on the other hand is in the downward spiral of socialism. NFW they grow.

-Olde-