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The New York Times has a column on September 8th (“China’s Rise Isn't Our Demise”) in which Vice President Joe Biden stresses the positive-sum rather than zero-sum nature of the relationship between China and the United States. But is it entirely positive sum? Are there elements of rivalry and possibilities of conflict? And how should we think more broadly about China’s growing economic dominance?
These are the questions that I address in my forthcoming book, Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance. And this week’s Economist magazine provides some answers in its review of my book in the Economics Focus column. Drawing upon my book, the Economist starts off with a somewhat different sentiment expressed by Larry Summers. Whereas Joe Biden stresses that China’s growth will be good for the United States, on balance, Summers’ optimism was founded on the view that “as long as we’re worried about the future, the future will be better.” Summers equates the concerns over China with exaggerated concerns in the past over Russia and (after the Cold War) Japan.
The Economist summarizes my book’s more realistic response to the optimistic perspectives of both Vice President Biden and Professor Summers.
This piece was also posted on PIIE’s RealTime Economic Issues Watch.
