Opinion | Rich, autocratic China is too powerful an adversary for any democracy

In this new cold war, the US and other democracies that abide by fair and open rules of engagement cannot stop China claiming its place as the world’s No 1 superpower. Where will that leave the rest of the world?

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Today’s communist China is not only rapidly producing billionaires, its economy is forecast to overtake that of the US in coming years. Its people are patriotic, and there is little open support for Western-style democracy. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 21 Mar 2019Updated: 7:07am, 21 Mar 2019

Is the United States trying to obstruct China's rise or is it rising to China’s challenge to become the world’s top superpower? If somebody wants to replace you as No 1, it's only natural to fight back whichever way you can.

China has every right to feel its time has come to be top dog now that no other country except the US can rival it economically and militarily. That thinking, in fact, underpins President Xi Jinping’s vision for his country, giving birth to his so-called “Chinese dream”.

He fleshed out that vision with: the “Belt and Road Initiative”, designed for all roads to lead to China; “Made in China 2025”, which uses state subsidies for mainland companies to dominate global artificial intelligence; the “Greater Bay Area”, to knock Silicon Valley off its perch; and, militarised man-made islands in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims belongs to it.

But just because China feels it has acquired the right to use even tenacious means to snatch the superpower crown doesn’t mean the US must accede to China’s ambition. US President Donald Trump has shown he is more than willing to use equally tenacious means to defend his country’s long-held status as the dominant power.

He has unleashed a trade war, along with a pushback against the Belt and Road Initiative, efforts to discredit mainland telecom giant Huawei as a Beijing spy, a global campaign to prevent China from dictating 5G rules, and so-called freedom of navigation by US warplanes and warships in the South China Sea.

Whether you see this as the US trying to contain China or China confronting the US by hook or by crook to become top dog, this clash of the titans – which pitches Chinese autocracy against American democracy – will have far-reaching global consequences.

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