bbtomato

I don't think China will have as much political influence either, no matter how big their GDP gets for a long, long time to come.

Being a country that doesn't speak English, they are really out of the loop. The western world will still look to the US and the Eurozone for leadership. Don't think it matters if China has a bigger GDP. China doesn't have any friends except countries like: Russia, North Korea, and Vietnam who are not exactly team players.

I've seen this in India. India, despite having borders with China, spends all of its time trying to look pretty for the the US and the UK. Culturally speaking, they have aligned themselves as such completely wanting nothing to do with their neighbors. GDP growth in India will surely help offset China's advantage.

I predict that we'll see mutual benefit in the long term (except for the American middle class who is just gonna have to accept lower wages) and that China's clout will never be as important as the combined clout of the Eurozone, the US, and India.