A China in decline is even more dangerous
IAIN MARTIN
Beijing may respond to its domestic difficulties by accelerating plans to take Taiwan by force or by weaponising AI
When the British historian Paul Kennedy published his classic work The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers in 1987, it looked as though the future belonged to Japan.
America, he suggested, bore all the hallmarks of a late-period empire sliding into decline. Overstretched and battling to keep up appearances, the teetering United States maintained its overspending on defence by running giant deficits funded by vast borrowing, a classic sign of imminent imperial eclipse.
A booming Japan, in contrast, spent relatively little on defence and in the late 1980s its consumer electronics companies produced the Walkman, CD players and videos and dominated the cultural landscape in the West. All hail the rising superpower of the early 21st century, no? Only we all know that is
