Rise of China

On Saturday, most of England largely reopens. Social distancing will effectively be abandoned. We step back into an unfamiliar, uncertain world. And we enter the moment of peak uncertainty. Most people don’t like uncertainty. There’s no such thing as a risk free world, so we must deal with uncertainty. But we don’t like it. We avoid it when we can. We limit it when we can’t.

A few months ago when the coronavirus started spreading across the world, things looked tough for China. But I can’t help but feel that they are now on the precipice of supplanting the US and the worlds number one power. And not because of anything they’ve done. It’s all Trumps work.

He’s alienated allies at home and abroad. He has divided his own country. And he’s gone about lighting fires around the world – a nuclear Korea, NATO, China trade war, Paris climate change treaty, WTO and WHO attacks – which have done little more than destroy his (and the US’) credibility and trustworthiness.

Europe and parts of the Far East are emerging from the lockdown looking for certainty. Looking for a clear path forward. The US of Donal Trump has little to offer, beyond policies of retreat, broken pledges, bigotry, bullying and bluster. It’s failure to deal with the virus has left it, along with most of the Americas, as something of an international pariah.

China is the future. And it has been gifted an opportunity by Trump to step into the future, today. But perhaps the US has one last opportunity of its own to continue to lead the world in this century. In November, Americans will have an opportunity to choose to either continue down the road of white supremacy and nazification with Putin’s puppet. Or to choose Joe Biden.