Asked if China is now the global superpower due to the splinters in Western alliances caused by Donald Trump, Clarke says it’s not.
“No, it isn’t. But it is gaining in power all the time,” he says.
“In crude terms, if you look at projections for the global economy, by the year 2050, China and the United States will probably be about equal in terms of the world economy.”
China hasn’t overtaken the US yet “but it will happen on the current trajectory,” Clarke says.
Russia, he adds, is “almost irrelevant” in this discussion due to its dependence on energy, gas and oil.
“In superpower terms, the United States has the wherewithal to remain the world’s most important superpower, particularly if it finds a better way of integrating or of working with the economies of Canada and Mexico.
“Canada, Mexico and the United States between them are a real economic powerhouse of about $25trn worth of combined GDP a year, which is bigger than the European Union, bigger than China, bigger than anything.”
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