The United States and China in Power Transition - Strategic Studies ...

Second, the United States will have strong resilience
to stay on top. Even when China reaches its full
potential and becomes a much more powerful nation,
the United States will still be too big to be No. 2 to
China. 23 A U.K.-like change in the U.S.-China relationship
is very unlikely. The UK is much smaller than
the United States. Its hegemonic reach was historically
conditioned. As Organski notes, ordinarily, the UK
would have no chance to rule the world, but as the
first nation to become industrialized, the UK was able
to become a global hegemon while much of the world
was still in the underdeveloped agrarian stage. When
the United States became the hegemonic power, the
UK had no choice but to take a subordinate role. This
is not the case between the United States and China.
Reluctant Accommodations?
This is a very peculiar aspect of the U.S.-China
power transition. Other matters aside, the United
States and China both believe that some key changes
in the other will make the transition, and the world
for that matter, a peaceful one. For the United States,
the most desirable change in China is for its government
to become a democratic institution. For China,
it is a curtailment of U.S. hegemonic conduct in international
politics and the democratization of international
relations. It is quite ironic that the “champion of
democracy (i.e., the United States)” is accused of practicing
“dictatorship” in international affairs whereas
an authoritarian China promotes democracy in the
world. 24 This irony, however, is surely the missing
link between the United States and China, the peaceful
evolution of which can make the U.S.-China power
transition a different one in history.
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