[throwaind29k]

Perhaps one reason is that US thought that the globalized free trade world system will always benefit it more than other nations. However in the last few years China grew big, and figured out how to make that system work in a manner advantageous to them. So US is under-cutting that system, or in other words changing the rules of the game so that China can't make progress easily.

Fundamental question is will US be ever able to come to terms with a world in which US is not the dominant world power?

Practically if you look at the British or Russians, it doesn't seem to make much difference to the lives of ordinary people, the losing of 'world power' status.

[rocmcd]

> Fundamental question is will US be ever able to come to terms with a world in which US is not the dominant world power?

I think one missing key aspect is: will the US be ever able to come to terms with _an authoritarian_ power being the dominant world power?

There was a lot of optimism around China (much like there is today with Japan) in the 2000's and early 2010's, but their continued lean towards authoritarianism and regional aggression (Taiwan, South China Sea, Philippines, etc) has definitely soured that view.

[panarky]

When you can't beat an authoritarian power while remaining democratic and peacefully supporting other nations in your region, the obvious next step is to discard those constraints.

[lq9AJ8yrfs]

In history class I was taught in the 60s and 70s the US preferred and encouraged China to develop itself, partly (or mainly I guess depending on your view) as a foil to the Soviet Union, partly because of internal humanistic values and belief that prosperity is good for people.

From a 50+ year historical standpoint it seems even more than philosophy that the two should get along.

Not confident in my understanding though, isn't there more to current politics than recent events and the last 30 years? Wondering if and suspecting there's something with more predictive value than online headlines and pundits.

Demographics clearly -- TFR types of analysis seem compelling, although that's on a longer time frame than current tensions.