From February 2008, this report from Gallup on China:
[UPDATE: The link may not load - you can view the video here: http://www.gallup.com/video/104476/Chinas-Economy-Rises-Americans-Eyes.aspx]
But Gallup in 2009 sees a changing sentiment, no doubt due in large part to the Great Leader's vision and hope and change leadership.
What's changed in the last year besides the Executive Image? The economics of the world have changed for the worse, but the US has been reduced to a recession while China has been reduced to 9% growth in GDP. All that's changed is perception. The problem of Chinese hegemony is still there. The American public is doing it's best head-in-the-sand on the issue of the rise of China. The reality is that in it's drift towards more government involvement in the economy (yes, that is socialism, even if arguably only by proxy), has hastened America's Europeanization in the sense that those once pre-eminent powers are now struggling to maintain their B class status. Why America would want to follow in those footsteps is beyond me.
China is a threat, socialism is a threat. Both need to be taken seriously. Luckily if the government were to unfetter capitalism and reduce socialism, it would take care of both problems. Capitalism and freedom forged America into the great superpower it became. There's no reason those two ideals can't be unleashed and allow the United States to maintain it's leadership role in the world. The current administration is seeking to keep those factors under wraps and temper American entrepreneurial spirit, thereby watering down it's greatness. Why? Because they believe in different ideals. They believe in a managed system. They believe in interventionism, and social engineering. By proxy it must be true that they are comfortable with European levels of unemployment, welfare, taxation and regulation.
The real question is twofold whether Americans are comfortable with that approach and secondly whether they are aware of the creeping death that awaits them by heading down the path of a command economy. Ironically China, while still communist, owes it's rising fortunes to the adaptation of a limited free market economy. Two powers, opposite directions, and divergent futures if they continue down the paths they are choosing.
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