It’s not contradictory for China to amass wealth and power while still suffering from serve domestic vulnerabilities. From the perspective of the rest of the world, however, this is not a good thing. A steadily rising and confident China would have little difficulty shouldering greater global leadership. A Chia that experienced a reversal of fortune would be less able to do so ––– but less would be expected of it. A rising and domestically fragile China, however, is the worst of both worlds. Other countries would expect Beijing to act as a responsible great power–––but the Chinese elite would view themselves as too weak and fragile to oblige , Again , the parallel is with the U.S .For the first four decades of the 20th century. America was so absorbed with its own problems that too often it failed to recognize the role it needed to play in the world. Let’s hope that the global political economy does not suffer from a case of dejavu