As ever, the question of the United States loomed large. For a good part of the 1990s the Chinese appeared to think that the world was tending towards a multipolar structure that act as a counterbalance to the power of the United States (the sole surviving superpower). But by 1999, after heated debates within the country, the Chinese had reconciled themselves to the fact that a multipolar system was not going to emerge any time soon and that, far from sinking into relative decline, the US had actually gained in comprehensive strength compared to the rest of the world and the gap between the US and the rest of the world was growing still wider.