problems on the horizon and environmental
threats that are worsening by the day,
its global economic and political clout is
still on the rise. In fact, we are already
well into what might be called the “China
decade,” the period when the country’s
Jinping launched a wide-ranging anticorruption
campaign to restore public
confidence in Communist Party
leadership—and to sideline his opponents.
That drive has forced tens of thousands
from the party and jailed some of
China’s wealthiest and most influential
officials. Xi may well be the most powerful
Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, and
his willingness to use that power might
eventually generate dangerous divisions
within the leadership, especially if the
country becomes economically unstable.
For the moment, though, dissent is muted
and the party remains unified.
Such unity pays off internationally. At
a moment when Americans are debating
how activist U.S. foreign policy should
be and Europeans are distracted by challenges
closer to home, China will continue
to use trade and investment overseas to
advance its national goals. Consider how
far China has come. In 1977, China accounted
for just 0.6% of world trade. It
is now the world’s leading trading nation,
and over 120 countries trade more with
China than they do with the U.S.
During the China decade, we’ll also
see the growth of Chinese-led multinational
institutions that allow foreign
governments to borrow money for roads,
bridges, sewers, ports and other projects
without turning to traditional Western
lenders like the IMF, World Bank and
the U.S. or European governments that
can insist on painful economic and political