Who Will Dominate the 21st Century: America or China?

Published January 17, 2023

Hoover senior fellow Elizabeth Economy explains the difficulty in preventing China from stealing US technology and patents. Economy describes the lack of Chinese social movements, and how there used to be many before Xi Jinping’s crackdown on the internet. Economy believes American values are better than China’s for the majority of the people in the world, which is why she hopes America will retain the liberal democracy order it has created.

Discussion Questions:

1. Can America and China ever be friends, and what would it require?
2. Are American values better than China’s? Why or why not?

Additional Resources:

• Read “Xi Jinping’s New World Order,” by Elizabeth Economy via Foreign Affairs. Available here.
• Watch “America’s New Great-Power Competition with China,” with Elizabeth Economy on PolicyEd. Available here.
• Watch “Embracing Strategic Empathy,” with H. R. McMaster on PolicyEd. Available here.