[cmccuist]

I wouldn't bet on the inevitability of China being the global hegemon long term. They've got some real demographic problems to deal with. They're going to get old quickly and they're still mostly communist.

Spengler on China

If China fails to promote fertility, though, the aging and eventual shrinkage of the population will pass a point of no return around 2040. The proportion of elderly dependents will jump to 40% in three decades, which is difficult but not impossible to manage; but unless China regains replacement fertility well before then, the elderly dependent ratio will rise to 60% by 2060, and the Chinese empire will implode.