Future Conflict?

FUTURE CONFLICT?                                          

The US President's official visit to China highlights the tension between the two nations. 'We've seen indications that Xi Jinping has an ambition to increase China's influence in east Asia, central Asia, and the western Pacific, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing. Many statements and actions imply that this will come at the cost of American predominance in the same regions. I think that this is already raising concerns in Washington.' (Guardian, 10 November) Political commentators would like to portray this as a conflict between two different social systems or at least two different outlooks, but it is not. Both the US and China are capitalist nations and as such they are in fierce competition over markets, sources of raw materials and political influence. Potentially it is a frightening scenario. RD