The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Government

I think China definitely sees itself as a rising civilization, whereas the United States and Europe are declining civilizations. I think they see themselves as being eventually being a global power that is able to exercise hegemony through financial dominance rather than military dominance. They look at it like they don't need to exercise military dominance in the sense of being like the Americans. We've got hundreds of military bases spread out the world. The Americans spread themselves too thin and it's become a more of a burden than a benefit. And I think that they're probably, if anything, going to try to avoid repeating that and try to exercise economic dominance.