China’s economy to overtake US by 2030, says report

WASHINGTON - Reuters

A paramilitary policeman patrols on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. AP photo

China’s economy is likely to surpass the United States in less than two decades but the Asian country is not expected to take on the superpower role of the United States in gathering coalitions to deal with global issues, U.S. intelligence analysts said Dec. 10.

By 2030 Asia will overtake North America and Europe combined in global power based on gross domestic product, population, military spending and technological investment, a new intelligence report said.
 
“China alone will probably have the largest economy, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030,” it said. “Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines.”

The report, “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” was issued by the National Intelligence Council, an analytical arm of the U.S. government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

US to remain superpower

 It is the fifth report of a series, the previous one was released in 2008, that aims to stimulate “strategic thinking” among decision makers and not to predict the future. The reports intentionally coincide with presidential election years to offer insights on global trends to new administrations.

Despite the economic power of China, the United States is expected to retain its superpower status because it still is the only country able to pull together coalitions and mobilize efforts to deal with global challenges, analysts said.

“China isn’t going to replace the U.S. on a global level,” Mathew Burrows, counselor to the National Intelligence Council, said at a media briefing. “Being the largest economic power is important ... (but) it isn’t necessarily the largest economic power that always is going to be the superpower.”

Technological innovation

 China recognizes that it cannot play that role of organizing across regions and across state-non-state boundaries, he said. The health of the global economy increasingly will be linked to progress in the developing world rather than the traditional West, the report said.

 Economic growth in emerging markets was expected to drive technological innovation and flows of companies, ideas, entrepreneurs and capital to developing countries will increase, the report said.

“During the next 15-20 years, more technological activity is likely to move to the developing world as multinationals focus on the fastest-growing emerging markets and as Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and other emerging-economy corporations rapidly become internationally competitive,” the report said.

The United States, one of the world’s biggest energy consumers, could become energy independent in the next two decades, the report said.