China and changing global balance of power

THE recent gyrations in global stock markets underline growing fears of a substantial slowdown in the Chinese economy, now the second largest in the world. And the consequences of these concerns about China will be more than financial. In terms of perceptions, recent developments are also driving at least a temporary change in international public opinion about the global economic balance of power. In the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis, it was widely reported that the long period of US and wider Western preponderance of the global economy had ended, with many international publics seeing China as the world's leading economic power.

The fact that China was increasingly seen as leading the world, economically, was borne out by Pew Global's research. Of the countries surveyed in both 2008 and 2014, the median percentage asserting China as the world's leading economic power, vis a vis the United States, EU and Japan, rose from 20 per cent to 29 per cent (the figure was even higher, 34 per cent, in 2013). It was generally economically developed countries that perceived China on top. As of 2013, a majority or virtual majority of publics saw China as the world's leading economic power in France (51 per cent compared to 31 per cent in 2008), United Kingdom (49 per cent compared to 29 per cent in 2008), and Germany (49 per cent compared to 30 per cent in 2008).

Interestingly, more Americans also perceived China (41 per cent) as the world's leading economic power rather than their own country (40 per cent). A majority in Australia and Canada also supported that view (61 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively) when those countries were last surveyed in 2013.