China is set to overtake America as biggest economy within 30 years

Travelling through some of America’s major cities last week, I detected a degree of anxiety confined not just to the latest George Bush revelations on the threat from al-Qa’ida. People in the United States worry about terrorism, but they also worry about economic threats. In some US quarters, the latest economic bogeyman is China.

It’s not the first time that a foreign power has led to economic unease at home. In the 1980s, America feared economic success in Japan and Germany, a reaction which, 20 years down the road – and after stagnation in both countries – seems nothing short of remarkable.

The Independent