Given the challenges this presents, if the Europeans, like the Australians, want to give priority to their own existential challenges (which result from their geography), they should focus on the economic and social development of Africa. The best partner to work with to develop Africa is China. Indeed, China has already emerged as the largest new economic partner of Africa.

... the primary goal of China’s rulers is to preserve peace and harmony among 1.4 billion people in China, not try to influence the lives of the 6 billion people who live outside China.

There were at least three major contributing factors to this alienation: the relative political autonomy of provincial and city chiefs, the hubris China experienced after the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, and the relatively weak central leadership in the 2000s.

In his book Oligarchy, American political scientist Jeffrey Winters provides a stunning illustration of just how dire US inequality has become: the average wealth of the richest one hundred American households relative to that of the bottom 90 percent approximates the wealth disparity between a Roman senator and a slave at the height of the Roman Empire.

Should America’s primary goal be to improve the livelihood of its 330 million citizens or to preserve its primacy in the international system? If there are contradictions between the goals of preserving primacy and improving well-being, which should take priority?

While China projects an image of being a stable and predictable member of the global multilateral order, America, under Trump, is increasingly perceived as a chaotic and unpredictable actor.

In the Western mind, any undemocratic political system that deprives citizens the ability to choose or remove a leader is by definition evil.

... while Chinese leaders want to rejuvenate Chinese civilization, they have no missionary impulse to take over the world and make everyone Chinese. China’s role and influence in the world will certainly grow along with the size of its economy. Yet, it will not use its influence to change the ideologies or political practices of other societies.

Most Americans are unaware that the average income of the bottom 50 percent of their population has declined over a thirty-year period.