Does it bother anyone besides me?

[Chaerophon]

There are a lot of people out there who will disagree with your stance on the 'rivalry' with China... It would seem that the only reason that a war would start would be as a result of US aggression in the face of their impending loss of economic hegemony - that would be a matter of pissing in the wind, if you ask me.

Many on the lounge turn to you as an authority on such matters; however, there are a number of different IR/IPE perspectives on the rise of China, and not all are so ruthlessly realist. This is not to say that you are, strictly speaking, wrong, only that many knowledgable, informed commentators have taken a different view of the matter. I'm not a pie in the sky 'globalization of markets will save the day' type, but I find your characterization a tad premature. I agree: China wants to erode America's influence. Whether that means that they have any desire to destroy the economy of their American rivals, a la US v. Communist Russia is another matter, altogether. After all, in order to erode America's economy, China has had to liberalize.

My point: America won the cold war - China has simply adapted to the reality of that victory. Your comparison to the cold war conflict seems a bit off-base. America will most likely (at least not for a long, long while) never have to adapt to a new world order in terms of basic, free-market economic ideology. However, they may have to cope with the fact that they are no longer the lone big dog. In fact, struggle as they might, this is more and more becoming case.