Why China Won't Replace The US As The Global Superpower

This article suggests that it wrong to ask whether China will replace the US as the global superpower.  The real question is whether China will assume the role of a global leader that provides global public goods.  In the first place, the US has assumed a unique role as a superpower in the aftermath of the destructive world wars that affected Europe. It has not replaced Britain in that role, as many imagine, because Britain was never a superpower.  It was one of several powerful nations that sustained an empire, but it never attained the status of the sole global superpower.  The second part of the article is about the changes that China needs to make in order to achieve the respect that it desires from a position as a global leader.  China has to decide whether it wants to join the western world in sharing global leadership, or whether it wants to attain the leadership of an eastern block that it might create.  If it chooses to join the western block, it will have to make some difficult changes in the management of its economy, and in its political structure.