The Fragility of China

Dennis Unkovic asserts that China is, contrary to popular belief, not poised to take over from the United States as the world's pre-eminent superpower.

Chinese President Xi Jinping believes his country is destined to displace the United States as the world's top military and economic power. Every policy that Xi has put forth since assuming power in 2013 has been carefully crafted with this end goal in mind.

Nearly four decades of meteoric economic growth have convinced many in the West that modern China is indeed an invincible regime, and that Xi's grand plan will come to fruition. Closer examination reveals that China is not invulnerable, but in fact, is far more fragile than it outwardly appears.

In The Fragility of China, Dennis Unkovic coins the term "MaxTrends" to identify critical factors and developments that have the potential to derail Xi's aggressive ambitions for China. These MaxTrends include alarming demographic shifts, cracks in the global supply chain, an accelerating global arms race, and the Taiwan conundrum, all of which indicate that China's strength may be more illusion than reality. Unkovic warns that the world's democracies must take increasingly aggressive steps to exploit China's vulnerabilities if they hope to blunt Xi's ambitions.

Right now, China and the United States find themselves competing in a tight race to the top. In today's unprecedented arena of economic, military, and political challenges, the nation that acts more quickly and prudently will win.