Even China not convinced it can replace U.S.: NYT

NEW YORK, May 8 (Xinhua) -- There's a hardening view in Washington that China seeks to supplant the United States as the leading world power and remake the international system in its illiberal image, but actually even China itself isn't convinced that it can replace the United States, said Jessica Chen Weiss, an author and China expert at Cornell University, in her Opinion article posted by The New York Times (NYT) on Thursday.

"China has of course fed these fears by building up its military, partnering with a revanchist Russia, pressing disputed territorial claims, and with its own rhetoric," wrote Weiss, but "assessments of China based on cherry-picked phrases from party propaganda overlook the frequent gap between rhetoric and reality."

"China's long-term ambitions are difficult to know with certainty, and they can change. But it is far from clear that it can -- or even seeks to -- replace the United States as the world's dominant power," she noted.

At a minimum, China seems more intent on modifying aspects of a system under which it has prospered -- making it safer for autocracy -- rather than replacing it, said the author.

"China's overseas development largess, for example, is limited by the imperative of addressing its own persistent development needs at home," and "doubts are growing that China, facing economic headwinds and a shrinking population, can achieve its goal of surpassing the United States as the world's largest economy, let alone other metrics of global leadership," she added.