The writer has explained a very factual situation while comparing China with America.  The difference is because of America's bad, short-sighted and lenient foreign policies.  If you go back may be five decades, China was suffering from all kinds of sanctions imposed by the USA.  China was a country full of drug addicts, and no one dared to buy any Chinese products due to inferior quality. Today's China is the making of this country's one-sided policies which brought China from being a backward country to the fore front of one of the global economic powers.

This economic prosperity has brought lot of construction in China.  Unfortunately, the occupancy rate in those skyscrapers is very low even though lot of people are being brought from the rural to the urban areas.  That may not play a constructive role, the moment Chinese economy goes south which means a real estate meltdown.  Mostly, Chinese economy is 'exported' oriented.

True, China cann't expand its own territory due to geographical location, as the writer pointed out wisely.  However, China, by using its economic power, flexing its tentacles in other countries - Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma, Uganda, Afghanistan and Africa etc.- by way of developing their ports and other infrastructure.  China provides loans to all those countries at a higher rate with the provision that if a country cannot pay back, then China will own that land on a lease basis for a long term.  Hence, that enables China to achieve its territorial expansionist objective.

Other than that, there is no comparison between China and America.  They have two separate set of governments - totalitarian vs. democracy; controlled regime vs. liberty and freedom; one language medium(English) vs. two main languages- Cantonese and Mandarin ( one does not understand the other) etc.

The key element of this article is the security issue.  America has been on the forefront of all nations due to its heavy investment in the area of "R & D"  Even though for the last 3-4 decades, America has lost most of its manufacturing base, it still remained a super power because of investment in the "R & D" area.

I hope Trump stays in the WH for full two terms and bring back its lost heavy manufacturing base.

Thanks, Bhatiaji, this was a very good and informative article

I think, finally, the Saudi government under Prince Salman has started making decisions which are worthy to be noticed.  These decision whether they are in the field of education, culture, religion, entertainment, economy etc., all are for the well being of its subjects.  They are needed in the 21st century to be able to compete on a global basis.  Yes, Saudis have lots of oil reserves, but how long they will last.  What happens when the oil wells go dry.  How would Saudis survive?  What Saudis need is a good educational curriculum, good universities pursuing high educational system teaching students science, math, different global languages, engineering and architecture etc. so that Saudis can compete with the global talents also.  I am glad that Prince Salman has realized that 7th century Muslim ideology is obsolete and it needs to be replaced with the new thinking and new ideology to survive.  It is always prudent to change with the changing times.  Saudi government should also attract more manufacturing in Saudi Arabia, instead of just buying material from other countries.  The bigger, multi-faceted and expanded manufacturing base a country has, the better off that country is.

When I came to this country in 1970, The US Steel was the largest steel manufacturing company in the world.  Then due to lenient and ill-advised policies in this country in the 80s, slowly and slowly manufacturing base started deteriorating and shifted to overseas.  I believe, for any country, a strong manufacturing base is must for its prosperity and security.  This country imports lot of steel from China who is subsidizing its steel industry and dump steel in the United States at a very competitive price.  We have kind of become complacent about the supply of steel from China.  God forbids if there is a war between China and the US, this supply will disappear which means, the US can run into a scenario of shortage of steel to manufacture defense armaments - fighter jets, tanks, missiles etc.  So, from country's security standpoint, self-sufficiency in steel and aluminum manufacturing is must.  Needless to say, these tariffs will create jobs too - more jobs means higher GDP, higher revenue for the exchequer and higher standard of living for the people living here.