Mamdani: On China

I don't know; there is an article in the Financial Times, which asked: "Is China the America of the 1890s or is it the Japan of the 1980s. Because, the Japan of the 1980s, the Americans thought was the new rising super power, but suddenly it turned out to be ephemeral. The America of the 1890s was the new rising super power.

I don't know enough about the situation to tell you with confidence, which is the new rising super power, but I think what we can say with confidence is that whether there is a new rising super power or whether there are multiple powers, or which of the multiple powers would make it at the end of the race...we know the one that is falling behind. That is the US because its competitive edge is its military. And I think, its universities, its educational system, which is so flexible and so open to innovation, is beginning to close, with the war on terror. Not too much, but it is beginning to close a little bit. It is problematic; if your leaders are militarizing, you can't offer the world the leadership; you would be offering them problems. Half of the military expenditure in the globe is America's.