What if China collapses?
China's been something of a 2012 campaign punching bag, but Tyler Roylance wonders if the candidates are missing an important angle when it comes to the rising power:
Like generals preparing for the last war instead of the next one, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, have built their China-related campaign rhetoric around the notion that the Chinese are out to steal American jobs by manipulating exchange rates and heavily subsidizing their booming export industries. But this story of rapid, state-led economic growth is increasingly a thing of the past. As China's economy slows, the real concern for the next U.S. administration should be the potential fallout from a hard landing, including social unrest and political ferment.
Indeed. It's probably not good form to muse openly about a U.S. response to a Chinese "hard landing" - particularly one that unseats the Communist party - but hopefully it's something everyone is thinking carefully about.
