Lorenzo Fusaro
Introduction
The topic of “hegemonic transitions” has attracted much attention in recent years as the rate of economic growth in East Asia surpassed by far the one in the West. Based on the United States’ declining shares in global output, trade and investments at the expense of East Asia, the claim is that the centre of growth in the world economy is shifting towards the latter part of the globe, towards China in particular.
Some Nostradamuses already envisage a “Pax Sinica” where “The renminbi will displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency; Shanghai will overshadow New York and London as the centre of finance; […] global citizens will use Mandarin as much as, if not more than, English; the thoughts of Confucius will become as familiar as those of Plato