China Eclipsing US Economically, Militarily is ‘Fantasy’

Jeffrey Bader was President Obama’s top aide on China up until last year. He served as a special assistant to President Obama, and as the senior director for East Asian Affairs on the National Security Council until April 2011.

Bader tells host Marco Werman that some analysts have exaggerated the threat that China poses to the United States.

“The notion that we are about to be eclipsed, we’re about to become the number two power, I think that that is frankly a fantasy,” Bader says.

In his new book, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy. Bader describes how China is attempting to reposition itself on the global stage.

“They’ve been clearly unnerved by the Arab Spring. They’re much more comfortable with stable places than with places in turmoil,” Bader says. “They see western interventions in places like Syria through the prism of their own victimhood, their own history.”

But Bader adds that he thinks China is showing some adaptation, and doesn’t want to be the last man resisting a change of power in places like Syria, especially since that would involve paying the price with new governments that come into power.