Friedman predicts China Won’t Dominate the 21st Century

From Yahoo Finance:
Here is an interesting interview by Aaron Task with George Friedman, founder of STARTFOR and author of “The Next 100 Years”.  He predicts China will not dominate the 21st Century,

instead it is more likely being overpowered by other countries like Japan.

The main issue he talked about is “China is split in the middle”. He is referring to the gap between the inner-land China where people live in poverty and the modern Eastern seaboard.  He said “Eastern seaboard of China is booming as part of western economic system, it is not part of China. Beijing is trying to balance – in a very ancient way – between one region that’s lost its bearings in China vs. the rest of China that’s bitterly poor and extremely angry”

He believes while many invest in China, the “insiders” are actually leaving. He said “I see very difficult to imagine how a  coastal region that has more in common with Los Angeles and Minneapolis is going to be held together with 1.1 billion economy is barely above starvation level”.

“China has had extraordinary growth for 30 years – the probability it will do it for 60 years is statistical negligible," he says.