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This is the Cato Daily podcast for Tuesday, May 18th, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The rise of China as an economy has inspired all manner of speculation about what it means for the US economy and US security.

John Mueller is author of the new Cato paper,

China Rise or Demise.

We spoke last week.

John, when people talk about the rise of China as an economic power and as a military threat to, particularly the United States, what are they referring to?

Well, China, of course, is growing so that now in the world, it's either number one or number two in GDP.

But it's still like 78th and GDP per capita. At that rate, it's

questionable how you would define what a developed country is but China might not

fall into it. It's going to continue to grow certainly, though a lot of its policies are very questionable in that respect.

But it mostly seems to be a reasonably comfortable trading partner for the most part.

I mean there's things they do that people don't like, but the people don't like a lot of things

a lot of other people do as well.

Militarily they're growing somewhat.

The former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said they were building more military than they actually need for their protection.

I mean, it's just unbelievable.

...