Lord Rees-Mogg, the editor of The Times (of London), declares: This is China's century.

America may believe it is still at the heart of events, but the future is being shaped on the margins...

...Clearly, the United States is still by far the largest and most powerful economy on earth, with the most powerful defence technology. Yet it is China, not the United States, that is changing the global economy.

As a producer, an exporter and as an importer, the growth of the Chinese economy is changing the marginal levels of global supply and demand. Over the weekend I was reading many forecasts by eminent economists of the world economy in 2005. I was also listening to similar forecasts on television, including CCTV International, the Chinese 24-hour news service. The unanimity was astonishing, as one buzzed from channel to channel, subject to subject, and economist to economist.

What is the prospect for the dollar? That depends on China. The euro? China. The oil price? China. Industrial commodities? China. Global equity markets? China. Bond prices? China. World trade? China. World growth? China. In each case, forecast was not based on the absolute size of the Chinese economy, which is still much smaller than that of the United States. The forecasters, looking at their different markets, were all convinced that marginal changes attributable to China would be the decisive factor. That and low Chinese costs...

...On Saturday all the quotas on textile imports were lifted by the World Trade Organisation. This will be an extraordinary opportunity for Chinese textile and clothing manufacturers. Their current share of the US market is about 17 per cent; that is expected to rise to 50 per cent. China’s share of the European Union market is expected to rise from 18 to 30 per cent. We already buy Chinese toys; we shall soon all be wearing Chinese clothes...

Yet China is not content to remain as a producer of low or middle-technology goods. As the purchase of IBM’s personal computer division shows, China is equally a competitor in areas of advanced technology. (Don't know about that Lord Rees-Mogg, let's wait and see what Lenovo actually does with IBM's PC business -ed.)

China is not only a highly successful exporter, but has also become a very large-scale importer, both of oil and raw materials and of goods from other Asian countries...

...My own optimism is not only based on the growth of the economy, though that is the outstanding economic growth record of the past two decades. China has also understood the important of domestic and international freedom of trade and the need for the best possible relations with trading partners. With direct material and financial support, China has been one of the large contributors to the relief of the Indian Ocean countries after the tsunami disaster. The economic maturity of the new China has been accompanied by increasing political maturity. That is the best guarantee for the future of what is beginning to look like the Chinese century.

All pretty second hand stuff. You can read the whole thing here. Link via China Digital News.