‘US Foolishly Fed The Rise Of China'

Twenty years ago, provocative political scientist and famed international relations theorist at the University of Chicago John Mearsheimer predicted that China’s rise in the 21st century would not be peaceful and that China and United States would engage in a security competition which would end in war.

During a special conversation with India Today TV’s News Director Rahul Kanwal, Mearsheimer said that China is interested in becoming the dominant power and interested in changing the status quo regarding its border with India.

On being asked whether the US has failed to adjust to the growing might of China, Prof John Mearsheimer told said that the United States has done something worse than just failed to adjust China. He said that US has “foolishly” fed the rise of China.

“The US, over the course of the 1990s and the first decade-and-a-half of the 2000s, went to great places to make China more and more economically powerful. We, in fact, have created a potential peer competitor. This is remarkably foolish,” Mearsheimer said.

Mearsheimer, however, added that US has recognised the danger and is moving quickly to try to contain China.

He said that this is why “India and China are now becoming fast friends as they have a common foe”.