China has laid a foundation for a flourishing future

You'd have to figure, if a country can't get it on with "Sesame Street," it's never going to win a starring role in the league of nations. But in the case of China, you'd figure wrong.

China tried — and technically speaking, they did "Sesame Street" the way it ought to be done, right down to Big Bird's complex costume. But according to Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, who has spent his career not just analyzing China but for many years actually living there (including a stint producing the Chinese version of the show), there was one obstacle their culture couldn't overcome: marrying humor with education, which is the basis of the show's success. But in terms of laying the foundation for a flourishing future, it's among the few things they've gotten wrong.

Listen to the litany of Chinese success stories that Daly laid out to an audience last week at WorldDenver. Some are simply due to the country's size, but some are due to its determination. China has not just the world's largest population (about a fifth of all humanity) but its strongest purchasing power. It is the world's biggest exporter of manufactured goods, its biggest single producer of steel and motor vehicles and many agricultural products. China has the world's highest capacity of solar and wind-generated power, the most smartphone users, the most university students, the largest middle class (110 million versus 95 million in the U.S.). China has almost a quarter of the world's connections to the "internet of things," the concept of connecting any device — from phones to furnaces to coffee makers — with any other.

And most consequential, China is poised to become the world's No. 1 economy. Which would leave us as No. 2.

Sure, China's got problems, and by dint of its humongous size, they are humongous problems. Its successes have elevated everyone's income. But that's all relative. Still, the World Bank says, hundreds of millions of Chinese people — roughly the whole of the American population — live on $2-a-day or less, and some are restive. Levels of air, soil and water pollution are so high — the inevitable repercussion of China's dogged industrial revolution — that the cost of correcting them is incalculable. In some parts of the country, pollution lowers life spans by five years. Nationwide, there are as many as 1 million pollution-related deaths a year. Even the country's leaders complain that their eyes are burning, so China will face the music.

But still, China is feeling its oats. It was handed new trade opportunities on a silver platter when President Donald Trump perfunctorily pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It finds itself on the receiving end of pleas by the American president to constrain North Korea (which is not as simple as it might seem). And although it is at loggerheads with some Asian neighbors over its expanding presence in the South China Sea, that expansion has become a reality. The United States has long been the 800-pound gorilla there, guaranteeing the security of our allies (and the security of our global trade). China sees that as an impediment in its own sphere of influence. China, Daly says, wants a "zone of deference," if not dominance. Although historically a land power, not a sea power, it's getting what it wants.

And why should we pay attention to all this? Because when we look at our rivals for superpower status, too often we look in the wrong direction, toward Russia. Russia craves the title, but lacks the qualifications. Between a colossal economy, a nuclear-armed military, and ever-increasing influence on every continent, China's got them. As Robert Daly puts it, "Stop speaking of China's 'rise.' China has risen."

We want to preserve our position of preeminence on the Pacific Rim. But with China's own powerful position and its ability to pay for what it wants, plus all the diversions in Washington that muddy our focus, we haven't yet figured out how. Or decided if we're even willing to pay the price.

Greg Dobbs of Evergreen is an author, public speaker, and former foreign correspondent for ABC News.

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