Countering China's rise is 'like throwing toothpicks at a mountain' — Australian media-Xinhua

Beijing, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — China's „inevitable decline” repeatedly predicted by the Western media may never come, and countering China's rise is „like throwing a toothbrush at a mountain,” according to an article published on the website of Australian magazine Pearls and Irritations. .

In an article titled „China: Learning from Canute,” author John Queribel argues that Western media continue to claim that China's run is over and that collapse is just around the corner. „It has become static, like a broken gramophone record. But the 'inevitable collapse', however, never comes.”

According to the article, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses inflation-adjusted real GDP to predict US growth rates of 1.6 per cent (2023) and 1 per cent (2024) compared to Australian economies' growth rates of 1.8 per cent respectively. and 1.4 percent.

Using another measure, purchasing power parity, consulting firm PwC has similar findings, with China already accounting for 15 percent of global purchasing power parity, larger than the US's 18.9 percent, with growth rates of 5.2 percent (2023), 4.4 percent (2024) and 2.3 percent ( 2023), 1.5 percent (2024). Australia 1.8 percent (2023), 1.6 percent (2024).

The article also points out that in Australia, many people fear the rise of China and want to thwart it, due to Sinophobia fueled by politicians and the media. However, it would be ludicrous to think that Australia could do anything to stem that rise. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating quipped that Australia could do anything „like throw toothpicks at a mountain.”

Using another image used by Keating, the essay said that trying to stem the rise of China is like King Canute trying to stem a rising tide.■