At a fundamental level, China's economic ascendency is, for some, shaking our firmly held belief that the liberal trinity – democracy, the rule of law, and the market economy – is not just more humane, but also more successful, economically, than any other system. Clemens Fuest has spoken of a "third competition among systems"12 emerging between the Western democracies and China’s authoritarian state capitalism.
In the meantime, the breath-taking pace with which China has made up ground has slowed down significantly. Economic growth there has halved from 14% in 2007 to just under 7% last year. One major reason for this is that the export-oriented growth model has reached its limits. On the demand side, the absorptive capacity of the global market is acting as a constraint.