To me, it seems that history is repeating itself. Almost exactly a century ago, as Britain found herself embroiled in a seemingly never ending war it was clear that The US had replaced her as the worlds dominant power. A hundred years on and I personally believe that China, not The US is the number one world power today. This is a new kind of superpower, not one that relies on warships and air bases but on investment and trade. Asia switched sides some years ago and Africa/Europe are in the process of starting to look east rather than west. As the new silk road stretches ever further and not just in terms of deals struck and ideals agreed but in actual roads and train lines, one can see China's dominance growing almost by the month. Panama, in America's own back yard is the latest country to embrace the yuan.

China and Japan are engaged in a fight to the death over who can build the world's fastest train, a fight that China will eventually win but not until the trains are traveling almost as fast as planes. I predict that within 30/40 years people in Paris and London will have genuine decisions to make about whether to fly to China/Thailand/Vietnam etc or take the train such will be the small difference in time and cost not to mention comfort.

In food production, China will again (out of pure necessity) lead the way. A story on the BBC yesterday said they are looking to start farming on the moon, it sounds absurd but if any one can do it it's going to be China as well as farming vegetables in the sea and not just seaweed but carrots and cabbages.

An irony is ever there was one is that although China burns more fossil fuels than anyone else it will be the Chinese who come up with inexpensive methods of sustainable energy sources. Even today, most homes have a solar panel on the roof and while at the moment they're big and unwieldy in time they will be the size of an ironing board.

The 19th century was Britain's, the 20th century was America's and the 21st is China's.