The Hill News

Some American observers are billing Hu Jintao's visit to Washington as the most important state visit in three decades â€" and not without good reason.

His trip comes at a time when there is a widespread belief â€" in both Washington and Beijing â€" that the U.S. is in decline. According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, 47 percent of Americans believe that China is the world's leading economic power, compared to 31 percent who believe that America is. Although America's GDP is currently over twice as large as China's, it seems likely that China's economy will become the world's largest within the next two decades, if not sooner (The Economist has even introduced an interactive graphic that allows readers "to predict when China will overtake America" by inputting different growth rates for each country going forward).

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