China’s one-child policy will allow India to be dominant in Asia: Howard

SYDNEY - Former prime minister John Howard has predicted China’s one-child policy and its political philosophy will allow India to supersede it as the dominant nation in Asia before the end of the 21st century.

Howard also said China would never overtake the US as the world’s military or financial superpower.

“I think China is a rising power but I do not share the view China will ever outstrip the United States as an economic power or military power,” he said at a Sydney Morning Herald/Dymocks literary lunch to promote his autobiography, Lazarus Rising.

“I think one of the problems China [has] is eventually she will have to decide whether she can maintain a position where the country is economically liberal and open and, politically, still closed and controlled.

“I think at the end there’ll be an unravelling and they’ll have to make … quite a hard decision.The other problem China has is she will grow old before she grows rich, she’s got a terrible demographic problem because of the one-child policy. [China] is a rapidly ageing country, whereas a country like India is a younger country and I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the century India is a more powerful country,” Howard said. (ANI)