Shanghai – There have been many myths circulating about American power over the years.
American power talent was existential in some way, but myths were primarily constructed. These were the myths of America’s economic, technical and political power and security. However, in recent years, all four myths have been crushed all over the world. And there’s no reason why the US is not declining.
The first American economic power was crushed
The United States was the only economy of the world’s most important economy, both in quantity and quality. In 2001, the US, Japan and China’s GDP were 10.58 trillion, 4.37 trillion and 1.34 trillion, respectively, with the US GDP being 2.4 times Japan, the second and 7.9 times China’s GDP. The United States was then considered the world’s single most important power engine.
However, things have changed rapidly over the past 20 years. According to statistics, in 2024, US GDP, which is around $29.2 trillion, accounted for 30% of the world’s total, while China’s GDP was $185 trillion, with 63% of the US continuing to be the largest economy in the coming years, but the Chinese economy was contributing to 30% of the world’s economy despite the 12-15% of the US’s difficulties. China has been the largest trader for the eighth consecutive year and the largest trading partner of the largest number of partners.
For many years, the US has, together with European countries, monopolized the export of products with high value added, high technology content or high brand value. However, it has changed in recent years as countries discovered by the world, including China, accounted for a significant proportion of the global market in regions that require advanced technology such as communications facilities, solar panels, electric vehicles and many other advanced products.
Trump’s recent decision to launch mutual tariffs would further segregate the United States as an island of the world defined by globalization. And it is widely believed that such policies will not help revive the US industry. Instead, it accelerates the decline in the US economic impact. America’s contribution to the global economy will be further reduced, and its position as an economic force will weaken as expected.
In a nutshell, the global economic situation has been changing in an incredible way, with the truth that the US is losing its advantages in both quantity and quality. The United States is no longer the largest power engine of the world economy, and the myth of its economic power is declining.
The second was the myth of technical ability.
For many years, the United States has been considered the most important center of innovation. At the beginning of the new century, he led the world of innovation in almost every field, including telecommunications, internet hardware and software, energy, biotechnology, military technology.
However, since the first half of the decade, the US has gradually lost its advantages, including communications technology. China’s Huawei began its fifth generation technology research in 2009 and has been leading the industry since the second year of the new century. And it has discovered that the US will no longer be able to monopolize innovations in communications, solar panels, UAVs, electric vehicles and stealth aircraft.
A few years ago, Americans thought that as long as they controlled the causes of advanced chips, they could compete in AI technology and industry. But the early 2025 Deepsake story has proven that China already outperforms the US in some regions, even without advanced chipping, but China has made significant advances in chip technology.
The US may still enjoy some benefits in innovation, but its monopoly has been broken. This means that the world can survive without US technology and perhaps lead a better life.
The third was political power defined by Western political liberalism.
Francis Fukuyama argued that the endpoint of human ideology evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy was the last form of human government. Despite global challenges to debate, the Western model of political liberalism has been widely enriched worldwide for many years. However, history showed that none of these overlaps were successful. It was not successful, whether it was passive like Afghanistan or Iraq, or semi-active by the colour revolution.
Ironically, the past decade has witnessed very serious political turmoil in the United States as a result of so-called liberal democracy. The check-balance approach has evolved into a pure political instrument of negotiating the political interests of factions rather than ensuring a rational use of national resources. The same approach has resulted in the US government stagnation as a result of conflicts between political factions, and frequent government closures are only one example.
The US election was considered a symbol of Western political liberalism. But ironically, Trump’s 2020 election failure led to violence against Capitol Hill riots in place of freedom pursued by ordinary Americans. It was also clear that various elections were controlled by lobbyists who unfairly support certain foreign interests.
Intervention in humanitarian concerns has long been seen as another symbol of political liberalism. For many years, the United States has waving the flag of intervention in the name of protecting humanism. However, recent cases of the US position on the Palestinian issue fully demonstrate the hypocritical nature of the approach. The United States had provided political shelter and military aid for Israeli atrocities against the territory designated by Palestinians in UN General Assembly Resolution 181. All of this happened regardless of the humanitarian disasters of Palestine.
Put another way, so-called American political liberalism has made its domestic politics incredibly chaotic and exposed political hypocrisy to the world.
The fourth was American security protection.
There was a strong belief among some countries that the US could provide security umbrellas. In the Persian Gulf region, such beliefs were strengthened by a US-led military operation in the early 1990s that Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq. However, the country was awakened to the reality that between 2019 and 2020, the United States could not withstand security commitments.
Some Palestinians believed they could rely on the United States to protect their liberation and security. But the US’s highly biased approach only increased their despair.
The most typical example is the Ukraine incident. The US has sent a very strong signal of security in Ukraine under Biden’s presidency. It was mainly due to such signals that Ukraine rejected a political solution to the conflict in early 2022. Unfortunately, in 2025, during President Trump, the US took over the exact opposite page of the Ukraine issue, leaving Ukraine uncertainty and loss of direction.
The lessons from the Middle East are serious, but the lessons from Ukraine are bitter. The United States itself dismantles the myth of security, but fantasies can exist in other areas, such as the Asia-Pacific region of the United States.
In a nutshell, it may be true that America is a terrifyingly enormous force, and that various myths of that power have been formed. However, what is constructed can be equally decomposed. The myth of American power is largely through construction and is dismantled as time and history passes. And the Americans themselves, including Donald Trump, are actually part of such a global effort to dismantle. There is no reason why the US will not decline.
Dr. Jin Liangxiang is a senior fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies