China Closes in on the US

China is becoming the most powerful country in the Asia-Pacific region according to Asia Power Index.

Due to the United State’s shabby handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, China isbecoming the most powerful country in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index for 2020, America has been halved in its 10-point lead on China than two years ago.
Lowy’s Institute has ranked 26 nations and territories.
The Institute used 128 indicators to measure the index power which includes defence spending, economic relations, internal stability, the flow of the information and resources for future projects.
Due to the poor response to the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple trade disputes and the President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw from multilateral deals and agencies has led to loss of prestige to the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
As per the latest estimate, to recover from the pandemic, the US economy could take until 2024.
On the other hand, China’s economy has bounced back from the impact of the virus and is the only large economy to recover in 2020.
Despite seeing a fall, China stayed firmly atthe second place for the third year in a row in the Asia Power Index.
The contributions to that fall are due to China’s diplomatic clout which is facingaccusations relating to Covid-19 and its wolf warrior diplomacy.
The study says that China will eventually level with the United States and may surpass the US at the end of the decade.

Indialost economic growth potential due to the pandemic and is now the fourth most powerful nation after Japan in the Asia-Pacific region.
By 2030, Lowy projects that India will reach 40% of China’s economy when compared with 50% estimate in 2019.

According to the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, 347.4 million people in the Asia-Pacific region could fall below the $5.5 a day poverty line because of the pandemic.
Asia’s economy is considered to become larger than the rest of the world in 2020.
But now, it is facing a storm of public health, economic and strategic challenges.

Japan is ranked third and is reported as a smart power for using limited resources to wield broad influence in the region.
Japan gained most points in terms of its defence diplomacy which includes joint military exercises and procurement of arms.
The countries which ranked under top 10 are Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea.
According to the report, South Asian nations have been gripped with political turbulence.
This year Taiwan gained its power, along with Australia and Vietnam.
Taiwan improved its diplomatic influence score when a handful of allies cut official ties in 2019 as Beijing wanted to isolate the island on the world stage.
Australia climbed to 6^th rank by overtaking South Korea.
Cultural and diplomatic influence helped Australia score points. Its economic relationship score has also increased after Australia secured its 14^th free trade deal with Indonesia.
Russia and Malaysia positioned as the biggest loses in the index.
Russia performed best on resilience measures, diplomatic influence and military capability.