For a little over a hundred years, the United States and its dearest friends across the pond have been the global beacons of light, acting as the final say on international issues. Keeping our fingers on the pulse of global economics, trade, treaties, international memberships, and power struggles in third-world nations, the United States has mostly tipped the scales one way or another on every issue.

However, that may be coming to an end. The quiet, patient dragon in the East has been waiting to pounce on the global stage and replace the West as the driver of global leadership.

Has the day arrived that China will take its place as a serious global superpower? Is the United States no longer the ‘big man’ on campus?

Recent events have surely shown the balance of world power has shifted East.