Part 2/7:
Ferguson begins by noting that China has already caught up to the United States economically, surpassing America's GDP on a purchasing power parity basis in 2014. This is a far cry from the Soviet Union, which at its peak was only 44% the size of the U.S. economy. Technologically, China also poses a more formidable challenge, with capabilities in areas like artificial intelligence and quantum computing that the Soviets could never have matched.
Moreover, the social and economic interpenetration between China and the U.S. is far deeper than during the first Cold War. China has many more citizens in America and can gather intelligence through electronic means that were unavailable to the Soviets. This makes the current rivalry much more perilous.