I have no doubt that China will grow as an economic power. Personally, I'm not especially worried about it. As China gets wealthier, the "wage arbitrage" involved in moving over there will shrink, so I disagree with the writer that Americans in "place-based" activities will be better off. You may be better off in a position to sell stuff to newly wealthy Chinese and Indian consumers. I also suspect that prosperity and liberalism (meaning democracy and free markets, not handouts) will go hand in hand - so far, they usually have.
As for learning Mandarin? Hey, go for it, but I doubt it'll be crucial. English is very entrenched at this point, and it's not really about the USA anymore. English became entrenched because of the British Empire/US ascendency, but now it's just a convenient standard for the 21st century. I've read that several European companies are so diverse that it's easier to just use English than German, French, Swedish, regardless of location. Scientific conferences in Asia use English even when the audience doesn't contain a single American, Brit, or Australian.
Nobody does this out of some deep respect for English - they do it because it's convenient. Everyone educated these days becomes literate in their own native language + English, and preferably some other language as well.
As for learning Mandarin? Hey, go for it, but I doubt it'll be crucial. English is very entrenched at this point, and it's not really about the USA anymore. English became entrenched because of the British Empire/US ascendency, but now it's just a convenient standard for the 21st century. I've read that several European companies are so diverse that it's easier to just use English than German, French, Swedish, regardless of location. Scientific conferences in Asia use English even when the audience doesn't contain a single American, Brit, or Australian.
Nobody does this out of some deep respect for English - they do it because it's convenient. Everyone educated these days becomes literate in their own native language + English, and preferably some other language as well.