The economic prowess of China will be the most significant development in the next half-century. However, culturally and linguistically I doubt that China will be able to exert the same degree of influence. It is possible to learn to communicate orally on a very basic level in Chinese relatively easily, but progress beyond this elementary level is very difficult for most ethnic/linguistic groups and particularly for Westerners. Learning to read and write Chinese sufficiently for business and cultural purposes takes at least twice as long as most European languages.
My guess is that English will continue to be the preferred language for international communications.
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