Footnote to the post titled “Change the Sun”

It is worth noting that class leads to the division of labor, and in turn, the division of labor is determined by production. When production changes, so does the division of labor, and when the division of labor changes, the class disparities end up closing through greater class antagonisms. These class antagonisms between China and the United States were overcome initially as a result of American rapprochement towards China beginning in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. But it is also worth noting that at that time, today’s multipolar system had only just begun. The rapprochement in 1972 marked the start of today’s multipolar system. As a result, Mao saw a greater incentive in rapprochement than in conflict given that it was only the beginning of today’s multipolar system. Since then, the system has only gotten more multipolar, and as some social scientists have argued, the likelihood of war between a rising power and a declining power in the system increases as the system becomes more and more multipolar. Historians have estimated that there is about a 75 to 80 percent chance that a rising power will eventually go to war with a declining power. It follows that there is a 75 to 80 percent chance of war between China and the United States sometime in the future.