Putting America first plays well to a US audience, but China may supersede the US through its own land and sea based economic trade routes development. Late in 2013 China announced the "Belt and Road Initiative" or One Belt, One Road (OBOR) providing the alternative to in Asia to the US-led initiatives: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The "Belt and Road Initiative" connects the People's Republic of China and 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. The initiative utilizes resources of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which has as founding members that the US counts as economic allies such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Australia, France and South Korea.
The OBOR initiative contains two components: "Silk Road Economic Belt" (SREB) forms the land portion and "Maritime Silk Road" (MSR) comprises the maritime portion.
The Silk Road Economic Belt initially consisted of three belts. The northern belt connecting China with Europe through Central Asia and Russia. The Southern belt included Southern Asia and the Indian Ocean. However, China intends to combine the three an integrated belt passing through geographically central Kazakhstan.
Maritime Silk Road connects China with Southeast Asia, Oceania, and North Africa through the South China Sea, the South Pacific Ocean, and the wider Indian Ocean area.
The lesson for the United States shows the danger of national arrogance comes from the 1800's when Queen of England sent ships to China loaded with a train locomotive, rails cars, and enough track to connect the coastal port city of Tianjin with the capital city Beijing about 100 miles inland. The Qing emperor rebuffed the Queen, he stated that they were "clever but useless" and since China was the center of the Universe, then anything not invented in China was of no value. It would be about 30 years before China would allow a railroad to be built and remain in China.
Major American news organizations cover the TPP, however they treat the OBOR with significance. America currently sits as first economically in the world, but that can change if the US gives in to blind American exceptionalism and does not continue to cooperate with the rest of the world's countries as they cooperate and develop apart from the US.
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