All other things being equal, a country's GDP is probably a good 1st order estimate of its influence in the world. Over the past several decades China's GDP has

All other things being equal, a country's GDP is probably a good 1st order estimate of its influence in the world. Over the past several decades China's GDP has been increasing at a faster rate than the US so your feeling is probably correct. Relatively speaking China's influence has been rising and the US's has been falling. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. It mostly means that in terms of GDP per capita China has been catching up which means many millions being lifted out of poverty.