> The Beatles sang with American accents. Programming languages worldwide are in English. Soft power, culture and language, in particular, is an often overlook

> The Beatles sang with American accents. Programming languages worldwide are in English. Soft power, culture and language, in particular, is an often overlooked aspect when it comes to dominance. Soon, Mandarin might become the world's most spoken language by number of speakers (it already is if you only count native speakers). Still, in a global context it's mostly irrelevant because it's the official language in only five countries (if I counted correctly). Contrast that with English, which not only is either the official or the dominant language in 50+ countries, but also - and more importantly - is a truly global language in that it is spoken at least to some extent in pretty much every country in the world. That kind of influence can hardly be overestimated. More broadly speaking, in terms of culture in general rather than language specifically, Japan at least used to be more of a superpower than China because from Japanese martial arts (which, of course, for the most part have been derived from Chinese origins; they're mostly perceived as being quintessentially Japanese, though) to manga, Japanese cultural exports are ubiquitous. China seems to be catching up - or at least trying to do so - in that regard (e.g., through movies).