Most of us realize that network effects are generally very powerful. The English language is probably one of the single most entrenched network effects in the world. Americans know it, Europeans know it, the entire former British empire knows it, and anyone on their way up--China and Japan included--has to learn it to make their way up.

How is the rest of the world going to learn Chinese? I don't expect them to be as enthusiastic about imperialism as the British were, and even if they were, it would take a century for it to matter.