In an interview with CNBC last week, billionaire and veteran American investor Ray Dalio said: "I think we are at risk of war with China, largely because of misunderstanding."

Billionaire and veteran American investor Ray Dalio predicted the 2008 global financial crisis and successfully predicted long-term financial pressures on the U.S. economy due to the pandemic.

Dalio pointed out that his predictions were not facts and that he had been mistaken at times, but said that future disasters were inevitable, according to historical patterns over the past 500 years.

In other words, if the upcoming conflict between the United States and China did not hurt the economy, something else would happen.

The following is why he thinks the disaster is looming.

In his new book "Principles for Dealing with a Changing World Order," Dalio stated that U.S. attempts to "popularize" China and its culture could ultimately be counterproductive, leading to conflict.

According to him, this could fuel a trade war between the two countries, which the Trump administration began in 2018, forcing U.S. companies to cut wages, reduce profit margins and raise consumer prices.

Dalio's comments about China have recently sparked controversy, after he said that China's human rights policies resembled that of a "strict father," but then explained that he was echoing what a Chinese leader had told him about how they thought.

He wrote: "What I think and what I do is of little importance compared to the rapidly increasing risks of the United States war with China. I hope that deep attention will be paid to this issue, that mutual understandings will increase and that there will be fewer tendencies to fight. "