China – The Fast Growing Super Power
April 25, 2010 by nannikapoor
Filed under foreign policy, geopolitics
The dragon is growing with a fast and furious speed ready to take on the status of a super power declared or assumed in the next few decades. It promises to quadruple its GDP in three to four decades and raise and maintain a military force capable of taking on the might of America.
According to China Daily’s Dashan, “China will achieve its goals of quadrupling its gross domestic product from 2000 to 2020 ahead of schedule…China enjoys far greater growth potential than other economies.” China’s economy at this point, is the fastest in growth, with such an economy yet to be fully realized, the U.S with the current economic recession and unavoidable increase of debts makes the U.S more dependent on China. This of course, further improves the standing of the current and potential Chinese economy. Economy is also driven by the population of its people as well, considering that China has over 1.3 billion people compared to America’s population of 308 million it is most likely that China will indeed become the next superpower.
Military is also important to the status of a country, it gives on the ability to defend itself or gain through force. China alone has the largest military in the world “of 1,600,000 personnel not including the reserve forces, militia, and armed police, which would make a total of 6 million in terms of only the ground forces” according to Sino Defence.
Although the largest may not be the best, China’s modernizations of itself has led to the current modernization of its army which resulted in reconnaissance, surface-to-air missiles, special-forces, helicopter and electronic warfare elements, all of which have all been expanded. The statistics are staggering, with China refitting the largest armed forces and expanding into new military technology such as that of advanced aircraft, tanks, and its current arsenal of nuclear weapons, China is most likely to be the next super-power in terms of military as well. In the meanwhile China is working overtime to create a blue water navy – this alone would signify China’s aspirations for becoming a super power.
The United States of America pales in comparison to China’s military size as it only has 1,336,000 military personnel, conventional means, and a sizeable arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Given time, China will develop and assert itself, soon to emerge as a superpower whether it is announced or disputed. Its economy is growing rapidly in a positive trend, its military is highly capable and might even surpass the American military, and of course the society along with its people that had its foundation built-in only decades’ time will reach their potential propelling China to the rank of superpower.
Very concise piece. Congrats.
It has been a well known fact for the past many yrs that China is indeed going to be next superpower. Probably they had it in their focus all the time and others never knew. The main thing is that their ‘Focus’ was always right.
Even if you see Olympic games, having virtually started their olympic journey in the modern times (not taking into acct 1930s – 1950s when China was probably a nobody at the international stage) the way they have moved up the medals tally just keeps everyone else astonished. This time again, their ‘Focus’ was correct.
I think we as a nation must learn from them and try ourselves to move into the correct direction by keeping our focus right. Let’s hope that day comes soon.
A very accurate assessment
While the fact remains that the People’s Republic of China is a burgeoning power;superpower status glorification is probably a self created Dragon ; a halo of the ‘Ming’ propoganda in terms of figures that are not subject to scrutiny. A case in point is the closing ceremony of the Olympics ; what was seen on TV and how much of it was the Stadium complement has come under the scanner time and again.
Besides, what’s a superpower that does not flex it’s muscles in the blue waters. Are we then headed for another cold war ? They seem to have got the basic idea right – the way to a Nations heart is throught he pocket. They are getting their economy righted, lest they face the fate that befell the Kremlin post Glasnost.
Without freedom of expression, robust economy is likely to be a Mirage in an Urban Desert . An edifice has to come up gradually like the US – built on centuries of gestation , tribulations of Civil War, withered in WWII and risen again like the Phoenix ; emergence through the Cold War without overt assertions. Adding to the list are application of power overseas such as NAm and Korea, at times a Grenada.
‘Superpower’ is not probably Statistics. Remember Mark Tully in “No full stops in India ” . If the entire Chinese population has to live a european lifestyle the world probably cannot produce that much of energy yet…
China is doing extremely well despite the rich poor internal contradiction. The pace of growth is largely due to an autocratic state run long term plan executed ruthlessly. There might be short term human rights violations but in the long run this model of governance will work to its advantage not withstanding the corruption.
You make some very good points but one thing that must be considered is that
although China is a rising world power its citizens are not free. Those who
are not free to choose their own government, place of residence, etc,
ultimately will fail at innovation. China has been very good at copying
things from the West but take away their corporate spies, converted military
factories, slave labor and host of other things including defiance of trade
regulations, lack of any environmental regulations, etc, and let’s see how
long they would remain a world power. I see a major revolution coming in
China in only a few years. After its over then perhaps they will take the
stage as a real world power, and not a war machine posing as a legitimate
business. It has been shown over and over again that giving people a taste
of prosperity without freedom is the surest recipe to revolution.
This is an interesting piece on the future of Sino US relations
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20629