China the next superpower?

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My point wasn't about if it involved US politics (or German or whatever).

If there were arguments between political parties in many countries I would put that in AoLS.

But I feel that China's rise touches on/involves many issues beyond just politics.

 

@Rotku

If I were you I'd hope to lose that debt. If something bad happens in China the economic chaos that will follow will make the great depression seem as a small recession. The global impact would be huge.

 

It's certainly on its way although the USA remains the undisputed sole superpower for now. I do think we are moving towards a multi-polar world with many powers though. The US, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia will all be major players. The EU may be if it integrates more closely. The individual countries will be small fry if they don't though.

I don't see any great push from educated Chinese for democracy. For now they seem content to trade personal freedoms for improvements in their quality of life. (Doesn't somebody here have a sig from Jefferson about that?)

The main source of conflict in the future is likely to be over resources. China is grabbing a lot of areas of Africa where Western countries are reluctant to deal with bad regimes. And China's current stance towards rare minerals is disquieting in this regard. These are essential for many high tech goods and China has 75% of the world's resources and nearly all current production. They're now limiting exports to try and force companies to set up production in China rather than overseas.

 

Some problems China may face is environmental.

Not only may they have water shortages in parts of their nation but pollution may get so bad in others it has real impact on healthcare and through it the economy.

As well as potential political stress as people may not be demanding a vote right now but I think they would prefer to not to be poisoned.

Some of the pollution is international in nature.

Beyond their contribution to Global Warming (China has now surpassed the USA as the top CO2 emitter) China actually sometimes has dust storms that carry toxins over national borders.

Now that pollution in part relates to rising economic power-which can translate into political power. But at some point it doesn't help to irk people both at home and abroad.



Speaking of international/neighboring states there are a number of nations near China that may view its rise with some concern and actually seek out the USA as a counterbalance.