Just a question as there live more people in China than North-America and Europe put together. China also have a ecomomics that increases every year. Military Technology have also increased.
China is far from USA and Europe conserning Economics and technology, but for how long.
China also have ambitions to be a superpower, if not for the whole world, so definitely for Asia.
I don’t think this would happend this decade, but maybe the next.
Is it just a question of time before China becomes the new superpower in the world ?
What consequences will this have for USA, Europe and the rest of the world ?
The good side: they’ve had a “one child per family” limit for years! Imagine if they hadn’t had that policy!
The bad side: We gave up the Panama Canal. I understand Panama has now given China rights to control the canal. That puts China right at our doorstep and in close proximity to the other communist country, Cuba. Grrrrrr, was this a smart move?
Smart? You mean, was it smart not to keep land that we had on a lease that had run out? Was it smart not to break a deal that we had made? I dunno, if you got evicted would it be smart to squat on your landlord’s property? What if you could beat up your landlord, though?
–John
'Twis brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe.
Mimsy were the borogroves,
And the momeraths outgrabe.
The issue of China as a superpower is an interesting one-it is indeed a huge country, but relatively poor and weak. It has no bluewater Navy, and its army though huge, is primatively equipped. Also, don’t forget that its prosperity depends on the willingness of traitors (like Bill Clinton) to allow China to dump its exports into western markets. Could the Chines campaign contributions have something to do with this? One wonders!
Panama has not “given China rights to control the canal.” Panama has sold a concession to operate two ports, one on each side of the Canal, to Hutchison Whampoa , a Hong Kong-based conglomerate which has, among other things, a large investment in the U.S. GSM telecom industry.
Most ships that pass through the Canal do not load or unload at either port. There is no way to close the Canal from either port. If for some reason China tried to exert unreasonable influence on Huchison, Panama would kick them out in about 2 seconds.
This General Questions moment has been brought to you by J.B. Hunt Transportation Services, Inc. “Canal? Feh. Just unload in L.A. and give it to us.”
china is haaaauge, but when it comes down to brute force and/or technological ability, i don’t think we have too much to worry about. the question right now is, what are we going to do if and when china steps up agianst taiwan? step in and come out heroes as usual, or hang back and let taiwan take care of itself?
“I’ve been expecting you,” said Marx,“What took you so long?”
I doubt that a communist country could ever really become a world power. The way that America overcame the USSR was literally by outspending the USSR on nuclear research/weapons because we could. Remember who won the Cold War? China is becoming more free, but I doubt that China will ever truly be free without a major political revolution, at least a change in government if not their governmental system. If you ever have a question about the effectiveness of central/individual planning look at Hong Kong versus China. Hong Kong has government and red-tape so thin that you can launch a corporation with a singular piece of paper and look how wealthy they are compared to mainland China. I wonder how well China will be able to ignore it’s mission statement to throw governemnt into everything and declare the Hong Kong has exploited China and decide to “redistribute” Hong Kong’s wealth.
You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
You’d be surprised, tracer. The '98 Asian crisis took China’s GDP growth from tenish to fourish (estimates are tough to rely on, since China lies a lot). And that crisis was under six months in duration. A decent '91-style recession that includes the “tiger” countries could even take China’s basket-case economy to negative GDP growth territory.
And boyohboy if that happens. You think there was financial market turmoil there when Malaysia devalued…
Imagine if they hadn’t had that policy!