How close is China really to becoming a superpower?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by GePap
None in particular: evry time I see some report about conditions of peasants in the coutnry, i read, or hear, abou local authorities making them pay for education and healthcare: certainly they are no longer free in many areas.

Strange, because that's certainly the first time I hear this.

[Propaganda]

Originally posted by Ned
China will be a superpower 25 years after the pro-democracy revolution. I think that revoltion will happen within 10 years. So - 35 years.

If the revolution never comes, China's economy will never match that of the United States. When I was a kid, they projected the USSR to catch the US in time. It never happened. Not even close.

That's because the USSR had radically reformed itself. The old "Stalinist" institutions were destroyed and replaced with those in-kind with capitalism and the market; i.e. enterprises running for "profit," regional(and after Khruschev, local) planning, supply and demand, etc.

Coincidentaly, this is exactly the same route China took in the 70s, albeit they played it much smarter than Breznhev's USSR did. While the Kremlinists played the same tune(albeit, it became only rhetoric with "socialist dressing"), China moved closed to the West. In fact, both the USSR of the 60s, 70s and 80s and China of the 70s-(relatively)the present were very much alike, the only difference being that they took opposing sides(and that China allows/allowed foreign investment, but that's another story).

Let me just say that if China doesn't go for radical(but slow) reforms to move towards full-blown market capitalism(or back to the Stalin-like economy it had in the 50s), China will destroy itself by continuing to push it's own hypocritical policies just like the USSR did.

[ranskaldan]

Originally posted by Propaganda
Let me just say that if China doesn't go for radical(but slow) reforms to move towards full-blown market capitalism(or back to the Stalin-like economy it had in the 50s), China will destroy itself by continuing to push it's own hypocritical policies just like the USSR did.

China has already gone for radical reforms towards full-blown market capitalism.

(As for the Stalinist economy of the 50's, please, no.)

[Willem]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

I don't see why China wouldn't develop a middle class similar to Japan's.

It's well on it's way to doing so, at least in certain areas. And with so many people, it doesn't take much of a rise in standard of living in order to make a big impact on the overall economy.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Strange, because that's certainly the first time I hear this.

The repressive government you always advocate here doesn't tell you any bad news? That's silly, we all know that Beijing is totally honest and only George Bush and his handlers spread "propaganda."

[Sandman]

China is a relatively safe bet, if they continue their quiet but remarkable growth. I don't see the need for a blue-water navy in order to be a superpower, there are other ways to dominate the world.

[el freako]

Remember China's growth rates are inflated and not strictly comparable with the rest of the world.

Using PPP anaysis (that is checking current price GDP converted using PPPs in differing years with the reported growth rates between those years) I estimate that china's growth rates is overstated by 2.1% a year vis-a-vis the US (interestingly the EU, Japan's and India's growth rates are all understated vis-a-vis the US by 0.5%, 0.3% and 0.7% a year respectively).

That changes things a bit, here are the growth rates for 1998-2002, adjusted and (unajusted):

USA: 3.0% (3.0%)
EU15: 2.9% (2.4%)
China: 5.1% (7.4%)
Japan: 0.8% (0.5%)
India: 6.1% (5.4%)

I think that China's and the EU's GDP will continue to catch up with the US's untill the 2030's (when they will all be around the same size) - thereafter China output will stay static relative to the US (as the increases in relative productivity are mitigated by a falling working age population) and the EU will start to fall behind the US (as it will, by then, have no more prospective member states to add to make up for it's slower growth).
India will catch up continuously for the next 50 years and as such will be 20-30 years behind China (in terms of relative GDP vis-a-vis the US).
Japan will continue to decline relative to the US, so that by 2040 it's GDP relative to the US (20%) will be half the level it had 50 years previously.

As for military power that could (in today's world of historically low defence/GDP ratios) be much more rapidly changed - given a will to spend the nessecary resources and a reluctance by the US to match it both China and the EU could equal the US's military power within a decade.

[Odd]

Remember that technological breakthroughs can spark economic booms that do not affect the world equally. It´s very likely that will be plenty of them in 50 years. Military power is more of a burden than an instrument of domination these days, especially if the US chooses to act as a deterrent to any country looking forward to wreck havoc (as it has done so far), instead of wrecking havoc themselves. But having a big arsenal is always good as a guarantee that if your economy collapses you have something to sell to rogue states and terrorists for a change.

[Lord Merciless]

Military technology is the driving force of new technologies today. Radio Electronics, Internet, Jet Planes, Spaceflight, Nuclear Power, GPS, all had their roots in the military.

The next generation of new technologies, as the previous generation, will again be derived from military applications.

[Sandman]

Military technology is the driving force of new technologies today. Radio Electronics, Internet, Jet Planes, Spaceflight, Nuclear Power, GPS, all had their roots in the military.

I disagree. Where's the military in genetic engineering, maglevs, the automobile, the television, silicon chips and fusion research?

The fact is, if you follow the genesis of an technology, you may well find a period where it was pioneered by the military, but there is no reason to stop there and proclaim the military to be the source of technology.

[Alinestra Covelia]

It:s obvious that China will never be a true superpower until they win the World Cup. People may talk about weapons, economy, and technological advances, but when push comes to shove, if you don:t have at least one football victory to your name, the rest of the countries will laugh at you behind your back regardless of how loyal they appear.

God, I hate Japanese keyboards. Where:s the goddam apostrophe, eh?

[Kuciwalker]

rofl

[BeBMan]

In 50 years, there will be some million more VWs in China /evil capitalist

But seriously, the country has of course great potential, but that doesn´t mean it will become the biggest power automatically. Russia has potential too, but currently it seems wasted. It´ll be very interesting to watch China´s development (as well for example India´s), but I´m not convinced by political prophecy about the next superpower....

[The Andy-Man]

maybe you should all stop thinking that a US Style economy is needed to be a world power. China has done many capitalist-style reforms etc, but I am personaly very skeptical about how far this will go before there is some sort of left-wing backlash.

[The Andy-Man]

as for 'the future', in 100yrs everything will most likley be domnated by China and India, though weather capitalism (as such) is still the main ideology and form of economy seems very unlikley to me.