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On one hand they do indeed have a huge population of very poor working class that live in conditions few in this country do, on the other hand they are a nuclear armed country that has put people in space and has a global economic and political presence that far outweighs countries like Mexico.
They've got a lot of problems on the horizon that come with rapid growth, it'll be interesting to see how they handle it.
Until you provide me with a generally agreed-upon definitiion of a superpower, I'll put whomever I please into that category.
I'll define it as a country that has significant productive capacity and the knowhow to use it, and steadily rising performance. That pretty well includes China. We called the USSR a superpower when they had less productive capacity than China has now. Most people, in both the USA and China, regard other features in their daily lives as being of more importance than a flush toilet, which in any case seems to be an odd criterion for evaluating the power of a nation.
There was a time when America was considered a 3rd world country relative to the rest of the world and it was not that long ago. Everything changes as we move through history.
The title of Superpower has always and will always change hands as long as humans remain.....human, and countries continue to fail to find the seeds of their demise hidden within their success.
Its all in growth and the wealth being accumlated really. They are fast becomeing the consumer market of the future with demand and wealth to do it. Its like looking at america just as it came out of WWI. Already they are the largest enrgy consumer now and the largest market for auto sales.It always wise to rememeber that they and india have 1/4 the world's population.
Most people, in both the USA and China, regard other features in their daily lives as being of more importance than a flush toilet, which in any case seems to be an odd criterion for evaluating the power of a nation.
I would tend to rate that as "How Full of Crap is a Country?"
In that Full of Crap category . . . would probably have to say: "USA #1!"
Most people that visit China from other large industrialized countries are awed by the scope of projects that are going on there. Projects like building the largest high speed rail network on the planet using 20,000 or more engineers and around half a million workers. Countless other huge public and private infrastructure projects - something that reminds me of the sort of thing that was once common here in the US but has become pretty rare in recent years.
Is China an economic and military superpower? IMO, yes, even though there are large social inequalities and a large percentage of the population that is struggling to earn a decent living.
1. Embracing Capitalism (China is moving fast towards Capitalism, while the United States is moving fast towards Socialism. I'm not saying Socialism is a bad thing, it may even improve the lives of some Americans. However, we will end up being like any other country in the EU and not the global superpower.)
2. Middle-Class (China's middle class in American standards is ALMOST the entire population of the United States (300 million) and that number is growing fast. Combine this point with the first and you might think about doing business in China. Companies such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn took a gamble and opened a few multi-billion dollar resorts and casinos and have done very well. In fact, they both make more money in China than from their properties in the United States. Google was making huge profits in China and that number was increasing fast until they decided to take a moral stand again China's censorship policies. China's middle class is predicted to surpass the population of the United States soon, that is a lot of potential customers. My point, it doesn't matter if they have a lower per capita income than Mexico because they have over a billion people with a bigger, more concentrated and better educated middle-class than in the United States.)
3. Money (China does not owe trillions in debt, unlike the United States)
There are many more reasons I can list, but these three, especially the combination of the first two are reasons to believe China will EVENTUALLY become the next superpower. I'm not saying it will happen next year or even in 10 years, but eventually it will happen if the United States continues its current path. You can't make corporations the enemies and want to be the leader in the global marketplace...when you think about it, even a 10 year old can understand that. Our country won't turn into dirt, it will turn into Spain or France, which once again I'm not saying is a bad thing, but we won't be the global leader anymore.
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