Superpowering China
China is without any shadow of a doubt, a world power. It has no need to prove itself by military exertions; it does so effortlessly through the strength of its powerful export superpower status, eclipsing all other countries through its world-wide web of exports. A member of the G20, it has catapulted that group into prominent status through its very inclusion, while the G8, still the 'elite', must take full stock of China's potential and current status.Although Japan remains the world's second-largest economy after the United States, China is breathing hot and heavy behind Japan; it has unquestionably attained superpower status. It is the world's largest exporter, and it continues to gather steam to proceed to bigger and better export status, given its human resources, determination and side-stepping of inconvenient nuisances, like the valuation of its undervalued currency.
"There is a new paradigm for how you define what is a superpower. Superpower has nothing to do with per capita income, it's about how much influence you have on the global stage. China is a superpower, and if it wants to project its influence it can do that through bilateral and multilateral trade.
"They don't have to send missiles everywhere and they don't have to have Chinese bases all over the world, in essentially enemy territory, in the same way as the United States has done", according to the founder and managing director of China Market Research Group located in Shanghai. The global recession has only consolidated its strength.
China has cornered the market on essential chemicals and metals. It has launched a remarkable and some might hazard, alarming network of investment in energy markets around the world. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, with $776.4-billion since last June; a 41% increase from the year before. The U.S. is dependent on China to finance its budget deficit, set to hit $1.6-trillion this year, reflecting last year's deficit.
The most powerful nation in the world, with the world's largest GDP, is heavily indebted to the world's ascending national power. How ironic is that? But China denies its status, claiming its GDP still lags behind that of 100 other countries of the developed world. "We have a large population, a weak economic foundation, relatively fewer resources and many poor people. These are still the basic national conditions of China."
For how much longer? Two decades? PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts China will replace the United States as the world's largest economy by 2020. And right now, as it happens, China holds another balance of power, veto power in the United Nations with its permanent seat on the Security Council.
Labels: China, Economy, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 15, 2010
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