Unlike teh USA!!!
But your bullet point list leaves out a few things:
-Its much MUCH easier to play economic catch-up by serving as a manufacturing base and a location to outsource work to than it is to develop new technologies and products.
-Much of the developed world is ansy about China’s nuclear capabilities because of how they got it (spying on us) and how they antagonize democracies like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India.
-They are years behind on conventional military tech because most western countries have had arms embargos in China since they went nuclear.
-The UNSC is generally so deadlocked because of the 5 vetos that little gets done with or without them (for example how they responded, or failed to, in Bosnia, Darfur).
-If the Dollar goes into free fall China will be hit as hard if not harder than we are since dollars are such a large portion of their national savings, and they rely on a favorable currency exchange to support the 40% of their exports that come to us.
Are they strong? Yes. Are they getting stronger? Yes. Can they hurt us economically or internationally? Yes. Are they a serious contender for First Superpower? Not even close.
Hmm, don’t know if I agree with that. For 50 years (or so) the word “superpower” has just meant a nation with a very large military, strategic nukes, a globally influential economy, and some allies. What of those does China not have?
I think this depends upon which measure of GDP one uses. If you calculate GDP via exchange rates then the result is ( I think ) your number of 1,500 and China ranks as ( IIRC ) the 9th biggest economy in the world.
If you use PPP then china has a per capita income of 5,600 and is the 3rd biggest economy in the world.
It has all of them. All I’m saying is that we have more, and that the gap is still more significant than most realize.
We are now the world’s first “Super Banana Republic”!
China has tubgirl and that says a lot right there.
But your bullet point list leaves out a few things:
-Its much MUCH easier to play economic catch-up by serving as a manufacturing base and a location to outsource work to than it is to develop new technologies and products.[/quote]
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
-Much of the developed world is ansy about China’s nuclear capabilities because of how they got it (spying on us) and how they antagonize democracies like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India.
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
-They are years behind on conventional military tech because most western countries have had arms embargos in China since they went nuclear.
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
-The UNSC is generally so deadlocked because of the 5 vetos that little gets done with or without them (for example how they responded, or failed to, in Bosnia, Darfur).
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
-If the Dollar goes into free fall China will be hit as hard if not harder than we are since dollars are such a large portion of their national savings, and they rely on a favorable currency exchange to support the 40% of their exports that come to us.
See:
If the dollar goes into free fall it would clearly hurt the US far more than it would hurt China. Boohoo the central bank of China would lose 700 Billion ( IIRC ) dollars. The US OTOH would be hard pressed to continue paying it’s national debt, further the US is considered a save haven for forign capital which is looking for ‘quality’ and if the US dollar collpased this perception would no longer hold. Additionally if the US dollar collapsed it is likely that oil would no longer be denominated in USD.
Anyway if the US dollar were to fall quickly it could spiral down very quickly due to the above factors and others. Luckily the economic powers of the world do not want to see this happen and have been helping the US for some time. But make no mistake if it did happen it would be very bad for the US and ( more than likely ) far less worse for China.
I would guess the big fear by many nations is if the US currency were to fall very rapidly and the US economy were to follow suit then would the US go quietly into the night like the USSR or would it attempt to somehow leverage it’s military might for economic gain?
But your bullet point list leaves out a few things:
-Its much MUCH easier to play economic catch-up by serving as a manufacturing base and a location to outsource work to than it is to develop new technologies and products.[/quote]
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
[/quote]
Everything.
[quote]-Much of the developed world is ansy about China’s nuclear capabilities because of how they got it (spying on us) and how they antagonize democracies like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India.
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
[/quote]
Everything.
[quote]-They are years behind on conventional military tech because most western countries have had arms embargos in China since they went nuclear.
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
[/quote]
Everything.
[quote]-The UNSC is generally so deadlocked because of the 5 vetos that little gets done with or without them (for example how they responded, or failed to, in Bosnia, Darfur).
What does this have to do with how powerful China is overall?
[/quote]
Everything.
Note that that was a PARODY. All of those points I listed show, to my mind, limits to Chinas strengths pointed out in your posts - please note that I AGREE that china is strong and getting stronger. All I’m trying to say is that China still isn’t as strong as some of you are making it seem. If you disagree by all means explain away, but responding with cut-and-pastes of the same sentence is very rude.
[quote]-If the Dollar goes into free fall China will be hit as hard if not harder than we are since dollars are such a large portion of their national savings, and they rely on a favorable currency exchange to support the 40% of their exports that come to us.
See:
[/quote]
So long as we buy 40%+ of their exports they don’t have us by the balls, they have themselves by the balls - they let the dollar drop and they screw themselves very thoroughly by either keeping the yuan pegged and making imports from non-us countries insanely expensive (Japan and germany are major trading partners for mechanical goods for example), or they lose nearly 40% of the exports that drive their economy by decoupling the yuan. And as long as the US is THE seller of major technologies abroad, the dollar willm still be the international trade currency and the US economy will be at least partially stabailzed.
There is a difference between a declaration of opinion and an intellegent argument. These are clearly the former. I don’t know about you but I generally consider it polite to respond to arguments and points with other arguments and points and not knee-jerk reactions and one-liners.
It has all of them. All I’m saying is that we have more, and that the gap is still more significant than most realize.[/quote]
Sure, but that doesn’t mean there are no other superpowers. Hey in hindsight it turns out we had a whole fuckload more than the USSR, especially in economic power and allies, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t a superpower as well.
It has all of them. All I’m saying is that we have more, and that the gap is still more significant than most realize.[/quote]
Sure, but that doesn’t mean there are no other superpowers. Hey in hindsight it turns out we had a whole fuckload more than the USSR, especially in economic power and allies, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t a superpower as well.[/quote]
I agree, but that hasn’t been the gist of the thread so far. The title is “Is the US still a superpower” which it obviously is, and the gist so far has been that China is a close second/soon to be first. I think China IS second, but that they won’t be No. 1 any time soon.