China world power or not?

[rory_20_uk]

If they decided to mess with the Chinese, there would not be arm wringing, nor concerns about diplomacy, merely a crushing fist coming down both sides of the border.

Casualties in the thousands would be acceptable for both the Military, the Insurgents and the Locals as far as the Chinese government is concerned. If razing a zone 2 miles deep, using a minefield and shelling anything that moves in the zone, I imagine it would slowly and deliberately be constructed.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Is China a world power?

Let me answer that by pointing to Africa. In the last decade, China has moved more people and capital into Africa than France did in a century of colonisation. The French, British, Portuguese and Arab spheres of influences have been completely overrun, at a pace that's simply astonishing.



I have never understood this 'China will collapse because of ethnic tension' argument. The first thing that strikes me about China, is that it is such a homogenous country. It's not a country, but a continent, and yet, 80% is etnically, linguistically and religously pretty much homogenous. They don't even share a whole lot of surnames between them. 200 million 'Lee's' alone. Amazing. Try that in India, Europe or Africa.
Several large, yet sparsely populated Western provinces are different, that's all.

China is not a world power. China is the world, and it's surrounded by a ring of tiny and short-lived civilisations like the Americas, Europeans, Mongols, Moghuls, Indians, Franks, Romans, Japanese, Koreans.

[Fragony]

Nah, China has no internal market it's an export nation, the country will not be able to keep up with it's economy.

[KukriKhan]

China is not a world power. China is the world, and it's surrounded by a ring of tiny and short-lived civilisations like the Americas, Europeans, Mongols, Moghuls, Indians, Franks, Romans, Japanese, Koreans.

LOL. It must certainly seem so from Peking; buncha johnny-come-lately's.

For me: anybody who has nukes is a world power. Pop one off, and the rest of the world instantly pays close attention, and everything we thought we knew, changes; economy, military, politics... everything.

So, yeah: China = world power.

[wasabi]

LOL. It must certainly seem so from Peking; buncha johnny-come-lately's.

For me: anybody who has nukes is a world power. Pop one off, and the rest of the world instantly pays close attention, and everything we thought we knew, changes; economy, military, politics... everything.

So, yeah: China = world power.

Agree, +1

A tiny island east of China, Taiwan, has the similar population as Australia. I was born in Taiwan and grow up in Australia. Most people in Taiwan, consider the world as = China or = USA.

China has much more problems that it needs to clean up before it can become a super power.

Issues such as poverty, minority groups, product&food quality controls...these are some problems that has long been in China, but never been truly looked at.

To be honest, a super-power can be use in any country or anyone depends what perception you have on the word 'super-power'. I consider my son have the super power of annoying me the whole day....

On the other hand, I do not think a country that produced milk product that killed infants should be so great.

[Kralizec]

A tiny island east of China, Taiwan, has the similar population as Australia. I was born in Taiwan and grow up in Australia. Most people in Taiwan, consider the world as = China or = USA.

Until a large number of Han Chinese get uppity and start to undermine the party's authority, it doesn't really affect their claim to being a superpower though.

To me, a superpower is a country with power that no other can exceed. The USSR and the USA were reasonably matched most of the time, but right now the USA is the uncontested (and therefore only) superpower IMHO.

[Upxl]

If they decided to mess with the Chinese, there would not be arm wringing, nor concerns about diplomacy, merely a crushing fist coming down both sides of the border.

Casualties in the thousands would be acceptable for both the Military, the Insurgents and the Locals as far as the Chinese government is concerned. If razing a zone 2 miles deep, using a minefield and shelling anything that moves in the zone, I imagine it would slowly and deliberately be constructed.

That’s one thing what worries me about China.
And from what I’ve seen they’re really building up their military.

A recent national law states that all high schools must teach their students martial arts.
And last thing I heard was that students aren’t admitted to any higher education if they’re not in a good physical state.

To me china is expansionistic and very secretive, just looking at Africa or Tibet.
Camera crew’s and reporters aren’t allowed so no one really knows what the heck they are up to.

[TevashSzat]

That’s one thing what worries me about China.
And from what I’ve seen they’re really building up their military.

Well, basically every country is building up their military. IIRC, the only US government department that increases in budget every year is the defense department. The main reason for most of China's military budget increase is the need to get a half decent navy since for a superpower, we have a really really really horrendous Navy for anything even kind of far

A recent national law states that all high schools must teach their students martial arts.
And last thing I heard was that students aren’t admitted to any higher education if they’re not in a good physical state.

I highly doubt it. This is more like how it goes in China:

You are smart and parents are middle class: You go to college
You are dumb/fat/mentally handicapped/whatever and parents are rich: You go to college
Your parents are dirt poor: Umm.....you have almost no chance of going to college

[Koga No Goshi]

I highly doubt it. This is more like how it goes in China:

You are smart and parents are middle class: You go to college
You are dumb/fat/mentally handicapped/whatever and parents are rich: You go to college
Your parents are dirt poor: Umm.....you have almost no chance of going to college

This ain't restricted to China.

[TevashSzat]

This ain't restricted to China.

I know it isn't but you don't know how bad it is in China.

You can literally almost do ANYTHING you want in China as long as you're rich. There is so much corruption/bribery that its not even funny. While there are legacies in the US colleges, at least they try to keep a semi decent facade that admissions are equal while in China.......

Also, in the US, if you're poor, but really smart, you can generally go to a good college. If you're poor and mediocre, not as great a chance, but a genius from a poor family can generally get access to good higher level education

Edit: @below post

Well, yeah that does seem to happen, but you never understand how bad corruption is in China unless you've lived there/have close kin or friends from there.

Just as an example: IIRC, no mainland Chinese individual is on the top 100 richest people in the world, all of the "Chinese" ones are from Hong Kong which is still kinda in a limbo state there (not independent and not like all other Chinese provinces) Thats because there are so many so incredibly filthy rich people in China that simply got their money illegally by scamming people, stealing from the government or something. You literally only go up in government by bribing the person above you.

Anecdote: My dad has some friends who are essentially part of the province level government. Basically, every new year they all get bribed by their underlings and then they bribe whoever they report too. Rinse and repeat. The sums that changes hands are so incredibly large too, like million of USD

[Koga No Goshi]

Well I'm sitting on a 10 trillion dollar debt in my country and people who are making it bigger everyday to line the pockets of military industries and private contractors so... I mean, I know what you're saying. But it's hard to feel like "my my we're so upstanding and upright and china, so degenerate and corrupt.."

[Meneldil]

Had a discussion about that in my International Relation class a few days ago.

My opinion is that China definately has the potential to be a world power, and to rival Russia, the EU or even the US.

But then, I think China by no means wants to act as a world police, like the US are actually doing. They just get in, deal with the worst dictators ever, get their oil, while selling their crap to peace-loving democracies, and that's about it.

[shlin28]

That’s one thing what worries me about China.
And from what I’ve seen they’re really building up their military.

Er... the army is actually decreasing in size, the only thing th PLA is doing is upgrading its army to a modern force on par with say... France? (Ignoring actual number of troops here) Surely any country, if they have enough money to do so, should be able to maintain a high-tech military force for defending the country? We don't want to use such old fashioned tactics like human waves do we? So messy...

A recent national law states that all high schools must teach their students martial arts.

Nonsense. There are military trainings for schoolchildren (even primary school children... I did it when I was in China, all I remember is that it was a half day off school) but at most its like one week of military training every year, doing stuff like marching, keep fit etc. (according to my cousins anyway). So all in all its not all that worse compared to the Combined Cadet Force in Britain for example.

And last thing I heard was that students aren’t admitted to any higher education if they’re not in a good physical state.

See Tevash's post, if you got cash, you can get into any university. (You use cash to buy "extra" exam points to get into a good school for example) Basing it on fitness would be stupid since half of all young people in China suck at sports. (Speaking from experience here...)

Phew...I actually made a post in the backroom? *runs around screaming*