Emergence of China as a superpower
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Enayet Rasul
"The 19th century belonged to the British. The 20th century belonged to the United States. But the 21st century belongs to China,"
-- Jim Rogers, Hedge fund manager
The world was impressed again towards the end of last month by sights of Chinese astronauts walking in space. Such feats usually belonged exclusively to the USA and the former Soviet Union and the successor Russian Federation. But China has now more than joined this elite space club with its space programme that started decades ago. The spacewalk has come only about a month after the successful holding of the Beijing Olympics which was described as the most majestic in terms of infrastructures, spending and attractions among all the Olympics held so far.
The very neat holding of the games and the very huge resources spent on them gave a focus to all in the rest of the world about the technological abilities and, more significantly, the financial powers of the People's Republic of China. With a foreign currency reserve of over US$ 1.68 trillion, China leads all other nations in possessing the world's biggest foreign currency reserve by a single country.
China's GDP has grown at a rate of at least 9% per year for more than 25 years (although recently the government has sought to slow this growth to prevent a crash), the fastest growth rate for a major economy in recorded history . In 2005, China became the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of nominal value and the second largest when measured by purchasing power parity, with a GDP of US $7.124 trillion in 2004. In the same period of time, it has moved 300 million people out of poverty and quadrupled the average Chinese person's income. China is projected to surpass the United States as the world's biggest economy in only another decade from now.
China has the largest standing army (2.3 million men) of any country in the world. China is undergoing a massive effort to improve and modernize its military technology, equipments, and power projection capabilities. Fuelled by a rapidly growing defence budget over the years , China's size of military spending is second only to the United States.
China's population is the world's largest, with about 1.3 billion people. With the global human population currently estimated at about 6.5 billion, China is home to approximately 20% of this global population or one-fifth of entire humanity. Thus, there is no way to ignore the rise of China as not only a great power but as a superpower. This emergence is full of implications for the world's economy, its politics, its power shifts and the related factors. What is of greater significance is this rise of China amid conditions when the traditional powers such as the USA and Western European countries, plus Russia, that dominated the globe scene, are seen to be clearly on the decline. The present financial debacle in the USA and the EC countries and even in Russia to some extent, prove the wisdom expressed by historians to the effect that powers or great powers in the international stage do not everlast. Dominance by one very great power such as the Roman empire wanes with a similar power rising to take its place. This has been a constant lesson of history. If we compare the US with the Roman Empire, then it may not be unrealistic to say that the decline of the USA as the world's strongest power has already much progressed. China's rise clearly represents this major shift in power status.
And China also has the pedigree to fit this new role. It was next to none in the ancient world. The Chinese emperors considered themselves as located at the centre of the world with the highest civilization and thought of others in its periphery as barbarians. They were also not so much unjustified in their observations for China was almost unparalleled in its civilized attainments and power in the ancient times. This great country then went through a decline and external forces were also the reasons for its woes. But possessed of great traditions as a very able people, the rise of China once again among the ranks of the mightiest in the world in all respects was only a question of time. We are only witnessing the inevitable.
"The 19th century belonged to the British. The 20th century belonged to the United States. But the 21st century belongs to China,"
-- Jim Rogers, Hedge fund manager
The world was impressed again towards the end of last month by sights of Chinese astronauts walking in space. Such feats usually belonged exclusively to the USA and the former Soviet Union and the successor Russian Federation. But China has now more than joined this elite space club with its space programme that started decades ago. The spacewalk has come only about a month after the successful holding of the Beijing Olympics which was described as the most majestic in terms of infrastructures, spending and attractions among all the Olympics held so far.
The very neat holding of the games and the very huge resources spent on them gave a focus to all in the rest of the world about the technological abilities and, more significantly, the financial powers of the People's Republic of China. With a foreign currency reserve of over US$ 1.68 trillion, China leads all other nations in possessing the world's biggest foreign currency reserve by a single country.
China's GDP has grown at a rate of at least 9% per year for more than 25 years (although recently the government has sought to slow this growth to prevent a crash), the fastest growth rate for a major economy in recorded history . In 2005, China became the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of nominal value and the second largest when measured by purchasing power parity, with a GDP of US $7.124 trillion in 2004. In the same period of time, it has moved 300 million people out of poverty and quadrupled the average Chinese person's income. China is projected to surpass the United States as the world's biggest economy in only another decade from now.
China has the largest standing army (2.3 million men) of any country in the world. China is undergoing a massive effort to improve and modernize its military technology, equipments, and power projection capabilities. Fuelled by a rapidly growing defence budget over the years , China's size of military spending is second only to the United States.
China's population is the world's largest, with about 1.3 billion people. With the global human population currently estimated at about 6.5 billion, China is home to approximately 20% of this global population or one-fifth of entire humanity. Thus, there is no way to ignore the rise of China as not only a great power but as a superpower. This emergence is full of implications for the world's economy, its politics, its power shifts and the related factors. What is of greater significance is this rise of China amid conditions when the traditional powers such as the USA and Western European countries, plus Russia, that dominated the globe scene, are seen to be clearly on the decline. The present financial debacle in the USA and the EC countries and even in Russia to some extent, prove the wisdom expressed by historians to the effect that powers or great powers in the international stage do not everlast. Dominance by one very great power such as the Roman empire wanes with a similar power rising to take its place. This has been a constant lesson of history. If we compare the US with the Roman Empire, then it may not be unrealistic to say that the decline of the USA as the world's strongest power has already much progressed. China's rise clearly represents this major shift in power status.
And China also has the pedigree to fit this new role. It was next to none in the ancient world. The Chinese emperors considered themselves as located at the centre of the world with the highest civilization and thought of others in its periphery as barbarians. They were also not so much unjustified in their observations for China was almost unparalleled in its civilized attainments and power in the ancient times. This great country then went through a decline and external forces were also the reasons for its woes. But possessed of great traditions as a very able people, the rise of China once again among the ranks of the mightiest in the world in all respects was only a question of time. We are only witnessing the inevitable.