China, a new superpower? You decide(Don't flame me if think it won't be) From the BBC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ China aims for moon landing China's rapidly-developing space programme could see it launch an unmanned mission to the moon in less than three years, officials say. Scientists are waiting for the green light from government to press ahead with the ambitious plan. "We will be able to embark on a maiden unmanned mission within two-and-a-half years if the government endorses the scheme now," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme told the state-run China Daily newspaper. The news comes just months before China is expected to send an astronaut into orbit. The widely-expected mission would make China the third nation to send a human into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. Moon shuttle Ouyang told the China Daily that sending people to the moon was not currently a goal for China, although it could happen in the future. Sun Jiadong, a senior Beijing-based space expert, told the newspaper that China would first launch a lunar explorer satellite to map the moon's surface. Eventually, it will launch a shuttle capable of collecting samples on the moon and returning to Earth, the report said. China is pressing ahead swiftly with its fledgling space programme, and has thus far launched four unmanned vessels into orbit. The Shenzhou IV, or Divine Vessel IV, which successfully returned to earth on 5 January after a 162-hour flight, was seen as the final dress rehearsal before sending up an astronaut. Beijing has vowed to press ahead with the plan despite the loss of the US space shuttle Columbia last month, in which seven astronauts died. China's space programme has close ties to the military, and precise launch dates are never announced in advance. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/2813835.stm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Links: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993452 http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200303/03/eng20030303_112605.shtml http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_202715,0005.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/03/02/china.moon/
I would amend that to "If there is going to be another Evil Empire, then China is most likely going to be it" If their market reforms fail to produce any political changes, or if the PLA ever completely took over, then we could be in for another Cold War. As for the question, though, I would say that there is a 95% chance that China is going to become a superpower. It might take 40 years to do it, but they will do it. The only other real alternative is a unified Europe, and I think that's really just a fantasy of the French.
I'm sure the Soviets considered themselves the "good guys", too. In terms of who is an "evil empire", we'd never see ourselves that way even if the rest of the world did.
If being an Evil Empire is the power to tell other countries what they should do, then China is going to be one soon if not already.
If China becomes a superpower it will take at least 20 more years. They have so much catching up militarily and economically. I think China's economy is 1/16th of ours and their army would more than likely lose a conventional war against Japan, which is just supposed to a be a pacifist nation with 1% defense spending relative to their GDP. If they are smart they won't focus on becoming a military superpower and instead they will take the route of Japan and focus on power through economic strength. Also, if China does become a superpower I highly doubt they will be an evil empire because they don't have expansionist tendencies and they recognize the need for cooperation with other nations for their economic success. I am just basing that on the fact that they are able to get along economically with Japan even though they have a terrible history between the two countries. Also I am basing it on their attempted to involve themselves with other Asian nations in economic alliances such as ASEAN.
Yeah. We might not rule over world's total landmass, but we do make up 25% of the world's total GDP, have millitary divisions on all major points in the world, and have mass penetration of consumer and media products on foreign countries across the globe. It might not be considered Evil on the whole, but you have to admit that it is insidious.... I don't think China wants to rule the world. They have to control their own people first. And besides, we like a villain or rival to compete with. Cultural differences will portray them as evil if not misunderstood.
I think the Tibetans would say China is an empire and they are an unwilling part of it. India would say China is an empire sitting on some Indian real estate. Pakistan would say the same thing, but they decided to call a chunk of Pakistani Kashmir Chinese to ease their way getting Chinese military assistance. Some folks in Hong Kong might say they wish they were still part of the old British Empire. The wait for the next superpowers may not be as long as we might expect. Russia is busy selling China advanced weapons of all sorts and proclaiming good relations with China only because they're so damn broke. The space capsules China will be using to send one or more people into orbit this year are largely Russian. Hell, at the rate Russia is selling advanced military equipment to both China and India to keep itself afloat... perhaps we should be talking about TWO potential future superpowers. We should "enjoy" our place in the sun and start paying the Russians NOT to sell their stuff to those and other nations (Iran, anyone?) or we won't be there long enough to get a good tan. Isn't the world grand??
Not trying to sound apoctolypic but I don't think we should be pissing off the world. When a new superpower emerges, they probably receive enough support to make us their b****... maybe maybe no
What difference does it make, really? I don't care how many superpowers there are. It appears (from a very limited study ) that only capitalism can maintain a superpower. Countries share more priorities as their economies become intertwined, including global stibility and peace. Sounds good to me.
We should show other countries respect because it's the right thing to do and it can have more serious, immediate effects; not because we need to worry about how it may distill in 20 or 30 years on a superpower.
I am compelled to respond when ignorance w.r.t. China hits all time high. China's norminal GDP is about 1/10th of U.S. It's about half of U.S. when using PPP from UN or other famed organizations. China's millitary technologies are about 20-30 years behind U.S. Japan's actual millitary budget is about the same as the ACTUAL China's budget. Japan can defeat China's navy in the blue water as we speaking. Air force will be a wash for the moment. Nobody wants to mess with China's army, except for the Russians. China is less likely to become a millitary superpower in the forseable future. It will (1) risk an arm's race with U.S. and (2) risk more restrictive tech exports from U.S. Superpower will be an obsolete international political term in the near future. From now on, any arm's races between great powers will reach to the point of no-return on investment, if you can only understand what I mean.
Our military could protect the United States from an attack by the world's combined military 10 times over.
