China : Strongest Nation of the 21st Century?

[auc]

i dnt think china the strongest nation,although they have large member

of military,and 2nd largest population in the world..

yes china have been fast improving,but it doesnt mean china are on top..

well thats my opion... eheh

[babotaechi]

the majority of you guys are wrong. China doesn't have the biggest army in the world. North Korea does. If you guys don't believe me go ahead and ask any military guys. Theyll will tell you North Korea has the largest military.[/list]

[Eroschilles]

I'm possitive that The U.S. is the most powerful nation for the moment. China's economic boom may be waning, but the U.S.'s economy hasn't been that strong recently.

The point I was trying to make is that if the U.S. doesn't pay attention to it's own progress instead of oversea adventures then it might lose power. China is concerned with gaining money and political power at the moment, not toppling foriegn governments.

I would say Japan is stronger than China except it isn't allowed an army, but it does have a self-defense force. Then there's the corporate scandal in Japan that is effecting the stock market.

[bluestorm6]

With the rate things seem to be going, China could become a world contender for the heavy weight championship belt of ruling the world (har har).

But in all seriousness, they could have been many many times, but due to their problematic philosophies on life, they have been hindered. Those philosophies being Confucianism and Communism. Not to say I don't respect them, but they have caused downfalls in the past.
Specific examples: The ever famous Great Leap Forward. That speaks for itself. There is Communism failing (not necessarily the ideal, but it was the fault of the leaders... however communism facilitates those leaders.)

Another example, this one for Confucianism: Did you know that China was ahead of European explorers in terms of Naval power and technology by at least 400 years? In fact, there is possible evidence a treasury fleet touched down on American soil almost half a Century before any European explorer.
Why didn't China become the dominating trader and explorer of the 1400s, to rival, or possibly beat out Colombus? Confucianist advisors insisted on isolating the country, as they have for thousands of years over time. (that is a very basic explanation. I'm taking a course right now on this era, I suggest anyone else to do the same. It's really interesting.)

So the basic idea I'm presenting: They will, and are moving towards a peak in development, at which they will drastically fall due to the overly fast development they are initiating onto a country that still is roughly 50% farmers who practice old ways. It happened to Japan in the 50-80s during their time of rapid growth. Look at them now. They're still trying to get out of a recession, but the old artifacts of their society conflict with western capitalism, preventing them from quickly rebounding.


And just an additive: Being Chinese, or living in China has nothing to do with whether or not a person can judge the economic power of a country. The idea that your ethnicity or place of birth automatically makes you an expert is ridiculous.
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[vankilsing]

korea

[Lysol]

For all the economic gains that China has made in the past two decades, it still has some major domestic issues to take care of first before it can become a superpower. The growing gap between the urban and rural areas is continuing at a disturbing rate, social mobility is still very poor, the Judicial system is hopelessly obsolete, and the corruption is off the charts. That's just digging a little bit into China's problems.

Military wise.... not even close. China's making changes towards modernizing their armed forces, but it'll be a good 20-30 years before they can become a military capable of projecting power. The countries basically capable of projecting power are the US, Russia (severely limited nowadays), France (haven't done so in a while though), and the UK (budget cuts are killing their armed forces.) The Chinese military is not even capable of invading Taiwan properly and that's less than 100 miles away from their coast.

[omegavii]

China has quite a bit to go before it can take over the US as the world's largest superpower. Some project that it would take at least 40 years before China becomes more powerful than the US in terms of military. As for economics, at least 20 years.

As people have already mentioned, China's current infrastructure probably cannot sustain the current level of growth (10% increase in GDP). This means that there will be a period of instability in the foreseeable future. How China will address this change will determine whether it take over the US as the next superpower.

[Jouchiro]

[asqwzx]

i don't think china is taht powerfull now, but eventually, they will become