Just about everyone who follows international affairs will agree that the People's Republic of China (PRC) is an emerging power (along with Brazil and India).
However, the PRC's authoritarian regime, along with it's military assertiveness gives analysts and pundits the impression that China's rise may overpower the US's position and will dominate world affairs.
But some, like Mark Steyn, point out that China's a brittle power and may have far less of an adverse impact than we're worried about.
Today's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Online's Opinion Section points out some of China's weak areas.
And here's what some of my friends had to say about this:
That's a great piece! Don't get me wrong; I'm as concerned about Chinese strategic and military ambitions as the next hawk. But the paralyzing fear/admiration for China has always struck me as rather bizarre. In the late 80s I recall the academic debate about how China would equal or surpass the USSR as the chief rival of the US and that we would then be faced with a tri-polar Cold War. Those same academics and politicos kept hyperventilating about "rising China" in terms of economic potential that would provide so many opportunities and challenges for the West. I took great delight in pointing out to fellow students and teachers in my undergrad and grad school poli-sci and econ classes that the same words they used to describe a "rising China" could be found almost verbatim from about 1890 onwards in the academic and political discourse of every Western nation. Funny how it just never pans out. And here we are, another 20-some years on, and the same kinds of poli-sci/econ re-treads are still fretting about "rising China." Plus ça change……
Exactly why I liked this article so much. Some people need to be talked down from the ledge on this. Prudent action taken over time will manage China's inevitable rise, but all this doom and gloom has got to go.
The one child policy has created a demographic issue in China that will start rearing its head in the next five to ten years. 4 grand parents, two parents, one child does not make a good model for sustained growth.
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