NationStates Jolt Archive

I've heard alot of talk about China lately. It's hard to not notice talk about the massive trade deficit America has with China, and how America is losing its manufacturing jobs to places such as China, Malaysia, and India.

Kindof reminds me of what happened with Great Britain. America eventually came to outproduce Great Britain, and become the greatest world economic power. The two situations are very different though. China and America are roughly equal in terms of territory. Land is one of the two most important factors in modern capitalism, because from land we can build factories, and acquire resources. But in terms of labor power, China, according to the CIA World Factbook on Cia.gov (http://www.cia.gov) has over 900 million people of working age. What about America? Approximately less than 200 million. This means that China can easily outproduce America if its technology continues to progress, and if China continues to develop new weaponry to reach a par with the United States military.

Yet, the average Chinese worker earns nil in comparison with the average American worker, and the Chinese government is extremely repressive.

But, it is naive to believe that America will always be immortal, and always be on top. Give China a few decades, and see what happens.

id have to agree

for the past 200 years or so china has been held back by bad and chaotic governments.

if they can keep on this path to economic freedom AND bring up their human rights, in another 200 years the world will be chinese.

id have to agree

for the past 200 years or so china has been held back by bad and chaotic governments.

if they can keep on this path to economic freedom AND bring up their human rights, in another 200 years the world will be chinese.
I doubt it will take 200 years for the Chinese to be dominant. I think during the first half of this century. Look at how long the USSR took to become a power. Now China has alot more going for it than Russia did then. It will take more good leadership from Presedent Hu.

Certainly. Without better human rights, China's society will not be able to become an alternative to our own. No governments are immortal, though. As China becomes an even greater economic power, its workers will become more restless. And on another note, China is a shining example of the impossibility, and the bureaucratic deception of Communism. But the fact they embrace capitalism to a point, which grows, is at least a splinter in the dictatorship, which will eventually force a change. Perhaps China will always be oppressive to an extent, but I think that more freedoms will be granted as time progresses, simply because doing so would benefit the future of China.

Edited: Speaking of being held back, in my opinion the major force keeping China back were the Europeans. For example: the British began marketing opium on a mass scale to the Chinese, in an effort to undermine their entire society, so that China could be divided into economic zones, which is what happened. But it created instability on an epic scale, and drew attention from neighboring countries as well.

China once made the United States its most favored trading nation. I don't agree with comments made by some people that we should change the historical fact. Doing so would only undermine our own economy by limiting growth and profit, and would lead China on a more independent and determined path.

Besides, we own China just as much as they own us. We are losing manufacturing jobs to them, that is true, but our companies employ those Chinese workers. If China and America fell from what little mutual grace exists, the Chinese would face significant unemployment, and trade deficits and shortfalls of their own, not to mention inflation.

Bump... and why is the word "China" showing up in red when I see it typed in a post?

LONG LIVE MY NATION! :fluffle:

Bump... and why is the word "China" showing up in red when I see it typed in a post?
Maybe it's because you used the Search function to find everything with the word "China"...

Bump... and why is the word "China" showing up in red when I see it typed in a post?

Did you use the search button to find this thread, because if you did, thats why.

Ah, I see. I was worried for a while.

I doubt it will take 200 years for the Chinese to be dominant. I think during the first half of this century. Look at how long the USSR took to become a power. Now China has alot more going for it than Russia did then. It will take more good leadership from Presedent Hu.
it wont take 20 for china to be a serious power (not that it isnt now but...) in 50 it could be dominant

but in 200 we will all be chinese.

May I remind you that for the past 1000 years China was the most powerful nation on Earth, before America existed and Europe was still fragmented into a million bits.

A little setback of 150 years won't stop us rising again.

May I remind you that for the past 1000 years China was the most powerful nation on Earth, before America existed and Europe was still fragmented into a million bits.

A little setback of 150 years won't stop us rising again. Hey, I've been curious. Do you see yourself as a Chinese first and a Hong Kong citizen first, or the other way around? It's my understanding there's a whole bunch of differences between your region and the mainland.

The reasons why China will not become dominant in the immediate future is because much of the most sophisticated technology and research is conducted by the United States. Even the products China makes aren't the best in quality. And, reiterating what I mentioned earlier, workers in China proper earn very little and have almost no benefits or organizing power.

Eventually, China's labor force will change things. It will be slow, because America owns the world economy in more ways than one. It will be a long, slow battle, with China making deals with small nations around the world for trade rights and favors, and building military bases. China already constructed naval facilities at Molucca, what is to stop them from building more? Nothing. It will be a very gradual, slow process. Fifty years looks too soon to outproduce America in terms of quality and technology. Perhaps an entire century will pass by before China becomes the dominant economic power. But I'm sure that Western prejudices against Red China will make the battle a slower one then it might be. There may even become a time where the Western half of the world globulates into an economic bloc to counter the Chinese economic bloc of the East. Everything is possible, and everything is also not possible. Everything is speculation at the moment, but several facts remain:

China has the land,
China has the labor,
China has the resources,
and China will have the power.

May I remind you that for the past 1000 years China was the most powerful nation on Earth, before America existed and Europe was still fragmented into a million bits.

A little setback of 150 years won't stop us rising again.

LOL that's absurd. China has been the world's punching bag since before It even became known as China.

Quoting Falhaar
Hey, I've been curious. Do you see yourself as a Chinese first and a Hong Kong citizen first, or the other way around? It's my understanding there's a whole bunch of differences between your region and the mainland.

Hong Kong is officially part of China, and are Chinese citizens, but Hong Kong has the promise by the Chinese government of being allowed to self-govern itself for 50 years before China formally administrates Hong Kong.

Hey, I've been curious. Do you see yourself as a Chinese first and a Hong Kong citizen first, or the other way around? It's my understanding there's a whole bunch of differences between your region and the mainland.

Lol. Good question! I don't know myself. Let me tell you the official title of my identity:

An ethnic Han Chinese, born in and holding citizenship of the former British colony, now SAR of PRC of Hong Kong, holding the British passport and thus a British national.

You tell me what I am! :confused:

Ethnically, I call myself Chinese.
Politically, I'm a Hong Konger, to distinguish myself from the Mainlanders, whom, I have to say, will need some time to catch up to modern world etiquette and customs.

LOL that's absurd. China has been the world's punching bag since before It even became known as China.
That's right. The world's first supplier of tea, silk, porcelain, paper, rudders, sailing boats, discoverers of America, terracotta, vaccines, kites, golf, soccer, gunpowder, fireworks, arches, compasses, stirrups, herbal medical science still used today, ancient language still used extensively today (and influential to the Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese languages and texts), passports, printing etc.

Punching bag, huh.

Indeed, if we Americans keep on the same fiscal course we've taken since the time of LBJ, China will become the major power in the world.
However, I do believe some serious reform and "triage", combined with greater economic incentive and freedom, will let the US run the world for another century. :)

All the same, China has issues. I'd elaborate but I need to be at work really early tomorrow morning.

(instability of Chinese economy, growing reliance on fossil fuels, the ususal drought and food issues that have challenged China for thousands of years, challenges on the western fronteir, Taiwan's independence movement and potential US intervention in that situation, that beserk little country called the DPRK, the ever feisty Vietnamese and cake to name a few)

Oh noes!

It's a

BUMP

LONG LIVE MY NATION! :fluffle:

I hear ya there, buddy.

Ever since China was 'discovered' by the foreigners, it's just been setback after setback. If anyone has studied China in the 19th Century, you'll know. Imperialism, corruption and exploitation were the defining features of Chinese relations with the rest of the world, until (and this is my opinion, because Chiang dealt a lot with the Japanese) Mao.

I won't go further, because I get carried away. But I do believe in China's potential to come out on top. Exciting stuff, eh? :cool:

It seems more like economic certainty. That is, unless there was some sort of organized, anti-Chinese effort. Which seems unrealistic, considering the benefits of Chinese labor.