How much of Western media is devoted to discussing China as the “next superpower”? Does a single article go by without mentioning the words “growing” or “White-hot”? If so, not many.
But nothing could be further from the truth. China isn’t next. It’s now. It’s already a superpower and to fail to recognize that could be severely damaging to negotiating the field of international relations. Think about it… what topic discussed by newspapers doesn’t require some insight into China? The Department of Education frets over the rising clout of Chinese students in the world economy. The environment hinges on how much damage China is doing to its own land and the world’s. North Korea, Iran, and Sudan (along with every other international “hot spot”) can’t be discussed without asking, “What will the Chinese do?”We’ve even reached the point where the Chinese are manipulating the NBA thanks to their economic clout.
Now, China does lack some of the “traditional” characteristics, such as the ability to project military power overseas. Some question whether China can even project its military power into Taiwan. But its growing soft power is tremendous. Yao Ming, Zhang Ziyi, and Zhang Yimou are becoming household names (well, perhaps faces thanks to Americans’ traditional inability to handle non-American names). African nations’ political parties have their elections hinging on support from China. Taiwan has been politically isolated due to the fear of losing access to over a billion consumers.
What’s so unbelievably frustrating about this is the complete lack of knowledge concerning China by the average American… or even by the average American media outlet! Until the recent food safety crisis (which by the way, has been going on for a decade, not months), China was absolutely trumpeted, with basically lip service to human rights. There’s a whole host of issues why China should be considered more carefully than it has been, with perhaps some emotions other than greed playing into the picture. But that’s multiple topics for many other days.
For now, Americans need to realize that while no nation in the world can ignore the feelings of the United States while making a decision… nor can any nation ignore the feelings of China either.