Warning: Feeding the Hegemon may be Hazardous to your Health. Assessing China's Fitness to be a Superpower

摘要

As China continues its rapid advance toward economic supremacy, and strives to grow militarily, can it be trusted to remain friendly toward the United States. China is, after all, a communist country; and the fact that it has learned to harness many of the economic aspects of democracy to create the world's fastest growing economy does not make it less communist. China's leaders observed what happened to the Soviet Union when it rapidly traded-in its mantle of communism and quickly put on the garments of democracy. The Chinese leaders have seen the loss of control, power, and status the Russian communist leaders experienced and are not willing to make the same mistakes. Instead, China's leaders have taken a smorgasbord approach to democracy, cherry-picking those things they deem beneficial, while leaving on the table anything (individual rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, open national elections, etc.) that could threaten their control. This paper documents China's rapid assent to the second largest economy in the world and poses the question; how will China treat the United States if and when they become the largest and assume superpower status. This paper examined open-source news articles and journals to explore some of the Chinese leaders' recent statements, policies and actions in an attempt to gain insight into what they may do in the future. While no one can foretell the future, some of their recent words and actions give an indication that China may not treat us favorably. This author explored some of the difficult internal issues the Chinese leadership is dealing with on the home front, such as resource scarcity, potential rising unemployment and underemployment, and how their growing population exacerbates these problems. The author also explored some of the external issues the Chinese leadership is dealing with such as trying to expand exports and improve their military projection capability in their quest to become the leader of East Asc.