Is China now the dominant superpower?

[arsenal]

To me, it seems that history is repeating itself. Almost exactly a century ago, as Britain found herself embroiled in a seemingly never ending war it was clear that The US had replaced her as the worlds dominant power. A hundred years on and I personally believe that China, not The US is the number one world power today. This is a new kind of superpower, not one that relies on warships and air bases but on investment and trade. Asia switched sides some years ago and Africa/Europe are in the process of starting to look east rather than west. As the new silk road stretches ever further and not just in terms of deals struck and ideals agreed but in actual roads and train lines, one can see China's dominance growing almost by the month. Panama, in America's own back yard is the latest country to embrace the yuan.

China and Japan are engaged in a fight to the death over who can build the world's fastest train, a fight that China will eventually win but not until the trains are traveling almost as fast as planes. I predict that within 30/40 years people in Paris and London will have genuine decisions to make about whether to fly to China/Thailand/Vietnam etc or take the train such will be the small difference in time and cost not to mention comfort.

In food production, China will again (out of pure necessity) lead the way. A story on the BBC yesterday said they are looking to start farming on the moon, it sounds absurd but if any one can do it it's going to be China as well as farming vegetables in the sea and not just seaweed but carrots and cabbages.

An irony is ever there was one is that although China burns more fossil fuels than anyone else it will be the Chinese who come up with inexpensive methods of sustainable energy sources. Even today, most homes have a solar panel on the roof and while at the moment they're big and unwieldy in time they will be the size of an ironing board.

The 19th century was Britain's, the 20th century was America's and the 21st is China's.

[cdnmatt]

Yes, without question I think China is now basically the world's new superpower, mainly thanks to Trump, who won't stop rambling on like a 4 year old on meth.

But yes, China is the leader now. I'm sure I'm wrong on my numbers, but I think they're planning to invest ~$360 billion into renewable energy, generating ~13 million new jobs by 2020. That's huge, and they're going to clean the slate when it comes to renewable energy, which anyone with common sense knows is the way of the future.

They're bulding high speed rail to connect London to Singapore, they're even building islands with military airstrips in the middle of the ocean. They also manuevered things that the US is now in debt to them to the tune of about $2 trillian dollars I think, and more. At any given day, China could just dump that debt onto the open market, and bankrupt the US. They will never do that, because it means taking a massive economic hit themselves, but nonetheless, they do have that leverage.

I think it's pretty safe to now say that China is now the leading superpower in the world. That's not necessarily a good thing, but you can think the infantile man-child currently residing in the Whitehouse for that one.

[cdnmatt]

I'm still curious as to what role Canada is going to play in this new world order that's emerging. Quite obviously the world order is changing, and rapidly as well. China is obviously going to become the economic powerhouse, or actually already are. China will also probably take the lead in renewable energy, as the have huge swaths of money at their disposal for investments.

However, if the reports I read are true, Canada is preparing to emerge as a global leader again. I know many people think Canada isn't very important or powerful, but I wouldn't underestimate it. At the end of WWII, Canada had the 3rd largest navy and 4th largest air forice in the world, which is quite impressive considering the population size. Then for decades Canada was known as *THE* peacekeepers of the world once the UN was formed, and Canada was a huge player in nearly every major peacekeeping mission for ages. Plus for ages back in the day, Canada was constantly acting on a mediator on the world stage. Other countries couldn't figure out how to get along, so Canada mediated, calmed both sides down, and got them to work out an agreement.

On top of that, Canada has far more attainable natural resources than any other country on this planet, and the comparison isn't even close. Technically, Russia does have more resources, but they're not attainable due to climate and weather. Every other country basically pales in comparison as to the amount of natural resources that Canada holds.

Again, if the reports I've heard / heard are true, it looks like Canada may be looking at emerging as a world leader again. We'll see what happens.

[frequent]

I'm still curious as to what role Canada is going to play in this new world order that's emerging.Especially given that the population of Canada is less than the population of California

[christianpfc]

At the end of WWII, Canada had the 3rd largest navy and 4th largest air forice in the world, which is quite impressive considering the population size.

Again, if the reports I've heard / heard are true, it looks like Canada may be looking at emerging as a world leader again. We'll see what happens.
Just by coincidence, having been a former British colony and neighbor of the US.

Again? Canada has never been a world leader.

[christianpfc]

China and Japan are engaged in a fight to the death over who can build the world's fastest train, a fight that China will eventually win but not until the trains are traveling almost as fast as planes. I predict that within 30/40 years people in Paris and London will have genuine decisions to make about whether to fly to China/Thailand/Vietnam etc or take the train such will be the small difference in time and cost not to mention comfort.

In food production, China will again (out of pure necessity) lead the way. A story on the BBC yesterday said they are looking to start farming on the moon, it sounds absurd but if any one can do it it's going to be China as well as farming vegetables in the sea and not just seaweed but carrots and cabbages.

An irony is ever there was one is that although China burns more fossil fuels than anyone else it will be the Chinese who come up with inexpensive methods of sustainable energy sources. Even today, most homes have a solar panel on the roof and while at the moment they're big and unwieldy in time they will be the size of an ironing board.
This post clearly shows you have no background in science or engineering.

At the moment, China cannot build a car or a train or an airplane that can compete with those built in the west. All they can do is copy western technology.

I think mankind has reached its climax (highest energy consumption and overall highest wealth) and the future is bleak: crises about food, water, energy, raw materials, throw in some international terrorism, natural disasters, small wars, and we are going into a dystopia.

The moon landing was almost 40 years ago, nowadays the US can't even get human into space any more. The Concorde was taken out of service 2003. We are going backwards!

Food farming on the moon? Totally absurd, see above paragraph.

We are doing renewable energies in Germany, and have difficulties to manage storage, supply and demand, transport. If we have difficulties, how are the Chinese going to manage? "solar panel...the size of an ironing board" Absurd! Within the laws of physics, there is not much more to gain from current technologies. The future will hold strict economizing of energy and other resources, either imposed by government or simply by lack of energy and resources!

Under those conditions as I predict above, however China might come out as a leading power.

[arsenal]

Christian: Well you're certainly right that I have no background in science or engineering but I'm not sure your knowledge of the humanities is well grasped either. Just compare the first mobile phones, computers, cars, planes, ships, submarines with those that were built a relatively short time later. You are right about China apeing the west but then you have to remember that the China of today is only about 40 years old. China is still the only country in the world that has a commercial, fully working maglev and the possibilities with that technology are awesome. They even managed to build a train line across the Tibetan plateau which is like concrete in the winter and not to mention the highest train in the world using some quite ingenius solutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JgtwqYcFxo&spfreload=10

You wrote:
"We are doing renewable energies in Germany, and have difficulties to manage storage, supply and demand, transport. If we have difficulties, how are the Chinese going to manage?"

That's rather an egotistical thing to write. Germany has given the world an endless supply of high quality consumer goods especially cars and domestic appliances but in energy you're some way behind many countries including The UK.

Watch a few videos on youtube about the things China has built recently and a few more about things that are planned and you'll see that rather than playing catch up China is actually leapfrogging ahead more than you might realise.

[frequent]

This post clearly shows you have no background in science or engineering.

At the moment, China cannot build a car or a train or an airplane that can compete with those built in the west. All they can do is copy western technology.Don't forget the epitome of China's maritime technology is the Liaoning (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_aircraft_carrier_programme). I used to find it amusing how much the CIA spruiked the marvelous technology of the Soviet army, particularly as the basis for the USA to build up its own armaments, only to find when the Soviet Union collapsed that its fabled armaments were (hyperbole coming up) little more than cardboard cut-outs. Sure, they put the first man into space but that sort of thing was the exception rather than the rule. Maglev (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev) was invented by the British not the Chinese, after all, so that the Maglev trains in China (as in Japan and South Korea) are borrowed technology. Me, I'm waiting for the Chinese banking system to come crashing down, and then we'll all be in trouble - although I don't share Christian's teutonic pessimism about the world in general

[arsenal]

A German actually in 1905. The Birmingham Airport shuttle trolley bears no relation the to 431 km per hour one that runs out of Pudong.The Chinese banking system may well come crashing down just as America virtually starved to death after the crash of 1929. That didn't stop them dominating the century as a whole.

[cdnmatt]

@frequent -- And where does California get a decent portion of its electricty and fresh water? Oh right, Canada.

@Christian -- You may want to crack a history book.

As for the rest of te thread, I think some people are forgetting about globalization, and are being a little too nationalistic. Just because a company in the private sector in one country develops a new technology, doesn't mean it's going to benefit only that country. That may have been true 70 years ago, but it sure as hell isn't now.

[frequent]

@frequent -- And where does California get a decent portion of its electricty and fresh water? I guess if you turned it into a bet? LOL
https://mavensnotebook.com/the-notebook-file-cabinet/californias-water-systems/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_California

[christianpfc]

China is still the only country in the world that has a commercial, fully working maglev and the possibilities with that technology are awesome. They even managed to build a train line across the Tibetan plateau which is like concrete in the winter and not to mention the highest train in the world using some quite ingenius solutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JgtwqYcFxo&spfreload=10

The maglev (magnetic levitation), wherever it was invented (Leonardo da Vinci or even earlier invented the airplane, but couldn't build one), it was developed and built in Germany as Transrapid. We have the best scientists and engineers of the world, but our politicians (Adolf Hitler an exception) are as incompetent as everywhere else, and for political reasons it was not built on a large scale in Germany, but exported to China where it was finally built on a large scale.

The Swiss built their railway network under similar conditions, same for the Transsib, and all that 100 years ago!

A friend just stopped in Bangkok on the way back to Germany from a business trip in China, visited some factories who do textiles, all German and Swiss sewing machines!

[cdnmatt]

Da best engineers in da world! That's a pretty bold statement. Also convenient of you to give some praise to your secret love, Hitler.

Anyway, I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sFRiacvNYo

Or I don't know, but just search "Avro Arrow", and you'll see. Most people outside of Canada probably don't even know about it, but it was a military airplane decades ahead in terms of technology. Nobody quite knows why the project was scrapped, but it's widely believed due to US pressure the program was scrapped, plus all blueprints and documents destroyed.

[arsenal]

Matt: Wikipedia says this about the cancellation.
'Within two months of the project cancellation, all aircraft, engines, production tooling and technical data were ordered scrapped.[89] Officially, the reason given for the destruction order from cabinet and the chiefs of staff was to destroy classified and "secret" materials used in the Arrow and Iroquois programs.[90] The action has been attributed to Royal Canadian Mounted Police fears that a Soviet "mole" had infiltrated Avro, later confirmed to some degree in the Mitrokhin archives."

So not the USs fault. Canada's.

Christian: Not sure about your comments regarding German engineers. Indeed superb but 'best in the world' is a hard claim to quantify. The worlds most awesome bridges, roads, buildings, tunnels, planes, ships, submarines, oil rigs etc have all been built by other nations and other nations engineers. It might be a good idea to avoid bigging up Hitler and German engineering in the same post. It just comes across badly.

[cdnmatt]

Yeah, that was the "official" reason, but just use a bit of common sense, and it doesn't add up. If you have ground breaking technology that's vastly superior to anything else on the planet, you don't just just scrap it including all documents and classified information, because you have a hunch there might be a Russian mole. That's why until this day, there's still speculation as to why the project was actually scrapped. It's widely believed the US forced Canada's hand, took the technology for its airforce, and forced Canada to completely destroy the project.

As for Christian's comment about the best engineers in the world again. Which company was it that helped computerize and catalougue all those Jews in the camps ready for chemical extermination? Oh right, that would be IBM, a US based company.

Anyway, back to the OP. China is quite obviously kicking ass, and taking names, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop them. In the meantime, you have the EU holding on by the skin of its teeth, and Trump running the US into the ground at a very impressive pace. He's definitely the best, but just wrong direction dude.

Due to investments in renewable energy, China is planning to generate 13,000,000 new jobs by 2020, and a decent portion for that decision was because Trump pulled out of the Paris Accord and doesn't believe in climate change. So I guess Trump is making good on his pledge to generate millions of new jobs, but wrong country you fucken imbecile!

[Moses]

for political reasons it was not built on a large scale in Germany, but exported to China where it was finally built on a large scale

In fact - there was huge catastrophe at time of testing in Germany and after it project been canceled, while China didn't cancel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathen_train_collision

[christianpfc]

That was in 2006. The project to link Berlin and Hamburg by Transrapid was cancelled in the 1990's.


Or I don't know, but just search "Avro Arrow", and you'll see. Most people outside of Canada probably don't even know about it, but it was a military airplane decades ahead in terms of technology. Nobody quite knows why the project was scrapped, but it's widely believed due to US pressure the program was scrapped, plus all blueprints and documents destroyed.
Inept politicians, just like everywhere else.
The jet engine was developed during WWII in Germany, by the way.

[cdnmatt]

Yes, Germany invented the get engine, and also invented submarines.

However, your claim that Germany has the best engineers in the world is still retarted. Germany lost both world wars, remember?

[arsenal]

Jet engine. Germany? Mmm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine#History

[arsenal]

Submarine. Germany? Mmm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine#History

[cdnmatt]

Whpp[s, then what was it about Germany's airforce that made it so superior? I know there was something, because during WWII their fighter planes kicked the shit out of Allied planes.

Nowadays, have fun competing with the US air force, so once again, Christian's claim that Germany has the best engineers in the world is out the window.

I do know Germany invented submarines though, but didn't take long for the US to catch on and supercede them. Now unfortunately you have Trump blurting out the location of nuclear subs over the phone to the leader of the Phillipinnes. You'rr forgetting what the concept of a submarine is, you fucken moron!

[frequent]

Whpp[s, then what was it about Germany's airforce that made it so superior? I know there was something, because during WWII their fighter planes kicked the shit out of Allied planes.Yes, as we all know, the Battle of Britain was won comprehensively by the Luftwaffe. Subsequently Allied planes were rebuffed time and time again as they attempted to bomb the shit out of German towns like Dresden. And don't get me started on the brilliant tactics the Germans used against Operation Chastise which resulted in a complete rout of the so-called "Dam Busters"

[christianpfc]

Jet engine. Germany? Mmm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine#History
I said "developed". The jet engine was imagined and working models built by many people in various countries, but Germany was the first to build it in large number and employ it. And not just the jet engine, the rocket engine as well!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262
The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_II) fighter...
from the pioneering nature of its Junkers Jumo 004 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Jumo_004) axial-flow turbojet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbojet) engines—the first ever placed in mass production—...

But even with the best planes and the best pilots, you can lose a war, in that case it can be blamed on politicians: Hermann Goering and even Adolf Hitler (who wanted the Me262 to be a bomber instead of an interceptor).

[Moses]

Back to China: Shanghai - Beijing high-speed train line been started yesterday with normal speed of trains 350 km/h and peak speed 400 km/h.

4702

4703

[arsenal]

Take a look at this Christian. It's wonderful, wonderful.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-40426747/luftwaffe-ace-flies-in-spitfire

[arsenal]

The speed with which China is taking over from America is actually quite scary.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40701121

[Mickp]

Hi arsewipe...hows that flag going?

[arsenal]

It's still flying proudly over Parliament House in Canberra.

[arsenal]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40565722

[FarangRuMak]

Over (human) population and domesticated animal proliferation is what's going to kill us.
The amount of sunshine that hits the earth is our total energy allowance and it's not enough.
We have been making up the shortfall by drawing on the stored ancient energy of fossils-plant and animal.
This is running out and in the meantime its by-product Co2 is killing the planet.
Chomsky has called the Republican Party of America "the most dangerous organisation on the planet" because of it's denial of the impending catastrophe and it's policies that are in fact bringing the end nearer.
It's a big surprise to all that China is doing a lot to save us now whereas "the most dangrouse organisation on earth" in this regard controls the totality of power in America and thus can destroy everything with impunity.

[arsenal]

I agree absolutely with FarangRuMak. One of the great ironies of this century is that it is China, the world's biggest polluter and by some degree where the new renewable energies will come of age and then be transported around the globe. In my opinion. (Not remotely humble. But then you already know that.)

[Omega]

The biggest question of the next 50 years is:

"Will artificial super intelligence wipe out life".

ASI had the potential to save human kind and launch us into being a type III galactic civilisation, and basically humans will never die from that point on.

Or, it will view us as entirely irrelevant and accidently wipe us out pursuing its own ends.

[frequent]

"Will artificial super intelligence wipe out life".Unlikely on SGT, most unlikely

[christianpfc]

The amount of sunshine that hits the earth is our total energy allowance and it's not enough.
On the contrary, the energy from the sun that reaches earth is more than enough, but we have no viable way to collect and store it.

[arsenal]

Christian wrote:
"On the contrary, the energy from the sun that reaches earth is more than enough, but we have no viable way to collect and store it."

Yet.

[frequent]

On the contrary, the energy from the sun that reaches earth is more than enough, but we have no viable way to collect and store it.I'm thinking of phoning my good friend Elon Musk and suggesting he invent a battery that can store energy from solar panels. It just might be a goer

[arsenal]

In fact there is no reason why say The Shard or any of the huge skyscrapers aren't covered in solar panels rather than just glass. Is there?

[FarangRuMak]

On the contrary, the energy from the sun that reaches earth is more than enough, but we have no viable way to collect and store it.

It's more than enough for the majority of people even at the massive population levels we have right now but it's not enough to power the energy demands of the industrialised world.
Nuclear power is the most efficient alternative but it comes with the obvious risks.
Harvesting solar/tidal/wind energy is reaching it's limits and now all we're doing is tweaking existing technology.
There may be a revolutionary solution in the offing but it's a long way off.

[arsenal]

FarangRuMak wrote:
"Harvesting solar/tidal/wind energy is reaching it's limits and now all we're doing is tweaking existing technology."

Wrong. It's still in it's early infancy.

[Omega]

FarangRuMak wrote:
"Harvesting solar/tidal/wind energy is reaching it's limits and now all we're doing is tweaking existing technology."

Wrong. It's still in it's early infancy.

Indeed...

And let's not forget the strides being made in nuclear fusion.

[frequent]

And let's not forget the strides being made in nuclear fusion.The technology described the other day as "perpetually just around the corner"? http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/news/a27484/google-fusion-energy-company-improve-plasma-reactor-ai/

[FarangRuMak]

FarangRuMak wrote:
"Harvesting solar/tidal/wind energy is reaching it's limits and now all we're doing is tweaking existing technology."

Wrong. It's still in it's early infancy.
I don't think so.
For wind turbine blades to spin there's a minimum percentage of energy that must pass through and cannot be exploited. More effective gearing can be attached, larger and larger blades can be made etc but that's just tweaking the basic technology.
Nuclear energy is the best and the worst solution.

[arsenal]

Well FarangRuMak, history suggests otherwise with technology getting smaller and more efficient.