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=2Jgt...o&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. 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 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.