But China's rise doesn't mean they will keep going at the same pace--or even in the same direction.
I recently addressed those points here, with a number of links to flesh out the points.
Let me add two more links. Japan points to China's rise as a cause of worry and points to their alliance with America as important:
Japan's Defense Ministry stressed the importance of U.S. military forces in Japan and cast a wary eye on China's military expansion in an annual report Friday, as diplomatic tensions with China rose following a collision near disputed islands.
In one sentence, this gets to the point of why I think we need to maintain our power in the western Pacific in order to bolster allies in the region who wish to oppose Chinese ambitions.
And here, Gordon Chang boldly predicts China's economic progress will reverse and that Japan will reclaim the number two GDP position.
So don't panic about China. Address our weaknesses, to be sure. I don't mean to sound complacent. But China is a challenge and not a steamroller destined to swamp us. We do need to worry about the potential military power of even a third place China. In time, that kind of economic power will allow China to become a major power in east Asia. Remember that Japan in 1941-1945 posed quite a military challenge despite the fact that our GDP at the beginning of the war was about ten times that of Japan's. China with a GDP a third of ours will be a force to be reckoned with.
And heck, who knows, China might, as the result of economic progress that is creating a middle class--as we've hoped for close to two decades now--actually evolve into a more representative government that values getting along with us and prospering more than they value regaining their position as the middle kingdom at the center of the world.
