China is the greatest threat to American superiority since the USSR. China is currently ramping up its military, media abroad and offshore investments. Naturally, this is worrying the US, as they are now seeing an increasingly powerful China, challenge them for global supremacy.
How exactly is China ramping up?
Before we can answer the main question, we have to talk about how China is ramping up.
Military
China’s military is ramping up by increasing it’s manpower, weapons and drills. China is forcasted to stay the world’s largest military with over 2.20 million active military personnel.
China is also currently investing heavily in newer, larger and more powerful weaponry. This mainly revolves around the developmental J-50 for their air force.
The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is also ramping up the number of military drills they are doing each year. For the past 5 years, the PLA has been doing more military drills than ever before. Although it must be stated that most of these drills are small scale, and are barely a blip on the US’s radar.
Media
Chinese media is something that you can look in awe at. It is so heavily consolidated by the CCP that only what they wish to be published, is published.
Now, they are exporting their media abroad, but not in Chinese as you’d expect. In fact, most of this media is in English, covering the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
This is mainly thanks to the large Chinese populations that reside in these countries. And thanks to the internet, Chinese media (and propaganda outlets) are able to control their world views.
Websites such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and 263.net are all sites controlled by the Chinese media.
This has led to some rather awkward moments, as these sites have censored recent troubles in China, mainly the protests in Hong Kong.
Foreign Investment
This is likely the largest worry for the US, as before, they used to be the best nation to get a loan from. But now China is undercutting that market, and taking, not money as a repayment, but land, ports and bases.
The Chinese government is especially interested in Africa and South Asia, especially countries with access to the South China Sea or the Indian Ocean. China knows that by playing the long game with investments, they can build up allies in regions all over the world.
In 2000, the Chinese government set up the Forum on Chinese-African Cooperation (FOCAC), the aim was to increase the amount of trade between the two regions. In 2015, the Chinese announced that they would be investing $60 billion into African infrastructure.
But that is not nearly the extent that the Chinese have gone to become a major player in world infrastructure and trade. The Chinese have proposed a new Silk Road, called the Belt and Road Initiative, which would see the Chinese become the largest player in world trade by a long shot.
This would see the Chinese invest in 152 different countries on all inhabited continents. The Chinese would do this by building an extensive network of roads, ports and airports for goods to be transported.
Why does America want to stop them?
There are a few reasons why America wouldn’t want China to continue to ramp up:
- It would lead to America being dethroned- obviously, no one would want that as it would mean that they would become less powerful. This would also lead the US to feel humiliated on the global stage
- Ideology- China is a communist country, although this is heavily infused with capitalism. America on the other hand is a firmly capitalist country that has routinely been anti-communist
Can the US contain China?
At this stage now, I highly doubt that the US will be able to keep the Chinese subdued. Whilst America is far richer, and far more powerful than the Chinese are, the Chinese are growing stronger every single day.
The Chinese economy is expected to become larger the US’s by the mid-2020’s.
China currently has economic ties with over 50 nations, mainly in Asia and Africa. This number is expected to grow in the next few years, and every time the Chinese gain a new ally, it is at the expense of the Americans.
America plays a very short-minded approach when it comes to the world stage, this is something the Chinese know, and do the opposite of. When America’s back is turned, the Chinese swoop in, and make new allies at America’s expense.
This means that America is constantly less and less powerful, and the Chinese are only growing stronger, day by day.
Sadly, America just isn’t the superpower it once was. Trump, Clinton, Mueller, Biden etc. have all made it so that America’s attention is drawn elsewhere, and Xi Jingping knows this.
And one day, just over night, America will find itself, no longer the dominant world superpower, but a mere relic of history.
I hope you enjoyed this article on whether or not the Americans will/can contain the Chinese. Do you agree with my sentiment? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments!