China Vs the West: Who will win as the top superpower?

China vs The West

Who Will Win as the Top Economic Superpower?

By Rosemary Wilson

Throughout history there have been empires that would rise to the expense of others then fall so the cycle could continue. Specifically, after the 1500s there was the Portuguese empire,  Ottoman empire, Aztec empire, and some Asian empires. Today the West is very powerful, practically an empire, but how much influence will it have in the future? Using historic evidence to back me up, I have concluded that in the future the West’s influence on the world will decline because China will gain the upperhand and become the next biggest superpower. I concluded this by examining past empires, China’s economy rebound in the communist revolution, the debt crisis and its role in the United Nations (UN).

Usually when an empire falls it is because it gets too large and isn’t able to maintain itself, and also a rival nation gets a hold of new technology and is able to defend itself from the empire by manipulating them.  Before the 1500s, China had powerful dynasties, like the Han dynasty, which were basically the same as empires throughout Asia while in the West there was the Roman empire. China lost a lot of it’s economic influence on the world around the 19th century to the West, especially Britain. It is important to know that “China , the world technological power between 1100 and 1800, made the West’s emergence possible.  It was only by borrowing and assimilating Chinese innovations that the West was able to make the transition to modern capitalist and imperialist economies.”(www.globalresaerch.com). An example of this is that “China was the world’s leader in technical innovations in textile manufacturing, seven centuries before Britain's 18th century “textile revolution”(www.globalresearch.com). The reason why Britain was able to surpass China’s leading textile manufacturing system was because they invented new machines and cotton mills that beat the Chinese. By this time Britain was also brutally trying to use military force to imperialize and conquer their more sophisticated market because they couldn’t beat the Chinese market system with their own more primitive one. This put a lot of pressure on the emperor of China at that time so he ended up worsening the situation by increasing taxes on the people, particularly merchants who already had to compete with the British fleet and traders. The photo of on the right shows an eighteenth century Chinese emperor who compared to that of a British man from the eighteenth century looks quite out of place. This shows how by then China was being left behind by developing nations.The final nail in the coffin for China was when “ Imperialist pillage forced greater exploitation and taxation of the great mass of Chinese peasants and workers.  China’s rulers were obliged to pay the war debts and finance trade deficits imposed by the Western imperial powers by squeezing its peasantry.  This drove the peasants to starvation and revolt.”(www.globalresearch.com). Not to mention the introduction of opium into the country by the British absolutely crippled them with more debts. By now, China fell from having an advanced and admirable market into a poor and backwards economy. Like so many empires before it China lost to a greater civilization and was crushed because it couldn’t keep up with the technological advancements. However unlike great empires like the Aztecs the Chinese people didn’t give up and rebounded by changing its rule from a monarchy into a republic.

By changing their governmental system the Chinese could bounce back dramatically and could adapt in the nineteenth century and then the twentieth. It all started in 1921 when the Chinese Communist Party was created and joined the Nationalist Party in the Nationalist Army that went on from 1926-27. This didn’t last long because then the Nationalist Party turned on them and began to ‘purge’ them out of the country. Then the Japanese invaded in 1931 and the Chinese Republic really began to struggle. That was when in World War 2 the people started giving their support to the Communist Party, which led to “the Republic of China Government vulnerable to the Communist threat. The CCP, for its part, experienced success in its early efforts at land reform and was applauded by peasants for its unflagging efforts to fight against the Japanese invaders.”(www.history.state.gov). The Communist Party was so connected to the people because they were so dedicated to China and they were able to gain popularity by the poor and scared citizens. The Soviet Union also helped them by setting them up for success and practically gave them land they held in China while the US was helping the Nationalist Party during the Japanese invasion as all part of the beginning of the cold war. After failed amendments by 1946 China was in a full civil war, communists vs nationalists. The black and white photo shows Chinese troops using supplies from the Japanese invasion to fight the nationalists. Finally on “October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war.”(www.history.state.gov). By becoming a communist country China was able to jump back into the world from the terrible aftermath of British imperialism. The photo showing a parade definitely shows how the people, particularly the military, were walking proudly on the day of the announcement of their side winning. Under Mao Zedong agricultural production rate rose and the economy increased. Everything seemed great until the great famine caused by misuse of supplies ensuring more chaos by killing millions of people. However without all that chaos caused by the new government China wouldn’t have learned from its mistakes and rose from the ashes of its once proud empire into a communist country that now borrows capitalist tendencies while thinking as socialists. Through its growing economy China has become a resource to many countries with all of its industries and factories. Now China has the upper hand by using the power of other countries debts to its advantage.

The debt crisis officially started in the 1980s in Latin America, then in mid-2000s in Europe and the United States. The debt crisis is “the general term for a proliferation of massive public debt relative to tax revenues”(en.wikipedia.org). China fits into this because they are one of the huge economic superpowers of the world and export a wide variety of supplies, clothes, and food to countries all over the world. Usually when someone goes out to buy a shirt at Walmart it will more than likely say made in china, probably nearly identical to the tag in the photo. Western countries rely so heavily on China’s economy and its ability to export that it is scary. An example of why this is so scary is that “the Canadian economy’s growing correlation to China is becoming apparent too. While America’s S&P 500 stock index is at the same level it was a year ago, the Toronto Stock Exchange Composite has been more closely tracking Chinese indexes. As of mid-May, the TSX was down 14% over the previous 12 months, remarkably similar to the 15% decline in the Shanghai Composite and 14% on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. Money invested in Canadian equities is considered risk capital by the global investment community, in other words, just like money invested in emerging markets.”(www.canadianbusiness.com). Now a grade twelve student probably has no idea what that quote meant at all so I will translate it.  The S&P 500 is the Americans way of tracking 500 large companies capitalization in there stock market, and TSX stands for the Toronto Stock Exchange. The fact that the TSX is so similar to to the Shanghai Composite, a market index for China, and not the United States means we are moving away from their market closer to China’s. Equities are values and shares a company issues.  The fact that Canada is investing equities means how our economy trusts the Chinese market, especially when dealing with risk equities. Even as early at 20019 as shown in the graph China is passing the US as the world's largest economy, and is becoming one of the best. Their economy and stock market now is starting to show how powerful China once was before the British imperialists used military action and opium to destroy them.  China is making a comeback in what it did best, their market strategies. Since China is so prominent now in the global economy they have a lot of influence over money, but they also have an even bigger influence in the UN.
In the UN China is one of the big five; next to Russia, United Kingdom, France, and the United States. China is one of the big five because of its large population, and the UN thought it would be the best country to represent Asia. The country also fought on the victor's side in World War II, which is probably why Japan wasn't offered the spot because they were on the opposing side. Since China is officially one of the big five it has the power to veto, which is a big deal. The power to veto enables China "to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" resolution, as well as decide which issues fall under "substantive" title."(en.wikipedia.org). This means that if China doesn't like a draft the UN is considering, it doesn't matter how many other countries like it China can scrap it using its power to veto. The fact that China has so much power in the UN shows how big it influences the World. Yes, the West makes up the majority of the big five but China is considered equal to them.  

                    This last video clip basically sums up what I've been trying to prove in a minute, that China's power is growing. China's economy is bouncing back dramatically since it had fell under British imperialism. By changing its government from a monarchy, to a republic, then into communism the country was able to adapt into the super economy it is today. Now it has control over global affairs in the UN so it can use its power to veto to get what it wants. In conclusion the West's influence will decline in the future because like an empire it will fall and China will take over again as one of the biggest economies and country's. This is because money is power and China has a lot of it. 

Citations 

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                  "China's Economic Slowdown a Threat to Canada." Canadian Business. N.p., n.d. 
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     chinas-economic-slowdown-a-threat-to-canada/>.  

                "The Chinese Revolution of 1949." Office of the Historian. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 
     Jan. 2016. <https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/ 
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             "Communist entering Beijing in 1949." Office of the Historian. N.p., n.d. Web. 
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            "Debt Crisis." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. 
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            "Its official-China surpasses US as world's largest economy." FTAlphaville. 
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     China-US.jpg>.  

            "(no name)." China.org.cn. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. 
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            "(no name)." Is it Appropriate for Obama to sell Birther T-Shirts? N.p., n.d. 
     Web. 25 Jan. 2016. <http://patrick.wagstrom.net/resources/images/blog/ 
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            "The Qianlong Emperor in his Old Age." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. 
     <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor#/media/ 
     File:Portrait_of_the_Qianlong_Emperor_in_Court_Dress.jpg>. 

          "Russia, China veto Assad to quit." Reuters. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. 
     <http://reuters.tumblr.com/post/17038027174/ 
     russia-china-veto-un-resolution-telling-assad>. 

         "United Nations Security Council veto power." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 
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       Videographic: which country has the biggest economy? Youtube. The Economist, 
     n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/ 
     watch?v=Q_vJfIy1wpw>.