What is a “Superpower”? This term is often used to describe a country that has achieved the most influential status in the international affairs owing in its political, economic, military and other spheres.
Since Cold War in the modern world, the United States of America has been the world superpower. Sometimes the superpowers reach such a level of the interior development that they can influence the affairs not only on the regional level, but on the global as well, and, therefore, they are considered as the world hegemon(1) .
The superpower may be measured by five main axes of power: military, economic, political, and cultural (or what a political scientist Joseph Nye has named as “soft”), as well as the area of its influence. All these dimensions make up a real superpower.
The times are changing, and on the international arena there gain the influence new superstates, among which is China. Its way to the global dominance has begun since the Mao’s death in 1976, when the new leader, Deng Xiaoping, commenced a series of reforms that radically changed China. Deng Xiaoping encouraged international trade and allowed foreign capital investment. The result has been a China’s phenomenal entry into the world markets and a booming economy. The specific aim of these policies was to obtain large foreign exchange earnings, which would allow China to both modernize and become more independent. Following his death in February 1997, the current leader, Jiang Zemin, consolidated his political power and entamed the great economic reforms in the country.
As China emerges as a global player it is crucial to understand what role it will play in Asia and the world. The key issue for China today is the domestic political stability. Any attempt to influence the status quo is not welcomed and it regarded as interference in the Chinese internal affairs. Many Chinese believe that the United States represents the core values of the Western civilization and, therefore, it is in conflict with the Eastern civilization which is represented by China. As a result, the Chinese leadership views any American influence as a challenge to China’s political stability.
China has embarked on an ambitious military modernization program. China’s economic growth has been key in the implementation of this program. However, due to the secrecy surrounding military matters, the actual military transformations are not easy to determine. Officially, China’s 1996 defence budget was 8.7 billion US dollars. Regardless of the independent opinions, the official Chinese defence budgets reveal a 200 percent increase from 1988.
China’s military sphere has undergone significant change in the last decade. The strategy of the armed forces has become more offensive oriented and it has recognized the importance of the modern military technology. China has started modernizing its armed forces as its equipment is obsolete. How quickly will China adopt the innovations? China’s high technology defence strategy is viewed as the driving force behind the nation’s development of science and technology. The emphasis of this policy seems to be on a high technology race with the West.
Finally, China has a very active space program and a desire to pursue an information dominance policy. China has plans to deploy a number of satellites which will focus on radar, electronic and electro-optical intelligence gathering, missile early warning, navigation and weather. There are also plans for signal intelligence sites and tactical reconnaissance vehicles. China also launched a program in 1992 to design a space shuttle.
How did China succeed in achieving such success? The answer is: the Chinese economy market, which is half state, half market economy. Such form of economy was popular in the United States and Europe, and Japan in the post-war period. It provided a high growth rate (up to 9-10% per year in the United States 1966 and 1967.) and an opportunity to improve quickly the standards of life. However, as soon as the West abandoned the mixed-regulated economy and started to build a neo-liberal utopia with immense privatization, the Western economy slowed down.
China is becoming a new superpower, which is focused on the development of the internal mighty while pursuing its global foreign policy interests. From a military point of view, China will concentrate primarily on its regional supremacy, because it affects the unity of the country. In other words, the transformation of China’s economy and society will play a crucial role in the world politics, as it affects the stability of the modern system of international affairs.
In its foreign policy China will continue its domestic transformation while assuring its stable access to resources and foreign markets. The Chinese government is well aware that today America plays a role of a global regulator. Consequently, China cannot take this role on by itself. The only alternative is the collapse of the modern balance of powers and the creation of a new world order.
Yet, the path of China towards a global hegemony is not easy at all. The lack of democracy in China forms an imminent threat for the USA and its allies as it can cause international instability, and, therefore, Beijing will be constantly the center of the international scrupulous attention.
(1) http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjir/6.1.03_miller.html, last consulted online 25.05.2013
