China Skepticism

China <i>is</i> a super power. I don't believe poor living standards preclude it from being so. The Chinese exert huge influence over the Asia region. It's why your starting to see USA place a lot of emphasis on a military presence in the Asia region.<p>The interesting thing is a lot of the countries in the Asia/Pac region primarily trade with China, even US allies (e.g. Australia). If the US starts to get agressive (in the cold-war sense) within the region, at what point does economics trump allies?

&#62;Of course, it is all economic waste, since none of the skyscrapers are occupied. No forces of demand or supply, no consumption locally of the product (people can’t afford it).<p>I'm not qualified to judge how sustainable the whole Chinese system is, but what the author is saying here is simply untrue.

First of all I don't understand why this is HN-worthy.<p>China was a super power before, I mean, long before there was a USA. There is no reason why it can't be again. And keep in mind that Germany became a super power from nothing in less than 50 years.

Unless China starts developing internal economy as well, they will not stay as regional super power.<p>I am sure one billion suppressed people are going to rise against tyranny of few ruler in coming future.

I learnt long ago that one can not learn anything about China from an Indian, about India from a Pakistani and so on....<p>I checked the title of the article, read about a para and decided to check the name of the author. That was the end of it.<p>I hope to hear a few things about China from a chinese one day. Everyone else is either jeolous or afraid or angry or something else that gets his/her skin in the way of a fair argument.

"When, and it’s a question of when, and not if, the crash happens – which could be the collapse of exports, the internal property waste bubble bursting, the GDP will see a very severe contraction"<p>wait what? i missed the paragraph founding this claim. especially important because you're basing other claims on this.

I had to laugh when I read this:<p>"there are highways in China, where one can drive for hours and see very few cars"<p>So does the United States.. Both China and the US are pretty big countries you know..<p>Other than that. Not sure what to think of the article.

Short answer. No.<p>A true 'super power' in the modern sense is not the strength of its hard military power but its soft power. The USA influences the world through technology and culture on a level that China will never be able to match without major internal changes. The fact that it still chooses to push its smaller neighbours around is an example of this.