Would you agree that China is a house of cards and not a rising power?

As long as your economy is built around SELLING it can be very tough when you lose like your biggest customer, the US.


Thankfully the Tibet debacle is keeping the bureaucrats from threatening the US, posturing, allying with Russia and dropping warlike inuendos and hints to Taiwan's future as they build their military.

Would you agree that China is a house of cards and not a rising power?
Whoa... an EXCELLENT question, and not an easy one to answer. China is a complex country. It is a rising power by virtue of it's overwhelmingly HUGE population alone. As for it's economic power, that may well be a "House of Cards," but not one to be sneezed at. Of course, militarily, they may not be up-to-date with their technology, but they sure as HELL can overwhelm almost any enemy by numbers alone. It is truly a giant, and must be respected for that alone.





But China's economy is not merely built on selling alone. They are just beginning to step into the "consuming" spotlight, and their appetite may become so overwhelming that the entire world's economic stability may be thrown out of whack. Don't sell them short! While they are far from being a modern powerhouse, they are not a country that is going to go backwards. They WILL go forwards, and like Japan, they can do so very quickly when the "will" is there in the leadership.





I really do not think Tibet is something that concerns the Chinese leadership as much as you seem to think it does. I feel that they view it as a "minor land dispute" which is well under control. They really do NOT CARE what anyone else in the world thinks about what's happening in Tibet. They know that no country is going to attack China in an attempt to liberate Tibet, and they also know that no other country (except maybe those countries which control their oil imports) have any sort of power to mess with them sufficiently to put their cards on any negotiating table. Certainly the USA is COWARDLY when it comes to threatening the use of nuclear power, and wouldn't use it in an offensive manner... and China is NOT going to give the US any "excuse" to use it DEFENSIVELY.





Whew!! 'Nuff said! Thanks for the intellectual stimulus!








Have a right-wing day.
Reply:The Chinese are interested in "saving face," but deep down, they don't care, and feel themselves superior to the rest of the world. The only reason to put on a good show (face) is so the world will continue to deal with them and not isolate them, not that they care about what others think of them. Report It

Reply:No! China's economy is growing at the rate of 10% a year! At that rate, it doubles in size every 7.2 years! That's a rising power, not a house of cards!
Reply:Well, China is a package of firecrackers sitting inches from a fire. There are 900 million extremely poor people that are "hidden" in China that are getting fed up. China acknowledged this in its yearly National Congress session just a few weeks ago, but I think it is a little too late to avoid any unrest.





In the long term, China is going to need to put paramilitary troops across the country to prevent a collapse.





If China is able to have long term control of its masses then it will continue its goal of imperialistic expansionism into Taiwan, Mongolia, the Koreas, etc..
Reply:I would say that China is both a rising power and a house of cards that could come crashing down at any time. That is a very dangerous combination.
Reply:It is the US economy that is built around "selling" selling Chinese manufactured products. I guess you didn't get the memo that the manufacturing jobs are in Mexico and China.


If it is in fact a house of cards as you suggest, it will decay into fascism to control disorder. then we have a HUGE fascist state, that has our entire manufacturing sector thinking about who to welcome to their fascist state.


The strongest armies in the history were the ones that had a nationalist mentality that most Chinese already have.


A fight with China will make the fight with the Nazis look like tea time in Britain.





It would also destroy a lot of infrastructure, in may industrialized nations. that is why the wars are conducted in third world countries like a live chess game.
Reply:How about a compromise here... A rising house of Cards. China has always had unrest, and its leaders even from ancient time has always cracked down hard on any dissent, its a way of life for people in China being tortured by their government and its corrupt leaders, that's why they are much better at the patient protest thing, they understand that things wont change and if they fight they will die.
Reply:Lord no. The Chinese are on the way up, and if we don't watch out, they are going to overtake us economically in the next hundred years. The Chinese are disciplined, smart, industrious, and they don't whine as much as we do. They are on the up and up.
Reply:The have severe problems like all of their land turning into desert because all of the farming and development. Food shortages, lack of water, and crop failure would make for a miserabbly wobbly structure.
Reply:Thats true. China is really pushing its luck with the US. Since we hardly manufacture our own good anymore its gonna be a hard for our government to cut ties with China.
Reply:If China is indeed a house of cards, and experiences an economic collapse--look out! Wal-Mart will go out of business!