US now calling China out as a superpower

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
I've noticed over the past few weeks that the narrative from the USA is that China is now a superpower.

"Speaking in a radio interview, Pompeo called China’s behavior in stealing intellectual property “inappropriate” and “not consistent with being a superpower or a leader in the world.”"

Reuters
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"SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis tried to lower the temperature on the array of hostilities between Washington and Beijing on Thursday, saying it is up to the militaries of the two competing global superpowers to act as a stabilizing force amid rising political tensions."

New York Times
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"The two superpowers have already scaled down several high-level security engagements amid ongoing trade concerns."

CNBC
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AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Typical hyperbolic rhetoric preceding the upcoming midterms.

No, the midterms are only peripheral. I think it's part of the sea change is how the USA now views China.

On the one hand, it does show that the USA is respecting/taking China a lot more seriously.

But China still views itself as a developing country on average, which is correct given its income levels.
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Once China reaches its potential... "superpower" wouldn't begin to describe it. There's just no word for what it would be.

True, but let's take the comments that have been made in the past month.

Secretary of State Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mattis have BOTH publicly called out China as a superpower.

In other words, the USA is publicly acknowledging to the world that the USA is no longer the world's sole superpower.

That is a huge change in China-US relations, and their views are now being rebroadcast into the mainstream media.

I'm surprised that this hasn't been discussed in more depth, and what this means.
 

Icmer

Junior Member
Registered Member
It doesn't mean much. False flattery (in the same vein as Trump calling Xi his "great friend.") Few members of the public know what the academic definition of "superpower" entails. Pew Research shows that a greater number of Americans thought China was the world's leading economy as far back as 2010.

FT-us-v.-china-chart.png
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
It doesn't mean much. False flattery (in the same vein as Trump calling Xi his "great friend.") Few members of the public know what the academic definition of "superpower" entails. Pew Research shows that a greater number of Americans thought China was the world's leading economy as far back as 2010.


Actually it does mean a lot, because it is the key decision makers in the US government who are promoting this view.

It also means is that the USA is implicitly signalling a G2 world
 

Icmer

Junior Member
Registered Member
Actually it does mean a lot, because it is the key decision makers in the US government who are promoting this view.

It also means is that the USA is implicitly signalling a G2 world

Actions speak louder than words. Certainly the US attempting to stifle the development of high-value technologies by China does not speak to their willingness to see China become a superpower. Also, such statements are aimed at the US domestic audience, and as such their calling China a superpower does not mean much (since the public knows very little about what "superpower" in an academic sense means, never mind whether their perceptions of relative global power are accurate).

These are people who have sat on the same council as those who speak of "Death by China" (Navarro) and compare China to Nazi Germany (Bannon). Their boss is clearly receptive to such attitudes, and he's the one who holds the real power in the executive branch - in the end, Pompeo and Mattis have to defer to Trump. In fact there are even rumors of Mattis being pressured to resign as SecDef since Trump is beginning to think he's a RINO.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
During Obama's first year in office at the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen, they went out of their way to call China a superpower in order to dictate to China its responsibilities as a superpower. It was an end around to thinking they can manipulate China into obeying things they were demanding on China long before. They don't get to define what a superpower is. The so-called" superpowers fear China. They don't have the power to stop China without suffering severely with or without knowing the end the result will be in their favor. It just shows how weak they are that they're relegated to playing these mind games.
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
If you are in the UN Security Council you are a major power. Period. Not that this is the only criteria. But it is basically a form of recognition of that status by the other powers.
All UN Security Council member nations have nuclear weapons and a second strike capability. Each of them has the capability to produce its own weapon systems. Any of them have economies which can raise million men equipped armies if they so wish. All of them can project power with expeditionary forces. What distinguishes the USA and the other naval empires before it, is its capacity to regulate sea trade. China has realized this for a long time. The Soviet Union never quite had this capability. What they did have was the capability to do sea denial in their own waters and influence global events with their large economy with a high population, at the time, and vast natural resources.

China still has a lot of structural weaknesses so I think it cannot fight the USA in a conventional war and win right now. But they do not need to. I think the next decade will determine who comes ahead for the next 50 year period. Remember the USA achieved its so called superpower status basically by remaining mostly outside WWII and profiting tremendously after it because it was a continent away and all its infrastructure was intact. I think in this regard the USA are starting to have a sort of sense of invincibility much like the one the Japanese used to have and this is basically dangerous for them as it leads them to continuously do imperial overreach. The USA has in my opinion more internal risks than external risks.
 
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