China's Potential as a Global Superpower

This essay discusses the potential of China in becoming the next superpower based on political and cultural factors. It explores China's aggressive stance in international relations, its economic stability and investments in infrastructure development, and its growing influence in global trade. The essay also examines China's cultural dominance and limitations in terms of political regime and international relationships.

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International relations
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Introduction
In the recent time, China is the one country that poses challenges to the dominance of the
United States in the global scenario. This is mainly fueled by the enormous economic growth
being experienced by China in the last few years. Thus, there are number of arguments being
placed about the potential of China in becoming the next superpower in the world (Breemmer,
2013). However, in order to conclude this statement, more detailed review is important mainly in
terms of the political and cultural factors. Recently, the activities of China in the global scenario
got multiplied in terms of different perspectives and all these factors are denoting that China is
having the potential of becoming the next superpower (Beeson, 2013).
This essay will discuss about the potentialities of China in becoming the next superpower
based on political and cultural factors. In addition, different initiatives being taken by China in
the recent time will also be discussed to have the understanding about the extent to which China
can become superpower. The areas where they are still lacking will also be identified in this
essay.
Potentialities of China in becoming superpower
In the recent time, China has taken aggressive stance in dealing with the international
relation, which is much similar to what the United States has done in late nineties. One of the
recent instances is the trade war between China and the United States. Even though the trade war
between these two countries got emerged due to the tariff imposition of Donald Trump, but the
counter measures being taken by China denotes that they are ready in dealing with the current
superpower (Xuetong, 2013). This is one of signs that China is having the potentiality of
becoming a superpower. Another instance of the political aggressiveness of China is the conflict

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with India, its neighboring country. Both these countries are having conflict from years but in the
recent time, it got escalated. It is accused that China is building string of pearls around the India
to surround them. With the help of the economic stability and condition, China is continuously
investing in the infrastructure development in other countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Maldives and Sri Lanka. China is having their infrastructure in all these countries and these may
be used as military base in case of war. This strategy is also in line to the foreign military bases
of the United States (Ghemawat & Hout, 2016). The economical condition of China is also
allowing them to invest in different countries as aid. According to the report of Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development, China is ranked at first position as of 2016 in terms of
providing aids. It is reported that China has provided more than $350 billion of aids to different
countries between 2000 and 2014 and supporting more than 4000 projects across the world. Thus
amount is quite higher compared to the aid offered by the United States. This factor is also
denoting that that China is having the capability of worldwide influence much similar to that of
the United States (Van Ness, 2018).
The pushing of the Chinese government in changing of the currency of the global trade
and transactions from US Dollar to renminbi is showing their political strength. One of the major
characteristics of the superpower is the popularity of their currency in the global trade and
transactions. Currently, the capability and economic superiority of the United States is
supporting the popularity of Dollar as the global currency but the recent trend in relation to the
global trade is also inclined towards China (Grinin, Tsirel & Korotayev, 2015). Thus, the
growing influence of China in the global trade scenario is further pushing the popularity of
renminbi in becoming the global currency. Also, China is the only Asian country in the five

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permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. This also denotes that China is
having all the required characteristics of becoming the global superpower.
In terms of the cultural factors also, there are number of factors that denotes that China is
having the potentiality of becoming the global superpower. Chinese movies are becoming highly
popular in different countries and they are being further pushed by the government as a tool for
soft power. Chinese movie stars such as Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee are highly popular across the
world and denote the soft power of China. In addition, the Chinese cuisines are also popular
across the world, which also denotes the social influence of China in the world. China is also
acting aggressive in pushing their cultures beyond their national boundary by practicing
sinocentrism, which denotes the approach of considering the Chinese culture as the most ancient
culture in the world and terming other cultures as the offshoot of it (Garcia, 2014). This denotes
the cultural dominance that China is possessing. This can also be comparable with the cultural
characteristics of the United States. This is due to the reason that united States are long accused
for cultural imperialism across the world. Thus, it can be concluded that China is having all the
required characteristics in terms of the political and social factors to become the global
superpower (Schweinberger, 2014). However, it should also be noted that the above stated
factors can help China in becoming the global superpower to an extent and there are other
limitations also for them that should be mitigated. The following section will discuss about these
limitations of China in becoming the global superpower.
Limitations of China in becoming the global superpower
In terms of the political factors, one of the major limitations of China is their political
regime. This is due to the reason that communist regime is being followed in China with number

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of limitations and restrictions on the private business transactions. However, on the other hand,
the global economy is majorly based on the open market and capitalist approaches and hence the
policies of China may not get aligned with the global trend (Brooks & Wohlforth, 2016).
Moreover, the higher government interference in the business transactions will also go against
China in becoming the global superpower. For example, the major reason for the failure of Uber
in China is the government interference. Hence, it can be concluded that if the foreign
investments in China cannot be seamless, then it will also lose its potentiality in the global
scenario (Blanchard, 2015). These complexities will act against China in becoming the
superpower. China is one of the small groups of countries, which is having unfavorable
international relationships with majority of the other economic superpowers and leading
countries especially with the western countries (Dibb & Lee, 2014). This is due to the fact that
majority of the policies of China in relation to their global influence are being considered as
unethical and this negative impression will also prove hindrances for China in becoming the
superpower. Even though China is making huge strides in line of the globalization, their internal
economic condition is not stale. This is due to the reason that majority of the revenue inflow in
China is due to their state owned enterprises and not the global organizations. However, these
enterprises will not be effective in the global scenario as they will not have the acceptances in
foreign countries (Pu, 2017).
In terms of the cultural factors, the official language of China Mandarin is not as popular
and well penetrated as English across the world. Almost all the countries across the world are
having English speaking community, which is not the case for Mandarin. Thus, it will be a major
limitation for China in maintaining their cultural influences across the world. Moreover, the
power distance between the Chinese cultures with others in the global scenario is much higher

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than that with the American culture. This will also pose challenges for China to have social
influences across the world. As discussed earlier, China is having issues with number of leading
countries across the world and social influence of China will not be effective in these countries.
Hence, it is difficult for China to ensure the social and cultural influences as the United States in
the global scenario.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that China is having the potentiality of becoming the
superpower in the world considering their economic viability. However, on the other hand, there
are few limitations also to be faced by China, which will pose hindrances for them in becoming
the global superpower. In this essay, it is identified that Chinese economy is actually helping
China to create the political and cultural influences across the world. This is also enabling them
to become the global hub of business. However, their political economies with majority of the
countries across the world are the major challenge for them. In addition, the practices being
followed by China in creating their influences in the foreign countries are also majorly
considered as unethical. Hence, this essay concludes that China can become superpower in the
future but still there are areas, which should be improved to be at par with the United States.

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