China's Potential as a Global Superpower

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
International relations
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1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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