Either way, I will miss you and your belittling posts of others. Now there is one less person in which will argue against Americans who say America won WWI for the allies, or that China isn't a superpower, or those who think the West should continue to invade Central Asia.
China isn't a super power. They are struggling for regional dominance. That sentence alone should speak volumes on the direction the CCP wants to go.
You become a superpower when you have nukes and a military force capable of invading and occupying an overseas nation. I believe china met those requirements years ago. Later, pigy. Poke in from time to time like i do rather than commit to it. That way its more on your own terms. Hope i still see you around here bud. If not, im sure you know youre in my top 5 forumers of all time. This is a sad day for kaw forum.
@Kitten, you know the US won World War 2. If Lycan was around he would want someone to tell you all about it.
Rip Lycan, I'll miss his anti American posts. I guess he'll never know why we call football what it is today.
I would not consider North Korea to be superpower. It has nukes and the military capacity to conquer a small nation in Africa or a nation such as Honduras, but I wouldn't consider it a superpower.
Good point Devil. Israel has nukes. It can invade and occupy *cough* others land. They surely are not a super power. Russia? I think they are closer than China. Especially long term. At least potentially under optimal circumstances.
I think China has better long-term potential to become a superpower than Russia. China has a population 10x larger than Russia and an economy larger than Russia, and, with 20-30 years, a military more advanced than Russia. Russia will have to fix itself and join the EU if it wants any more considerable power in the world. Currently the EU and American sphere of influence is dominating the Russian sphere (which is now quite small in comparison to 50 years ago), which now doesn't even have the majority of Ukraine. Eventually it will have to give up Crimea in favour of economic growth. With the new sanctions, Russia will fall economically behind the other East-European nations who are in the EU already. China, on the other hand, is growing rapidly. It has increasing relations and trade deals with other nations, a growing military, and economic growth unmatched by other large nations.
China will have issues meeting it's energy needs. That's why they are trying to push their limits in the South China Sea. Growth has slowed, and Hong Kong isn't happy with its current condition. What you see as a strength the population, I see as a short coming. The food supply could also be a issue. They say they have it covered, but that many people. I doubt that. Russia on the other hand has the world largest country. With a abundance of untapped energy. And largest of the polar claims in the north. With a population fairly stable at around 100,000,000. With close European ties. And Asian ties. I see them as being 1 up on China in soft power. Crimea will never be anywhere other than in Russian hands. Their nuclear arsenal and Chinese alliance will see to that. Now if we leap ahead some time. And we see a predicted warming of the globe. Russia benefit hugely. Opening up previously unusable lands. This is speculative. I see a lot of upside. Looking past current geopolitical hurdles.
Here's a example of oil production and consumption from BP. It's not the best looking chart out there but it shows what I want to show. I'm sure there are slightly conflicting numbers out there, but the differences will be marginal. Keep in mind this is oil and not gas.
Russia may be sustainable and may fair well in the long term, but it does not have the capacity for extreme growth, whereas China does. While Russia is limited by its population to be behind the USA economically for the next several decades (unless something crazy happens), China is predicted to economically surpass the USA, as well as the EU relatively soon. It will not take long after that for even its military and research capacity to surpass them as well. I think that a comparison between Russia and China to see who is more powerful is a little redundant at this point in time. You see analysts on TV discussing if (or when) China will surpass the USA, but you never see them discussing if Russia will pass the USA. China's population WILL work towards its advantage. They will use their population in a similar way that the USA did. They will initially work on production and get their GDP higher than their competitors, then use that money to build up secure trade networks and special access to trade that other nations cannot be a part of. However, once the Chinese people start making enough money, production costs will increase and the production industry will slow down. At this point in time it will likely be at least 2x the size of the USA (if not more) in terms of GDP. (If had same per capita GDP, China would still be over 4x richer)
I like Chinese food. Russia has extremely sexy accents. I'm so confused. Lycan, you need to come back and help us.