The Rise of China and Future of the West

emerging as major powers, many argue that U.S. dominance will soon be eclipsed, and what is known

1. Why are the centuries of the Tang and song dynasties in China sometimes referred to as a “golden age”?

As every day passes China grows stronger in every aspect and eventually they will be knocking on America’s doorstep in each of those categories. Economically, China is closing rapidly, but even the sleeping giant as Napoleon Bonaparte called it, has its limits. To be blunt, China is resource hungry and who knows what their country will do next. With the level of nationalism that their people have, China could go in multiple directions. For example, let us look at both China attempting to exert control over the South China Sea and also with the Senkaku Islands. Both of these areas are becoming more and more hostile, which ultimately could lead to deadly military engagements. With that being said, Blij also proposes an argument that I have been pondering for a while and that is a potential cold war between the U.S.A. and China. On the outside it seems as if there is a potential collision course to that conclusion. However, Blij does offer an interesting solution to this possibility and it is one that I believe should be the strongest takeaway. Blij suggests that trade, scientific, cultural and educational links and exchanges can be the solution to this issue. After all, China is responsible for many of the essential aspects to our life. Therefore, the least we as Americans can do is learn the various geographical aspects that encircle

China is one of the biggest countries along with Thailand and Japan who make goods for Australia. Being Australia’s third largest merchandise trading partner and seventh largest service export market in 2003, China might significantly affect the Australian economy through any changes made to its trade policies. A more liberal Chinese trade policy could increase Australia’s income in part through greater market access for its exports. Of every hundred dollars of national

One of the most vigorous debates focuses on the current status of the United States hegemony and whether or not it is in decline. This begs the question, if the United States is indeed declining in status, will it still be an influential player or not? I argue that the United States is losing its prominent position as the hegemonic leader of the world, but will still remain an influential player in global politics in the following decades to come. Its decline is an imminent result of their domestic issues, the violation of international laws and economic deficit, which have posed a grave and serious challenge for the United States. On the other hand, I propose that the United States will remain a dominant force due to its innovation,

The recent interactions of emerging and established states suggest that the existing standards of the current global economy are shifting. According to Stewart Patrick in his article “Irresponsible Stakeholders? The Difficulty of Integrating Rising Powers,” the United States must accommodate for emerging states within the global economy and refrain from enforcing their values of an open and liberal international economy in order to achieve effective cooperation. Similarly, Andrew Nathan and Andrew Scobell argue in their article “How China Sees America: The Sum of Beijingʻs Fears” that as China gains more influence within the global economy, the United States will have to respond appropriately to maintain its economic values. Both articles ultimately assert that

The opium wars revealed many problems with the relationship between China and The Western Powers, especially Great Britain. For example, China had fallen behind the rest of the world economy its technology due to the use of old aged traditions, another example being that once the trading started to expand and free trading was introduced relationships strained between china and The Western Powers, this was all due to the large influx of smuggled / traded opium. When the emperor tried to ban opium from being traded / smuggled into the country the English and the French decided to start two opium wars.

The United States and China have had a well-documented rocky relationship. It has become common knowledge that America is in debt to China for around a trillion dollars. With countries like the United States indebted to them, there seems to little doubt that China is well on it's way to becoming a super power. Author John Tkacik agrees with this notion, and suggests that all evidence points to China becoming a military superpower. He goes on to state that in less than a decade, China will become America's only competition for both military or strategic influences. On the other hand, however, author Samuel Bleicher disagrees due to the disadvantages of having a Communist government, as well as, weak economic, social, and legal structure. He

economies of both nations. This problem the United States must face is whether it ought

The United States held 24.6% of world income in 1980 and 19.1% in 2011. (Sachs 2012) Many also believe that China is set to become the world’s largest economy in the near future. However, the ‘danger’ for US power is not that China will become the strongest economy on the global scale. As Drenzer argues, China ‘won’t prosper economically, as it won’t embrace capitalism’. In the long run, the danger to the US is that US power will decline ‘on all fronts’, not just economically. (Drenzer, Rachman & Kangan)

Slaughter's preface. "...the rise of China as a major economic power has been overall very positive for the U.S. economy and the prosperity and stability of East Asia..." I beg to differ. Recently, as a result of China's expanding economy, there has been growing conflicts between China and the surrounding countries (including Vietnam). This shows how much China is growing, not only in terms of its economy, but also in its influence to other countries. Therefore I believe the United States must still assert its influence (dominance?) in order to maintain stability in the

Throughout most of history, East Asia and more specifically China has been the cradle of civilization. Only until a few hundred years ago did China and most of the developing world today regress into the states they have been for the past several hundred years. For the past 100 years the US has been the world’s most powerful country, economically, militarily, and culturally; however China is resurging and is now in a position that is equal and perhaps greater to the US’s power.

China, the creator of tea and silk went through a period where they had troubles with the west. This took place in the early nineteenth century. During this time china still thinks that they are the middle Kingdom (The center of the world). Great Britain has wanted to expand for years and get trade from other countries. China has not wanted to trade with Britain. China has not wanted to trade because of they are self sufficiece. China has been living by Confucian principles for the last thousand years, and does not want to change their way of life. The west really wanted China 's tea and silk so they kept trying to trade with china, but the problem was that great britain had nothing china wanted. Then one

Med Jones > Not at all, we see that as a realistic outlook. The forces of change existed throughout history, except now the international community is better at managing change than in the past. In fact, I'm more optimistic this time, the odds are in favor of peace more than wars. Globalization has many issues; however, one of the main benefits of globalization is that it created global companies and global markets that allowed investors and traders to share in the benefit of each other. Despite the intense competition, US and China has far more to gain from working together than fighting each other. As long as the communications, investments, and trade routes remain open, I'm not worried. As long as the cooperation activities are more than the competition, I'm not worried. I would worry when I see developments in the other direction.

Snyder claims that realism failed to predict the Cold War. Given this, Mearsheimer states “China cannot rise peacefully.” Since realists describe the world as a self-help system, according to Posen, every country “must look to its own interests relative to those of others” and because “security is the preeminent issue in an anarchic world, the distribution of capabilities to attack and defend should matter.” Thus, because China’s strive for regional hegemony inevitably threatens the power dynamic of the global system, the U.S. will, according to Mearsheimer, take an offensive realist approach that will eventually lead to war. In addition, as seen in post-Cold War, economic stability greatly determines the distribution of power. Friedberg notes, that the projected “speed and magnitude of China’s growth in recent decades appears to be unprecedented” and as early as 2015, “China’s economy could overtake that of the United States.” Although the U.S. faces an unprecedented challenge to economic power, according to Ikenberry, China has signaled cooperation by “redoubling its participation in existing institutions, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit or working with the other great powers in the region to build new ones.” Nevertheless, following the actions of the U.S. post WWII, China strategically makes “itself more predictable and approachable” to reduce “the incentives for other