How long will it take until China overtakes the US as the most powerful country in the world?

Dude where have you been

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You do know that 90% of everything sold in the stores comes from China

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And to take over America happen when old man Walmart passed away and the kids took down those

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By American signs when you walked into the stores remember those signs Man I Do

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And when Walmarts says it is coming down baby

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You can bet it is over

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Oh and just look at Ford motor company in talks with China's Chery auto manufacturing to make guess what

You said it Ford Cars

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And look at the motorcycle icon Harley Davidson where its production parts are coming form Not America Vietnam and China no joke either I have a Harley and when I found out for sure cause I saw the parts box's coming into Tricountry Harley outside Cincinnati I was shocked

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So need I say more it has already happen

With out a shot being fired

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And one last thing China can rule the world by the threat of a Trade embargo against any country that does not do what they want

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And they got an army the size of the population of America seeing that they have 1 out of every 4 people on earth living there

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Not in the foreseeable future. Militarily they aren't in our league--and won't be. You are right about it not being about military power, however. Economics is far more important. And there China has no chance of overtaking the US.

Look, I'm fully aware of all the pundits who have already decided China is the next great economic power and will soon eclipse the US. They are the same ones who said Japan would do that back in th e1980s. Didn't happen--but in that case at least they had a plausible arguement.

Now, the argument is based soley on China's population. Well, if that were important, Britain would never have been the economic power in the 19th century--they were far smaller than a dozen other advanced nations. And China and Inda would have been the world leaders for centuries. They aren't.

Quality is what counts, not quantity. China does not have a true capitalist system--they have a form of mercantile fascism subject to a dictatorship. That 's fine for some short term gains--but not for sustained or competative growth. The signs of China's failure are alrady obvious to anyone who can look past the hype and look at the facts. Thre's plenty--but here's jsut 2 of the more important reasons why China can't outstrip the US:

1)the economic growth in China is only a small part. The country has about 1.5 billion people. Only about one-fifth are even indirectly involved in the economic changes. The rest remain as they were--subsistance farmers. Even the Chinese governmnet admits to 150 million living on less than $1/day (that's the poverty levelin Africa)--and who knows what the real figure is. Point--you cannot have a society in which 80% of the population is still peasants and expect the rest to make a nation dominant in today's world.

2) China's energy policy is based on coal as a primary source. Now--here's a lesson from history: energy technology is the single most important criterion to economic growth. And coal is obsolete. Wind, nuclear, solar--all are now comparable to or less expensive. Within 10 years we will have large scale implementation ofthese technologies, producing more enrgy for less. China has committed themselves to a dead end technological infrastructure that is going to price them right out of the world's markets.

Finally--you need a stable political system to be economically competitive. You CANNOT have a dictatorship, as China does, and have the open society a true capitalist economy requires. It's been tried time and time again by elites who did not want to let go of absolute power. You either get a failed attempt at capitalism, or political chaos that brings down the existing power structure. Either way, you won't get real capitalism for at least a generation beyond tha tpoint.

China could surpass the US. But not in less than 50-75 years. And even that is growing increasingly unlikely.

well it might of already happened. The usa is in about 7 trillion dollars of debt and a lot of it is to china. Their military is highly trained, well equipped an disciplined. Just because they are not on the worlds stage flexing their muscles dosent mean that they are not a force to be reckoned with, economically or militarily.

My concept is that once the availability of oil runs out, the chaos of repurposing u . s . a .'s infrastructure will destabilize each and every thing, and let China an probability to attain extra skill. possibly 30 years? 50? individuals don't have a tendency to seem more effective than 4 to 10 years ahead. China makes plans centuries ahead. i imagine they're going to take over eventually.

Hey, if a government can get into power and after eight years have turned the nation around from actually having money to owing over 11 trillion dollars, surely another government can turn it around again, eh?

After all, it's only paper. Admittedly, it is 11,000,000,000,000 bits of paper, but it's paper all the same and the gummint can always print more, apparently.

economically - very soon (look how mucked up u.s. economy is now!! + China holds most of the U.S. debt in treasury bonds, so America may have to suck up to China)

military - conventional weapons, U.S. is better, but china has more soldiers, and if ever it gets to nukes (pray to god that it never does), both countries have enough to annihilate each other.

socially - China has a huge population, it will take a while for China to earn enough money so that everyone has as much as the average american (and Global warming will probably screw the world before that happens). However, china has horrible human rights - with the current govt., this may never catch up to the USA

The Beijing Olympics were to showcase what is already being called The Chinese Century.

To a degree it already has. When you have 1.3 billion people that is a lot of economic activity no matter how many are poor. They also are a net creditor while the United States is now a net debtor.

CHINA as ive said before, is facing huge economic problems,when these hit home it will be in very serious trouble,it will never be a Superpower the way usa is.

Already happened. Look at the place everything you buy is made. And America has lost it's manufacturing base. We are clerks and merchants of other economies' goods.

Already happened.