Is China A World Power?

A world power may be defined as a country, which has great political power, great military, great economy et cetera. The People’s Republic of China may have completed some of these criteria itself but it may not be considered a world power as some of the small factors are holding them behind. China may be a big country with large population, which face inequality, corruption, social stability and the Chinese environment that is not very grand for the health and also with it limited supplies and energy.

China claims that they are a communist state but they are just capitalist, under their current government. A lot of discrimination is there in the nation. Health for the Chinese isn’t very pleasant either for the country lack proper medication care and doctors. China is a capitalist state under the “Socialist republic” government. This has made many things difficult in China such as Human rights, freedom and equality.

The Chinese government are very tolerate people as they closed its door towards people, yet they declare an open door policy in the late 70’s and 80’s which is not true in all cases. The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us. ” was quoted by the Dalai Lama in 1991. Groups who fought for political freedom to be heard were jailed without trial and have been forgotten imprisoned. Religious freedom is another problem in China, as religions don’t get any freedom. All religions have to be within the communist party (they have to register within the government) and must be loyal to the Mainland.

This have caused many affairs with some religion for example Catholicism who is led by the Pope in Rome, China doesn’t allow that and they created the Chinese Patriotic Catholic- Association to replace Roman Catholic. Another unfair factor is that religious people aren’t allowed to work with the government as they say being openly religious can affect the economy. Other rights that people should have are No child policy where people can have as many babies, so no girls are being abandoned, Labour rights, as people should not have small wages for long hour of work.

China also has problems with the whole of African continent as they treated those Africans poorly during the 1990’s and in 2005 it still happen as Manfred Nowak (human rights lawyer) visited China to observe the country. He complained the officials for not letting him interview people and say what he want to say, he also said the discrimination can be seen widespread. The economy of the PRC has increased so much during the past 10 years. Their economy is fourth largest in the world.

The value of their Gross National Product was 2. 3 trillion in 2006, which is extremely high, but there’s one thing we shouldn’t be forgetting; they also have the largest population, which average the GDP per capita to roughly 1,000 whilst it’s around 25,000 in countries like Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark. As economy in China is rapidly increasing, it’s also facing labour shortage, wages demand and less service. Workers are quitting agricultural jobs to get industry job. The wages of worker have been raised to an average of  55 a month but as Industry increase, pollution increases.

China emits 19% of the world CO2 emissions that is a real shame. The Kyoto Protocol does not require China to reduce its emission, as their status is “Developing Country “not” Developed. A world health organisation reported that seven out of the ten most polluted are in China. 30% of acid rain falls on the country. It is estimated that 7% of the GDP per annum must be spend to control the environmental problem so far only 1% is spent on this trouble; this show China’s lack of environmental concern. Main economic area for China is it’s eastern coast where most of their economy rely.

This also create another problem, the equality of income isn’t same throughout China as it should be, City such as i??ri??mqi, Pi??king, Shanghai, Canton, Shenzhen et cetera receives most of the high income when city such as Lanzhou, Lhasa et cetera receives a lot lesser. Health of the Chinese can be considered as very poor at the moment that they were ranked 144 out of 191 by The World Health Report. The life expectancy for China s of 2006 is 73, this have been a huge improvement since 1950 when it was 32 but can still be considered low compared to countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Japan whose expectancy is over 80.

Their infant mortality currently is 23 per thousand people, which aren’t very bad compared to others for example Singapore and Japan. Health Development Index of the PRC is medium as it stood at 0. 768 as of 2007. As Chinese economy has grown rapidly, health problems also have. Some of the problems they face now are Air pollution (this killed 760,000 people per annum alone), cigarette smokers is also another problem as the number increases each year and Urban youngster can also be overweight as Chinese at average take in 2,940 calories a day (25% more than what Food and Agriculture Organisation suggested).

China lacks doctors, 680 people per one doctor doesn’t sound too bad but they still need more doctors so that those with sickness could be attended and cared for more. Schizophrenia are suffered 7. 8 million Chinese and only 60% is being cared for properly. Male also outnumber female in China as they have the superstition of , this leaves hundred of thousands baby girls orphaned. 2. 3 million is the number of the People’s Liberation Army, the largest force in the world plus it’s 500,000-reserve force.

The number have actually decreased from 4 million from 1980 compared to another emerging super power such as India who has an armed force of 1. 3 million from 500,000 in 1960s. Military personnel should not be all that counts but reserves should also be taken into account, China has a reserve force of five hundred thousand compared to Taiwan which has 1. 5 million. The result from 1980 is that their army have decreased twice the number from 1980 (from 120 divisions to 60).

The spending on military have also decreased. China can defend itself from foreign occupation and remain a regional status-quo power, but it is not a rising or threatening power” James H. Nolt, 2006 Chinese military use to create it’s own weapons but this stopped in 1980’s when their weapons were made of the very worst quality and workmanship. An Incident occurred when it sold Thailand and Burma what they claimed to be “A newly made chinese frigates” after the delivery both discovered that the vessels were purely rubbish that can’t float properly.

The Thais later demanded they give them a new one with an empty hull, as they’ll modernise it themselves. After all the Chinese military doesn’t seemed to be very strong as it’s viewed. Professor James H. Nolt even says it can’t even beat those of Vietnam, Taiwan or India. Their possession of nuclear weapons may fill them in for the nuclear criterion. They have never launched one before and stated it themselves that they will never use it, this have put them off for being a nation with nuclear power. Resources that China lacks can be a huge problem. It produces 6. tonnes of oil equivalent per capita and it consumes 7. 3, this is a huge problem they found a way to dealt with the way which is not very reliable.

In 2004 Wen Jinbao the prime minister offered Russia almost 6,000,000,000 for energy purchase. China therefore rely on Russia for energy, Russia could use this as a weapon and they did but not to China, In 2005 Vladimir Putin cut off energy supply to Ukraine as it wants higher price for energy. Russia may not be very reliable for this source either. Some of the other things they lack off may be public transportation where there s an average of 2 buses per one thousand people. Some of the children in China still lack education, as 10% of the children under age 15 are literate. With all these weaknesses revealed, does China fit in the definition of “World Power”: The answer is resounding no. Not now or anywhere in the future like others who say China will someday be a world power. Their current government won’t last longer than 30 years, when they collapse the idea of China being a world power will start to fade away and a more favourable China would be reality.