China as an emerging superpower

If any student of internatiuonal relations tells you that China is already a world superwoer, you may not agree with him/her. But if he says
by the time Malaysia reaches Developed Nation status, China with a current population topping 1.3billion would by 2020 become the top superpower -- even surpassing the USA -- you might just pause, then nod your head in agreement.

So if any Young Malaysians are misled by any Politikus here to think that "learning Mandarin be not be a high priority" to compete in the international marketplace,please pause and THINK TWICE. If anything there is to learn, keep abreast of world news such as this, on page W44 in The Star today, which flags off the story as LEAD headlined:

China to be a top world power
Multination survey: It will be a formidable rival to the United States by 2020

I reproduce the full contents from Da Horse's Mouth -- thanks to Reuters~~~


BERLIN: The United States will lose its position
as the world's undisputed leading power over the
next decade and a half, with China emerging as a
formidable rival. acording to a new survey from
Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation.

In the survey, based on interviews witof 10,250 people
worldwide, 57% of of respondents said they believed the
United States would be a world power in the year 2020
compared to 55 percent who saw China in that role.

That compared to 81 percent who currently see the
United States as a world power and 45 percent who
believe China has already attained that status.

The survey, entitled “World Powers in the 21st Century,
was conducted by the Gallup and TNS Emnid polling
institutes in nine countries — Brazil, China, France,
Germany, India, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and
the United States — between October and December 2005.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 interviews were conducted in
each of the countries.

The survey showed the Chinese themselves are confident
they will gain influence on the global stage. A full 71
percent of Chinese respondents said their country would
be a world power by 2020, compared to 44 percent who see
China in that role today.

By comparison, 54 percent of Americans see China as a
global power in 2020, up slightly from the 51 percent
who already view China that way.

The survey showed that India would also rise as a world power,
with 24 percent of respondents assigning it that status in 2020
against only 12 percent today.

Besides the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and
Japan were expected to decline in status, shedding 11, 6, 5
and 5 percentage points, respectively in the next 15 years.

Of the respondents within those five declining countries, only those
in France went against the international trend and said their country
would gain in status from now until 2020 — with 33 percent of French
seeing their country as a world power today and 35 percent in 2020.





DIFFERENCES IN MILITARY POWER, TERRORISM

The survey showed that people in the nine countries considered
“economic power and potential for growth” as the most important
quality for a world power.

There was disagreement on the importance of “military power” as a
factor, with a third of respondents in China and the United States
listing it as crucial, but only 7 percent in Germany and 16 percent in
Japan viewing it as important.

There were also differences in how the countries viewed the main
challenges confronting the world. In seven of the nine countries, over
50 percent of respondents listed international terrorism as the chief
challenge.

But in China and Brazil less than a third of those surveyed put
terrorism in that category. The Chinese listed environmental
destruction
and scarcity of natural resources as top threats.

In only China and Germany was a majority of the population of the
opinion that peace and stability in the world could best be achieved
under the leadership of the United Nations.

Read "China to rival US as world power by 2020: survey" (Google-lah~~DEsi)

DESIDERATA:

This Bonus Post is mainly C&P but the contents speaks for itself.
I hope Malaysians would not continue to adopt a "blinkered views" of events taking place across the Globaliised Village that we live in today -- whether Ahmad, Ah Chong and Arumugam OR Tom, Dick and Harry like it or not.
THE COMPETITION TODAY IS NOT FROM FELLOW MALAYSIANS OF ANY PARTICULAR HUE -- IT STARES AT US FROM ACROSS THE REGION, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AS IT IS NOW A BORDERLESS WORLD.

Don't worry about Singapore with its 4.5million people. China with 1.3billion and India with 1.0billion (Hey, that's the numerals followed by NINE zeroes in case some writers, including economic/business journos, putting it down as SIX ZEROES! Don;t lauigh mGf, I have seen it with one senior Business Editor describing Malaysia's GDP in terms of XXXmillions! Buy me that teh-C lah and I'd give thee name/s. But pulleese bring along thy lwayer, a loyar buluk also-cun:(

SeeYa, I APologise if I spoil thy moUrn BF, Con or not, I don't care.
I have given thee a Bonus, and in such harsh hard times,
how often do you get such a generous gift. Yes/No/Maybe. Objective test
Universiti stylo. Change your life stylo if you ain't following Desi!:)