A Shift in the Balance of Power from the USA to China - Essay Example

This paper illustrates that while China balances precariously between the free market and an edgy military regime, the nation is surfacing as a formidable contender in the economic sector and an impending challenger for technological advantage. From the benchmark of Tiananmen Square in 1989 well into the first tender years of the Twenty-first Century, many in the West continue to view China with unease and distrust. From the appalling crackdown on the visionary expectation of the ardent student protesters some16 years ago to the subsequent repression of all political dissidence, Communist leaders have time and again tended to reassert a blind obeisance to a dogged system of harsh and mechanical one-party rule.

Equally alarming is the ostentatious display of military power in response to Taiwanese aspirations for independence over the last two decades, along with the troubling detection of furtive deliveries of military know-how to unstable areas in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. These measures scarcely serve to improve international confidence in the Chinese bid for a responsible position on the world stage of the new century. Admittedly China has recently begun to evince a new, less menacing and forward-looking stance toward proving itself as a responsible collaborator in global interaction as the nation begins to assume a substantial position in the world economy.

By assisting in negotiations on the Korean Peninsula, China, in effect, was able to take advantage of her influence in the region in the service of broader international concerns. Domestically, the Peoples Republic of China has taken steps to free a token number of leading political dissidents in response to Western appeals, and, in diverse rural villages, elections for local leaders have been authorized. Chinese rulers also seem to be dealing moderately with the lately re-annexed regions of Hong Kong and Macau, and so far seem to be restricting intimidation tactics to verbal posturing and a display of military muscle in response to Taiwanese desires for independence.