China is playing an ever-increasing role in global politics. Their economic growth is astounding; here's an excerpt from the most recent
Foreign Affairs (from an excerpt that appeared on their webpage) that goes into detail on that:
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Originally Posted by The world's most populous nation has radically liberalized its economy and gone from producing low-quality and simple exports to sophisticated high-technology goods, while nurturing a vibrant private sector and attracting nearly $500 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI). The country has turned into a formidable exporting machine: China's total exports grew eightfold -- to over $380 billion -- between 1990 and 2003; and its exports in the electronics industry now account for 30 percent of Asia's total in that sector. China's share of global exports will reach 6 percent in 2003, compared to 3.9 percent in 2000. Last year, China accounted for 16 percent of the growth in the world economy, ranking second only to the United States.
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The jumps in numbers over such incredibly short lengths of time is a large indicator of one thing: China's becoming more and more important to the global economic front.
On top of that, China's also becoming more relevant regarding politics. The recent North Korean situation, with China helping significantly with the discussions over how to handle the crisis, are just one example of this. They are also tremendous militarily, with the world's second-largest army and huge amounts of money poured into military spending.
China's basically becoming extraordinary powerful in terms of global politics. What effect, if any, do you think this has had/will have on the world as a whole?