China will grow and be a major player, but it still lacks a lot of major things from preventing it from being a USA-type superpower:
- GDP per capita is still terribly low. Yes, its rising, but its still about 1/5th of most any developed nation.
- Too many people competing for too few resources (China could not support 1 billion people with an American or European standard of living)
- Horribly inefficient/corrupt authoritarian government
- Export-driven economy (what happens when the US or other nations cannot afford to buy Chinese goods any more?)
China will be a major power - easily the 2nd most important in the world. But there are just too many things going against it. The same can be said for India. Honestly, I believe Brazil would be a bigger player in the future than China, given its much more favorable demographics.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
