"Any votes on China being the worlds next super power?"
You can bank on it.
And they're essentially doing it in some ways that the US did. By cornering global manufacturing. Made doable by the use of an essentially unlimited supply of super cheap labor, unencumbered by unions, labor laws or human rights, and with a total disregard for any environmental impact by said manufacturing processes.
And soon China will start to "protect" thier international "interests." They'll have to secure sources for steady, reliable natural resources (oil) while subjugating competative threats (Taiwan) and to do so they wil need to be sure they have the means to do it against an old superpower such as the US. A "superpower" who's stretched to the max trying to fight a war in Iraq against just guerrillas and terrorists.
( you can bet that China does not want the US and UK to control the Middle East oil spiggot as China right now, I believe, is the largest consumer of petroleum products. They want access to it and they want it cheap. Fr sure they they've got a hungry eye on the fields in Siberia....)
