China has been a growing power for the past century and now it is the changing power of the century, even challenging the United States. The People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949 following The Republic of China’s retreat to the island of Taiwan. Since then, China has formed itself with the goal of moving forward and now it is the main global power rival, challenging the US’s 30 years of being the sole superpower following the Soviet Union’s dissolution.

World Peace

China is leading the world by helping build peace, not war. China recently made two long-time adversaries open diplomatic relations and their embassies after decades of proxy fighting. Saudi Arabia and Iran met in Beijing and after talks they are now willing to work with one another and China. As of now, all three countries are now set to meet each other again in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. This is a repeat of history from when the U.S. brokered a treaty between Japan and Russia in 1905, but now it appears that the U.S. will be forced to hand the torch to the new world order led by China.

Climate Change

China is leading the world in fighting climate change compared to the United States by a long shot. NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, explains that China is leading the way as they have planted more trees than the rest of the world. China does not only lead the way with forestation, they also emit significantly less emissions. According to Statista, the U.S. emits 14.86 metric tons of CO2 per person while China only emits 8.05 metric tons of CO2. This also has the effect that developing nations look to China more and more as an example in the fight against climate change than the United States. 

Economic Policies

In terms of their economy, China has only a third of the United States’ debt to which is owed to China. This means that China is in a net surplus of wealth compared to the U.S., while the U.S. wealth keeps it reliant on China. China has overtaken the U.S. as the world’s top trading partner in most of the world, a trend that is less than 3 decades old and this trend is not stopping any time soon.

Expansion

The Belt and Road Initiative, B&R, is another strategy that the Chinese government is using to build the world’s key infrastructure. Under the B&R, China is investing in more than 150 nations around the world. The investments have brought a sticking point to the few nations that have not signed the document, including the U.S. and Western Europe that claims China is buying up Africa. China has responded to such claims by pointing out the hypocrisy due to the West’s own colonial past in developing nations.

Nationalism

Chinese people trust their government by a far larger margin than those in the United States. 89% of people in China trust their government, while in the U.S. 18% of Americans approve of the US government. When times get rough, like with COVID, having the trust in your government allows little in fighting and having a nation able to move forward. Chinese support for their government has allowed them to effectively execute the people’s will in their republic. By contrast in the U.S., 88% of the people support background checks on gun sales for decades yet no such bill has passed in the government. In turn, more governments look to China’s model of socialism and government as increasingly popular.

The U.S. is continuing to be surpassed and lagged behind China with their new world order of building peace, ending climate change, and building world trust in their socialist democracy. It’s only a matter of time before China is considered a world power that cannot be beat.