China Rising

China's rise
by DOUG KANTER, KRT

CHINA RISING: If the 20th was the American century, the 21st may belong to China. Just five years into it, China has become the world's third-largest trader, one of its fastest-growing economies, a rising military power in Northeast Asia and a global player extending its influence in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

ENERGY: Barely a dozen years ago, when China's lamps still burned low, the country didn't need deep-sea oil ports, massive tank farms and a brawny foreign policy to procure oil in far-flung spots. Today, China is an oil-guzzling dragon with a voracious thirst.

MILITARY: The course of the 21st century will be determined in part by the relationship between China and the United States. In many ways, relations are healthier than ever. But the two nations remain potential adversaries, plotting in war games how to thwart each other.

INTERNET: China pours huge resources into filtering online content, stifling anything that might threaten Communist Party rule. Each incoming user must give a name and address, then hand over identification to a clerk. Closed-circuit TV cameras monitor from overhead. Every computer terminal is loaded with software to track all activity. If a user heads toward a prohibited Web site, cafe employees know right away.

ENVIRONMENT: China's environmental woes are so large that they've begun to generate social instability. Choking on vile air, sickened by toxic water, citizens in some corners of this vast nation are rising up to protest the high environmental cost of China's economic boom.

TECHNOLOGY: A look around China shows a handful of surprising advances in scientific niches, such as gene research, biomedicine and certain aspects of electronics. China's technological capacity is beginning to climb.

SOFT POWER: From Jakarta to Vancouver and on to New Delhi and Chicago, surging interest in studying the Chinese language is just one gauge of the greater magnetic pull that China exerts after two decades of galloping economic growth. China is wielding more clout around the globe, shaping up as a counterweight to the United States in fields as divergent as diplomacy, trade and language.

GOVERNMENT: The Communist Party clutches Mao as a monumental figurehead, 29 years after his death. Party leaders won't let go of him as long as they retain their monopoly on political power. But Mao's ideas appear to have little relevance.

CONCLUDING THIS SERIES: In barely three decades, China has thrown up endless high-rises, shopping malls and highways. It's sending astronauts into space, building a powerful military and filling store shelves worldwide with low-priced manufactured goods. Starting in 2007, Chinese-made cars may hit U.S. showrooms. The Chinese feel great optimism, even as other nations temper their admiration of the rising dragon with some measure of fear.