Capt. James Fanell warns about the rise of China

[Fidel_Castronaut]

This is the first time since the cold war that the west has to play with another dominant power.

What I will say about the Chinese however is that their economy is heavily reliant on exports. If the rest of the world suffers, they do too (as evidenced by the past 5 or so years following the credit crunch in the West). But their colonisation of East Africa has been rapid and almost undocumented. Quite scary really!

Also worth nothing that China is a de facto totalitarian dictatorship, so you can't expect it to play by anyone's rules except it's own when it comes to economics. It's a free market up till a point where the Communist party doesn't want it to be, meaning operating there can be difficult (impossible if you're facebook and google!). History tells us that economies that operate under a system that consistently fluctuates doesn't tend to have much longevity, meaning either a rejection of free market economics (no chance of that happening considering the dramatic rise in wealth and borrowing there) or a gradual, slow decline of authoritarianism. Or a big party, I dunno.