What Does a Chinese Superpower Look Like? Nothing Like the U.S.
China aims to expand its influence from one polar cap to the other. Debt, demographics and a middle income trap stand in the way.
A member of a Chinese scientific expedition team watches a penguin in Antarctica.
Photographer: Bai Yang/Xinhua/eyevine via Redux
What struck Wang Wen about Antarctica, beyond the brutality of the December cold, was the scale of U.S. operations in such an inhospitable environment and the American flag fluttering by the sign that marks the geographic South Pole. Observing the academic mission of hundreds of U.S. scientists in a region rich in resource potential, he was determined that China must catch up.
The report Wang wrote this summer for the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, where he’s executive dean, reflects China’s growing dilemma as it muscles its way into an international system it didn’t create.