SUBJECT AREA Foreign Policy Executive Summary

Title: China: Will the 20th century giant become a 21st century superpower? I. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine if China will become a "superpower " by the 21st century. II. Thesis: Current indications are that China will become a major world power by the 21st century unless certain events slow it down. What are these factors and what effect could they have on the country. II: Data: While the superpower of the world are reducing their nuclear arsenal China is quietly enhancing its already formidable nuclear and conventional military capability. With the world's largest population of over a billion people China already enjoys the status of a giant on the international scene. Yet it is not regarded as superpower because of its inability to influence world events. The country's tumultuous political history from the time of the communist revolution shows how changes in leadership leads to changes in policy and, at times, is detrimental to the country's progress. Its relations with the United States have improved in the last two decades but are still not warm enough. Recent overtures made to it by the Soviet Union have yielded some results but are also far from desirable