[Andrewksu]

I agree on all points, but I think it still adds up to a significant threat to our economy and security.

With China's size, in population, landmass, and resources, it has massive potential, with their culture and communism holding them back. eventually they will adapt and capitalism will win, or communism will halt further growth and they will stagnate. At that point, the will be very dangerous, as they will have made leaps and bounds in wealth, technology, and manufacturing capabilities. If communism prevails, the economy will start to back slide and China will become very restless.

On the other hand, if capitalism continues to succeed, the Chinese people will demand democracy, and then all will be well.

[Alberta's Child]

That reminds me of a fascinating discussion on television during the coverage of the Winter Olympics back in the 1992. The two leading contenders for the gold medal in women's figure skating were from the U.S. and Japan, and one of the anouncers asked the other (the other one may have been a former skater) what he thought about the threat that the Japanese figure skating program presented to the U.S. dominance of the sport.

"I don't think the Japanese are much of a threat at all," the other guy said, "because I think our Japanese athletes will always be better than their Japanese athletes."

As it turns out, he was absolutely right. Japanese-American Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal, and "their" Japanese (Midori Ito) won the silver.