China And America

Over the next twenty years, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) and defence spending is projected to surpass those of the United States. If China wills it can develop a more proficient challenge to the United States then the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany did yet it appears that China does not seek to gain territorial and ideological hegemony over its neighbouring states. Though there is the exception of Taiwan which China considers to be part of their own state and which the United States has committed to defend should it be invaded implying that its support is continued independence from china. One could argue that this illustrates the anxiety which the United States feels about China’s growing influence on the region which potentially could change international relations entirely. Regardless of pragmatic Chinese policies, the assumption of military or economic conflict potentially still remains. However, this is very much dependent on a theoretical projection into the future mainly coming from the theories of Realism and Liberalism each having a different sense of what is going to take place. Both have plausible possibilities but this essay will argue that China’s embrace of the international system has been convincing and that it will ultimately change its own conception of its own self-interest.

The fundamentals of liberal values were set in the enlightenment period. The liberal mission tries to set a structure for a civilised process of how a political system should progress to the point of bringing the best out of individuals, society and states. It is a theory that seeks to provide a framework to guide state action which argues that you will more likely guide. It is the only philosophy sceptical of power and the dangers i...

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...chance of the state going to war as law is based on a constitution by consent of the people. Liberals optimists call this process the ‘expanding zone of peace’. China government not only needs a democracy maintain its influence but also to sustain its enormous economy performance which rests on the process of courts and the rule of law.

Realism

One of the core realist assumptions is that every state is accountable for the survival and welfare of the nation. The idea of states depending on other states or institutions is not recognised from a realist view. In an anarchical system, self –help is necessarily the principle of action. In the course of providing security for one’s own state, other states in question will automatically be fuelling the insecurity of other states which can cause a security dilemma. A small number of states fit the realist narrative ne