The rise of a weak superpower

For a decade, Western political and economic analysts  were puzzled with the question: is China a superpower or will she be one? The answer varied greatly depending on what data you were looking at or what aspect you were talking about. Today, in the midst of the economic crisis, nobody seems to doubt that China is a great power, but still rarely anyone dare to say that China is a superpower in the sense of the Soviet Union used to be. Of course, China doesn't have that many nuclear weapons and she threatens no one other than parts of her own. Also, she no longer possesses the ideological charm called communism. And yet, the sheer size of her economy, the foreign reserve under her control, and the continuous growth of her production capacity all point her towards something like a superpower. 

That status is what I call a Weak Superpower. Unlike any other superpower in modern history, China doesn't have technological superiority, military dominance, or moral righteousness. She conquers no foreign land and occupies no remote colony. And, China has no hand in the rule-making of most, if any, international regime. However, no matter how the international community tries to discredit her power and no matter how globalization transforms the game of the international political economy, people would have to face China as a superpower, albeit a weak one. 

The good news is that this superpower is not and will not be intimidating or imposing, because in the foreseeable future, her domestic affairs will take up most of the priority list. Therefore, the theory of imperialism will have to adapt a little. The bad news, on the other hand, is that she won't hold that much "shares" in the global corporation, which means that she is not up to the job of upholding the international system as past hegemons did. One thing that will detemine the future of the world is how well the so call "Chimerica" works. 

Think that as a Core 2 Dual CUP (two weak superpowers) intel chip that drives the earth PC. If two cores work perfectly with each other, they suppose to exceed the performance of each. But if they work out of sync, there will be a system failure. (The matrix of capitalism wil be over...:))  

So far, I only tried the Core 2 Dual chip, I don't know much about the Quad system. It should be more powerful, assuming Europe and Japan on board. Yet, we all know the consequences of using a more advanced hardware/ software: you have more problem than ever.