Quote: PJP said: You're absolutely right Dave. In fact when I wrote that I thought the same thing. China is very much our equal in many ways and even better in some others......I didn't mention it because my own opinion is that many in the world don't view them as a Super Power......even though in reality they very much are.
China is not really a superpower right now because they cannot project their military far beyond their borders. They only have a littoral navy, and without a deep water navy they're fucked, especially over Taiwan which is guarded by US carrier groups. Only the US, the UK and - surprise! - France can accomodate long range projection of military power (When Australia did it in East Timor in the late 90s, we all had to pay an "East Timor levy" of 1% of our income for that year. Sustained military projection is pricey). Japan probably could, too, but chooses not to.
