INternational strategic management | ESSAY | How do you account for the rise of China as an emergent economic power? | | [Nom de l’auteur] | |

Word Count : 1,551 |

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When he came back from a diplomatic journey in China in the early 1970s, Alain Peyrefitte, a French politician, writer and diplomat, sensing the coming rising of this nation, wrote an essay entitled, according to Napoléon Bonaparte’s own words : Quand la Chine s’éveillera…le monde tremblera (i.e. When China will wake up…the world will tremble). Nowadays, a great many clues seem to suggest that China’s awaking has come. Regarding economy as well as military area or technology, People’s Republic of China might look like a potential superpower. In the present essay, we will firstly take stock of the current situation in order to explain why China can be considered as an emerging power. Then, after having brought some elements standing for an explanation of such a tremendous development, we will try and figure out if China can really be a long-lasting power, taking the coming challenges China will have to face into account.

In 2010, Japan has been ousted by China as world’s second largest economy by GDP, a rank the land of the rising sun was occupying since 1968. In spite of an upturn in the economic growth, Japan only reached a 5,474.2 billion dollars GDP in 2010 when China’s GDP reached 5,745 billion dollars. According to a projection made by some financial institutions, including the World Bank, China could challenge perhaps even surpass the United States by the next twenty years (Le Monde : 15/2/2011). Indeed, China has been enjoying for the last years a growth rate slightly over 10%. Taking an interest in the world ratio of Chinese and American goods and services export is enough to acknowledge the progress of China over the past years. Indeed, in 1990, the world ratio of Chinese goods and