China and Russia as Rivals

China and Russia as Rivals

The socialist market economy of the People's Republic of China is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's largest economy by purchasing power parity according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

China has a substantial land mass, a full range of weapons of mass destruction, and in addition to its economic prowess, China has 1.4 billion, (with a “B”), people, and an appropriately massive military.  There are ten cities in China in the 10–30 million population range, and over 150 cities with over 1 million population.  China also has announced their intent to become the dominant world power by 2050, and they are continually moving toward that goal by their expansionist economic, military and cultural activities all over the world.   This article describes China’s BRI, or world belt and road initiative.   https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/07/26/chinas-belt-and-road-plans-are-to-be-welcomed-and-worried-about

So why are we not infinitely more concerned with China than with comparatively less important Russia?  Perhaps because big, bad Russia always had a European footprint and is remembered for their Soviet Union days, while enigmatic, oriental China is remembered as being a weak nonentity from their Opium diplomacy and gunboat diplomacy days.  In any event, the world needs to wake up and realize that China, particularly under Xi Jinping, is indeed becoming the dominant economic force in the world.  Since they are still ostensibly a communist dictatorship, this does not bode well for the future of the rest of the world.

Why are we so concerned with Russia, a country with a large land area, but medium sized economically and population-wise?  Russia is also hurting economically because of western (primarily U.S.), sanctions, and because of a “brain drain” of their university graduates to Germany and other European countries.  Russia is massive in area and spans Europe and Asia, but its population is modest compared to other countries at 145 million.

Russia has nuclear weapons and submarines, ICMB’s and a large, integrated military.  All of these they inherited from the old, monolithic Soviet Union.  This is the main reason for Russia’s continued importance on the world stage. 

Russia is 11^th in the world in nominal GDP, about the size of South Korea.  Russia is 6^th in purchasing power parity GDP, slightly smaller than Germany.  Without its weapons of mass destruction, Russia would be about as important economically and militarily as South Korea or Mexico on the world stage.

This link gives the nominal and purchasing power parity ranking of the world’s economies.

http://statisticstimes.com/economy/projected-world-gdp-ranking.php.   See this link for the difference in nominal and PPP GDP.  http://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-nominal-vs-gdp-ppp.php.

Ray Gruszecki

July 31, 2018