World News & Trends: China: Emergence of a potential supergiant
China's growth is breathtaking. It uses about half the world's cement supplies and about a third of all steel production.
China's growth is breathtaking. It uses about half the world's cement supplies and about a third of all steel production. Its consumer market for mobile phones is growing at an incredible rate and the number of Internet users is multiplying fast. This country of some 1.3 billion people is very thirsty for oil and gas—a significant factor in today's high fuel prices.
According to author Harriet Sargeant, "China's need for energy supplies is taking it all over the world, from Asia to Russia and even South America where it has signed trade pacts with Brazil and energy exploration deals with Argentina" (Daily Mail, "Unleashing the Dragon," April 12).
The United States is very concerned about China's intentions on several fronts. Some five years ago, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice wrote: "China resents the role of the United States in [the] Asia-Pacific region" (The Economist, March 26). Although in her recent visit there she did not mention this problem directly, it still exists as the Asia-Pacific area has traditionally been under heavy American influence, especially since World War II.
To limit Chinese military expansion, the United States has at least temporarily persuaded the European Union not to remove sanctions and start sending sophisticated military hardware to this Far Eastern country. Militarily, America also worries about aggressive Chinese intentions toward Taiwan and wonders why it does not restrain the nuclear ambitions of North Korea in a more convincing fashion.
Harriet Sargeant, who has arranged for the publishing of a new book titled Shanghai, poses some frightening questions in her Daily Mail article. "Would China press the button? It's the new superpower, gobbling up the world's resources. But in its desperate quest for energy, China is forging dangerous alliances that could push us to the brink of nuclear war . . . China's ruling elite appears to only dimly understand the forces they have unleashed" (emphasis added).
Yet she cautions us that "this then is not a new Cold War and China is not Russia. Despite a conflict of interest, the U.S. and China depend on each other for financial success and even economic stability. China's demand stimulates world economic growth on which American prosperity depends."
Keep your eyes on China. Clearly it has become a capitalist country, but with a dictatorial communist government—a very dangerous combination in this explosive world. (Sources: Daily Mail [London], The Economist.)
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
