ABSTRACT
The period after the demise of Mao and the coming into power of Deng in 1978 is generally recognised as corresponding with the beginning of the rise of China. Experts differ in their guess estimates when China will displace the United States (US) from its exalted G-1 position, but predict that China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will surpass that of the US sometime in the next decade. The cynics have pointed out that China's economic growth is always on the ascendant to provide the Chinese population with a constant flow of good news. For four big reasons: dire demographics, an overrated economy, an environment under siege and an ideology, China is more likely to remain the muscle-bound adolescent of the international system than to become the master of the world. The internal security threats to China centre on reports of tensions and suicides in Tibet, and periodical clashes between the native Muslim Uyghurs and Han settlers in Xinjiang.
