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Originally Posted by Raellus
I wonder if any of the original T2k team anticipated the rapid rise of China over the past three decades or so.
I remember as a teenager watching a documentary that I taped in 1989 about the Chinese military. At the time, the PRC's most high-tech weaponry was designed in the 1950s and '60s. It seemed that China was decades behind the west when it came to military technology. PLA troops spent more time farming than training.
China today is arguably fast approaching global superpower status. It's entire military has modernized by leaps and bounds since 1989. It's navy is larger than the USA's and its new ship construction far outstrips ours. It's developed and produced indigenous stealth aircraft (thanks to a lot of successful industrial espionage). The PLA has a presence in both space and cyberspace.
I think the original T2k team would be surprised.
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I think China is where the US was in 1935. Depending on how you want to measure it, half of the world's industrial output is produced in China. They are aiming for strategic nuclear parity with the US and Russia by 2030 or 2035, and are increasingly modernizing their navy. They have a long way to catch up, but, they produce 35% of the global naval/marine tonnage. US is way down on the list of global ship producers. China's main problem is lack of energy and food security...which are not small problems to be sure.