Is China an overrated superpower?

说中国是超级大国，是言过其实吗？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Richard Kenneth Eng

It is neither overrated nor underrated. It is misunderstood.

China is not a superpower in the conventional sense. China does not have the ability to project military power around the globe like USA can. That’s because China is a peaceful nation and its military is only for national defense, not policing the world.

没有被高估，也没有被低估，只是一直被误解。

中国不是传统意义上的超级大国。中国并没有像美国一样在全球范围内部署军事力量的能力。原因在于中国是一个和平的国家，中国军队只是为了维护国家安全，而非维持世界治安。

For defensive purposes, China’s military is truly awesome. It has the world’s largest standing army. It has the world’s largest navy numerically (destroyers, frigates, corvettes, missile boats, submarines, aircraft carriers, etc.). It has begun to build supercarriers, the only other country with this capability. It has some of the world’s most advanced stealth fighters. It bristles with anti-ship missiles, including hypersonic missiles. It has over 400 nuclear weapons by the Pentagon’s own admission.

So without a doubt, China is a superpower in the military sense.

从国防角度来看，中国军队十分优秀。中国拥有世界上规模最大的常备军。中国拥有世界上数量最多的海军舰队(驱逐舰、护卫舰、轻型护卫舰、导弹艇、潜艇、航空母舰等)。中国已经开始建造超级航母，这是目前除美国之外唯一一个拥有这种能力的国家。中国拥有部分世界上最先进的隐形战斗机。中国拥有反舰导弹，包括高超音速导弹。五角大楼自己也承认中国拥有400多枚核武器。

所以毫无疑问，中国在军事上是一个超级大国。

China is an economic superpower. It has the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP and the world’s largest by purchasing power parity. Its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) confers enormous global influence onto China (over 149 countries have signed up).

China leads major economic alliances such as BRICS, RCEP and SCO.

China is working to make the yuan an international currency. Saudi Arabia will likely sell oil to China in RMB.

中国还是一个经济超级大国。按名义GDP计算，中国是世界第二大经济体，按购买力平价计算，中国已经是世界第一大经济体。“一带一路”为中国带来了巨大的全球影响力(已有149多个国家签署加入)。

中国是金砖国家、区域全面经济伙伴关系、上海合作组织等重要经济联盟的领袖国。

中国正努力推动人民币成为国际货币。沙特阿拉伯可能会用人民币向中国出售石油。

China has enormous soft power. Diplomatically, it befriends most nations on earth. The anti-China Western powers are the exception but nobody cares what they think; they’re past their prime.

China has enormous technological power. Things like 5G, AI, mobile payments, infrastructure engineering, space exploration, quantum computing, and so on put China at the leading edge.

China commands respect as a superpower.

中国拥有强大的软实力。在外交上，中国和地球上大多数国家都是朋友。反华的西方大国是特例，但没人在乎他们怎么想；他们已经在走下坡路了。

中国拥有强大的科技力量。中国在5G、人工智能、移动支付、基础设施工程、太空探索、量子计算等领域都处于领先地位。

中国作为超级大国赢得了世界各国的尊重。

Lance Chambers

Related

Should we recognize that China became a real superpower?

China is already a super power but without the desire to become the hegemon. They are probably the most influential nation today and the current hegemon is failing and fracturing and that thin crack will become a large fissure through which the reputation, influence, and wealth of America will leak away.

The reason China doesn’t want to become the ‘leaders of the world’ is because it’s a really dumb thing to be.

我们该不该承认中国已经是一个真正的超级大国了？

中国已经是一个超级大国了，但中国并无意成为世界霸权。中国可能是当今最有影响力的国家，目前的霸主正走向失败和崩溃，现在的裂缝会慢慢崩裂，美国的声誉、影响力和财富会逐渐流失。

中国不想成为“世界领袖”的原因是因为这是一件非常愚蠢的事情。

It is expensive (obscenely so in fact), it requires massive resources to maintain, it makes enemies of those who were or could become friends, it sucks up resources that could instead be used to improve the quality of life of their citizens and those who live in under- or develo nations, they continue to build incredible cities for their people, spectacular transport systems, enhancing education opportunities and surpassing many nations in a host of fields of science, and so the list continues.

成为“世界领袖”不是那么容易的(也令人生厌)，需要大量的资源来维持这种领袖地位，会让曾经或可能成为朋友的人变成敌人，消耗本可以提高本国公民和欠发达国家或发展中国家民众生活质量的资源。他们继续为本国公民建造令人惊艳的城市，壮观的交通系统，增加教育机会，在众多科技领域不断进步。

John Wong

Yes, China is only trying to mind its own business and doing its own businesses without any external interruption as far as possible.

China has not good media power, if you notice, (most people don’t), Chinese official mostly quote external sources to rebuke Western actions and correct wrong media reporting, there’s no “original Chinese source fake news”, the worst they do would merely be quoting “fake news”. However, many media are “manufacturing fake news. You can’t be a superpower if you can’t even make fake news, like the “famous tube of white powder” (or “washing powder?‘). What sort of “super power” is China if its “f” power is so weak.

是的，中国只想专心做自己的事，尽量避免外界干扰。

中国的媒体力量并不强，大多数人并未发现，中国大多引用外部消息来源来谴责西方的行为，纠正不实的媒体报道，没有所谓的“中国原创的假新闻”，他们所做的最糟糕的事也仅限于引用“假新闻”。但很多媒体都在“杜撰假新闻”。如果你连假新闻都不会编，比如“全世界都知道的一管白色粉末”(或是“洗衣粉?”)，你不可能成为超级大国。如果中国这方面的力量这么弱，那能算哪门子的“超级大国”呢。

From military angle, how can China be a super power? The most it can do is to protect itself. It cannot even take Taiwan to fulfill national unification. What countries had it invaded, even bombed or colonized. What “super power” can it be? Even when it had won wars against Vietnam and India before, it retreated right back to the front-line before the wars had started. How weak and miserable indeed.

The other shortcoming China behaved was that it has always been equals when meeting rather weak countries, not even try to boss around and making demands. Its embassy had been bombed but it had not bombed any embassy in return.

从军事角度看，中国怎么可能会是超级大国呢？中国最多也就是自保而已。中国还没有实现国家统一呢。中国入侵过哪些国家，又轰炸过或殖民过哪些国家呢。中国怎么会是“超级大国”？中国打赢了对越南和印度的战争，但它在战争开始之前就撤回前线了。

中国的另一个缺点是，在面对弱小国家时总是平等相待，从未发号施令、提出要求。中国大使馆遭到过轰炸，但它也不曾以牙还牙，轰炸别国的使馆。

Ray Comeau

Superpower is an antiquated term that is no longer meaningful.

The US was once referred to as a superpower and now that definition does not seem relevant, as it once did. The world has moved onto dominant powers for which the US and China share that position. The US has significant military power and puts on a good dog and pony show, with all its military bases but cannot seem to win wars, even against modest countries. The US seems incapable to go to war on its own. It needs its posse (NATO) to support it.

超级大国这个说法早就过时了，没有意义。

美国曾经被称为超级大国，但现在似乎也没那么重要了。世界局势已经转向主导大国，美国和中国都拥有这种影响力。美国拥有强大的军事力量，在全球各个军事基地都表现得气势滔天，但似乎无力打赢战争，就连弱国也打不过。美国似乎无法独力参战，总是离不开它的护卫队(北约)的支持。

China does not waste its time with needless wars. Its has been modernizing its forces which are geared to defend its territory. The Pentagon rates China as a peer competitor. Which is why there are only two countries the US will seek to avoid engaging directly militarily, China and Russia.

Economically China is a challenge to the US. The Trump trade war with China was a miserable failure.

中国不会把时间浪费在无谓的战争上。中国一直对部队进行现代化升级，保卫领土。五角大楼将中国列为势均力敌的对手。这就是美国只想避免与中国和俄罗斯这两个国家进行直接军事接触的原因。

经济上，中国也是美国面临的一大挑战。特朗普对中国挑起的贸易战就是一次彻头彻尾的重大失败。

While China is not completely on par with the US, it continues to grow. The US is no longer the power it was once was in the 1900's, but it is still dominant in a number of area's.

China is not a superpower and neither is the US the power it once was, but both are the leading powers of today…

虽然中国现在还没办法完全和美国平起平坐，但中国一直在发展。美国已不复20世纪那般强盛，但至今在许多领域还占据着主导地位。

中国不是超级大国，美国也不再是曾经那个超级大国了，但两国都是当今世界的领导力量…

John Saomes

China is a VERY large country … with a HUGE population and a lot of technology … yet through it all there is no crime and no drugs, and everyone has a home and food, and free or affordable medical care… No ghettos and no gang warfare or senseless shootings… no looting and race riots and people living in their cars or in filthy alleys. Only americans talk about superpowers, and if USa is a superpower then who would want to be one of those… in debt up to their eyeballs!!! But really there’s not much that’s super about USa… Just a lot of bombs and guns and a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ nature … like an arrogant teenager with a bad attitude… . China is far more civilised and evolved… In fact, China makes USa look like a third world country..

中国是一个非常大的国家，拥有庞大的人口和大量的技术，但没有犯罪、没有毒品，每个人都具有定所，不愁衣食，还有免费或价格合理的医疗服务。

中国没有贫民窟，没有帮派战争，没有愚蠢的枪击事件，没有抢劫和种族骚乱，没有人住在车上或肮脏的小巷里。

只有美国人张口闭口谈论超级大国，如果美国是超级大国，谁稀罕成为超级大国呢？

美国真的没有什么好了不起的，炸弹枪支到处泛滥，“先开枪再说”，就像自命不凡的中二少年... .

中国比美国文明太多了，事实上，在中国的衬托下，美国就像个第三世界国家。

Chien-Sheng Tsai

Au contraire, China is underrated; China has only begun its ascendancy.

Look back historically at China’s stature vis-a-vis the world at large—the dominant civilization in its sphere, although the times are different now.

NTW, China is not a war mongering nation and a colonizer like the Europeans and the Japanese. When Admiral Zheng He visited countries overseas, he did not go in war but in peace.

正好相反，中国是被低估了；中国的崛起才刚刚起步。

回顾历史，看看中国在世界上的地位吧——东半球占主导地位的文明，尽管现在时代不同了。

事实上，中国不像欧洲人和日本人，既不是战争贩子，也不是殖民者。郑和下西洋出使各国，不为战争，只为和平。

China should be a benign superpower rather than a malevolent one like the US is and the Europeans and Japanese were. China advocates win-win, harmony and co-prosperity and has not been engaged in war for many years and does not interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations.

中国会是一个和善的超级大国，不是美国、欧洲和日本那样的邪恶大国。中国支持互利共赢、和谐共荣，多年来从不参战，从不干涉别国内政。

C.J. Skamarakas

Do you see what you did? You wrote your question about China in English, and posted it on an English-language website based in the USA.

No, China is not a superpower. When you begin to see hundreds of thousands of non-Chinese people devoting ten years or more of their lives to learn the Chinese language and its incredibly difficult writing system, and then using the Chinese language on a daily basis, then China may begin to be a superpower. But as long as it speaks a language unspoken in the rest of the world, it will be a regional power only.

你清楚自己干了件什么事吗？你用英语编写了关于中国的问题，并把它发布在美国的英语网站上。

不，中国还不是超级大国。等你发现成千上万的外国人花费最少十年的时间来学习汉语和难出天际的汉字，每天坚持使用汉语的时候，中国应该就开始成为超级大国了。

但只要中文还是在其他地区无法通用的语言，中国就还只是个地区大国。

Yu Frank

Related

Is China an overrated country?

Yes, China makes fake figures.

In fact India is more prosperous and de ocratic.

Therefore, India should undertake more international responsibilities like accepting Muslim refugees and hel them to settle down in India.

中国被高估了吗？

是的，中国的数据都是造假的。

事实上，印度更繁荣

所以印度应该承担起更多的国际责任，比如接受难民，帮助他们在印度定居下来。

Lin Wang

No, now China is gradually progressing, both politically and economically, and the Chinese people are unified in their policies and know how to capture hearts and minds, and it is the country with hearts and minds that is the scariest.

不，现在中国在政治上和经济上都在逐渐进步，中国人民会和国家政策团结一心，知道如何凝聚民心，而民心所向的国家让人闻风丧胆。

Daniel Fairweather

China is not a superpower at all. To be a superpower China would need a navy strong enough to patrol all the worlds oceans, advanced technology (not just copying other nations technology) and a strong economy that does more than just export cheap disposable products.

中国根本不是超级大国。要成为超级大国，中国需要一支足够强大的海军，可以在世界各大洋上巡航，需要先进的科技(偷盗他国的科技远远不够)，需要强大的经济，不能只依靠出口廉价劣质的产品。