Is China a Threat to the U.S.?

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Since opening its doors to trade with the international community, China has experienced fast growth, but not without cost.  China 's priority shortlist of economic growth and maintaining territorial integrity has since expanded to address a new and predominant concern: domestic stability and balance.

Former State Department DAS of American relations with China Susan Shirk writes that its leaders have become fixated on social stability, and maintenance of its regime. Fears over mass national protest movements and loss of military support could mean loss of livelihood for China's government officials.

China's government is working steadfastly to address the rising concerns of its people. The uncontrolled, disparity of wealth between major metropolitan cities and sprawling rural areas still plagues the majority of its population. Its education system has become a large indicator of unequal wealth, as parents pay fees to send their children to provincial high schools, but enrollment in wealthier provinces far outnumbers that in poorer ones. As China's population ages, there will be less children to shoulder the retirement of their parents - a traditional Chinese practice.

Beijing struggles to offer its own public the same quality products and services that it works so hard to produce, assemble, and export. At the same time, it is in dire need of finding a strategy that will foster higher personal incomes for its people, without further taxing its resources.