South America too? Central America too? You saying "America is just one big epic fail" you yourself are giving into the notion that "America" consists only of the USA, which i'm sure you think other people are idiots for doing, and rightly so.

Superpower status is not reliant on how rich your residents are. Soviet Union says hi. Norway and Luxembourg per head are immensely rich, but about as powerful as a wet fart. I don't know if you understand economics, but you sure as hell don't understand politics in the slightest.

Superpower status is generally measured on your worldwide political influence, as a byproduct of your economical and military capability.

China's economy is now the second biggest in the world and rapidly growing. It is the world's largest exporter and the largest foreign owner of USA treasuries. It already has serious influence over the United States economically- you have to face up to that.

It'll rival the United States's size of economy within the next decade according to most experts projections.

Militarily China has a huge air force, and in the process of building their first stealth aircraft which caused much concern in the United States. They have the largest army in the world and a rapidly expanding Navy that will be blue water (the ability to sustain operations far from home waters) inside the next 10 years or so. Their nuclear capability is unquestioned. China also has a serious internet presence, with the worlds largest and most powerful cyber warfare divison.

The Navy is really STILL the key military focus of a superpower (as it has been for centuries now), because a blue water navy with an aircraft carrier task group allows a country to project its power far beyond its own waters, anywhere on the planet. Only a few Navies in the world could be considered full on blue water, generally the British navy, the French navy, and of course USA. A few others are marginal and growing.

China have their first genuinely active aircraft carrier as of this year, several large amphibious transports, dozens of large destroyer class escorts and many more vessels planned. America is worried, because China for the first time in its PRC history has the capability to project true menace in regions it might want to influence with the completion of their aircraft carrier. Regions like Japan and Taiwan, being the most obvious.

China are the next superpower, it is virtually inevitable. You'll wake up one day in the next twenty years and find that the United States will have to bow to China's demands.

In fact this sort of thing is already happening, because the course is locked. USA is already in decline since the end of the cold war. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to watch its influence eventually peter out and dwindle over the next 50 years much like the British empire.

The signs are all there, maybe people just refuse to see them.

Will never happen. (even though you probably already know that)

"They invaded that country to make the whole world safer and prevent more terrorist attacks" lol!! Read up on the Caspian Sea pipeline.

It's not the oil the US wants in Pakistan and Afghanistan(there isn't any). It's the HUGE amounts of semiprecious metals and precious stones and metals. Our electronics are comprised of those semiprecious metals and we need more places to find them. That's why we have such an interest in the area. Iraq was for oil, Afg and Pak. were for the metal.

airsick7- The reason people love to bash USA for every little thing is because they can get away with it and we don't care since it's only words.

Burn a USA flag...do we care? Yeah we will see it on tv but nothing will happen to whoever did it.

Burn a Middle East flag..hell pick anyone and guarantee you they will start crying and wanting the heads of everyone.

Burn a Chinese flag..same thing.

We are very lax when it comes to foreign affairs that we don't have money thrown at us to be apart of and it's the reason everyone loves to bash the USA....IF China is able to surivive the bubble burst they will have soon then maybe they will be a superpower but right now it's still way to early to tell.

wrong people hate america coz its every person in the free worlds right to hate who the fook they want. You try and hate china when your any where near it and you end up dead for having your own opinion

"Because they couldn't win the war as men?" Spare me. Last time I checked, the US, Brittian, and Russia saved the ENTIRE WORLD from fascist rule during WWII. Where was South America when the Nazis and Japanese were trying to conquer the globe... they were sitting on their ass, useless. Where was Europe, they were already dominated. Where was China? Dominated. Africa, dominated.

And btw lets take a look at how the USA behaves as a super power compared to Nazis, Imperial Japan, Russia, and China. All those countries slaughtered millions. Rounded up entire ethnicities and religions and exterminated them. Go the House of Terror in Budapest and find out about the nazis and soviets. Go to the gas chambers in poland and find out about the Nazis. Go to China and ask them how prisoners were treated under Japanese rule. I've read things that horrify me to this day. Now look at the USA... yes we make mistakes, but nothing like that. We are generally humane and well-intended.

You should be on your knees thanking the men who fought that wretched war. And yet here you are questioning whether or not they were men... from the safety and anonymity of a computer screen. Pathetic.

I abhor the use of nuclear weapons and pray it never happens again, but someone like you doesn't get to pass judgement on what was done in the name of freedom when the world was on the brink of darkness.