China's Economic Challenges and Is it Regional Power or Global Ambitions It Seeks?

CHINA
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Question 1
At the moment, China is the largest and most influential country in East Asia. The country has experienced rapid success and evolution with its regional development strategy. Since 1946, China has undergone three distinct regional developmental phases. "Balanced Development" stage (1949–1978) was the first stage where the country followed the former Soviet Union model of institutions and political decisions. The second stage was "Non-balanced Development" (1979–1991), which sought to promote the developed regions with added advantages. This stage relied on heavily institutionalized reforms by the political. The third stage, "Coordinated Development" (1992-present), had the objective of accelerating underdeveloped regions' development to reduce the regional disparities. The shift to the regional policy was to combat Western regions' choice and, of course, influenced by the military, political and economic considerations CITATION Pyk15 \l 1033 (Pyka & Foster, 2015).
Being a great power in a region is not the same as being a global superpower. British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. are the names that come to mind when the global superpower is mentioned. A superpower county can be defined as a nation with the power to project authority and influence worldwide. However, being a superpower is expensive, as the U.S. can attest. The cost of maintaining military operations, diplomatic missions, and providing foreign aid to countries all add up CITATION Leu18 \l 1033 (Leung & Champion, 2018). China has deep pockets. However, it still faces financial and challenges at home that could strain President Xi Jinping's ambitions.
It seems that China is ready to take its chances as it has made it clear its intentions to contest America's global leadership. It has invested in a naval shipbuilding program that has put more vessels in the sea between 2014 and 2018. This is the total number of ships owned by the German, Indian, Spanish, and British navies combined CITATION SUL20 \l 1033 (SULLIVAN & BRANDS, 2020). Beijing's bid to dominate and control global high-tech industries will also influence the future distribution of economic and military power. In 2021, it is no secret that true superpower status is China's desired goal for the coming decade. It can take two routes to achieve this, building regional importance to use as a springboard to global power. This strategy looks familiar to the one the United States employed in their journey to become a superpower. The other route focuses less on facing the United States in a struggle for Western Pacific rather than outflanking them. This involves implementing alliance systems that solidify China's diplomatic and political influence on a global scale CITATION SUL20 \l 1033 (SULLIVAN & BRANDS, 2020).
In recent years, China has adopted more assertive policies resulting in tension between them and their neighbors. This approach has renewed previous territorial disputes between Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam along the South China SeaCITATION BBC21 \l 1033 (BBC, 2021). As China's influence in Asia has increased, relationships with the United States have become strained. This started with the Obama administration in 2015 and carried over to the Trump administration. It remains to be seen how newly elected president Biden addresses the China-U.S. relations. Whatever strategy the U.S. intends to employ need to be strategically thought after as the stakes are too high CITATION Joh21 \l 1033 (Bolton, 2021). China shows no signs of slowing down, and it has previously proven its readiness to flex its muscles to achieve the goal of global domination.
Question 2
At the end of 2014, China was the second-largest economy after the United States in terms of GDP (around $10.3 trillion, World Bank) CITATION BBC21 \l 1033 (BBC, 2021). With high growth rates of 8-10 percent per annum, China's economy was predicted to be the largest by 2020. As China became wealthy, so has its contribution to the U.N. budget. As of 2016-2018, China was the third-largest contributor, with the assessed contribution accounting for 7.9 percent of the budget. However, in 2015, despite being the second-largest economy, U.N. acknow...