I. Introduction

As the world enters 21st century, the global balance of power is continuously evolving. Among all the countries are rising, China has emerged as one of the global superpowers in recent years, with its economic and political influence expanding rapidly. According to Barron’s, at the beginning of 2023, the U.S.'s real GDP stood at around $20 trillion and China's at around $16 trillion.[1] Though undeniably that U.S is still actively affecting the world order, China has the great potential to surpass it. Questions have aroused on the development of China. If China becomes the leading superpower, it undoubtedly will have far-reaching implications for both its own citizens and the rest of the world. This essay explores the potential impacts of China's rise on these two distinct fronts. Though world order is generally divided into unipolar one, multipolar one, bipolar one or even multi-unipolar one, this essay will only focus on unipolar one in which China as the exclusively superpower in the world, with its hegemony on the world in aspects of politics and economy.

II. Impacts of China becoming the leading superpower on its citizens. A. Economic impact

China's ascent to world-wide superpower status would have significant economic implications for its citizens.
On first behalf, job opportunities and income growth are in direct contact with the citizens, China's economic growth over the past few decades has lifted millions out of poverty and created numerous job opportunities. From years between 2019 to 2022, China explicitly created 13.52 million new urban jobs in 2019, 11.86 million in 2020, 12.69 million in 2021 and 12.06 million in 2022.[2] According to Xinhua, China daily, every percentage point increase of the country's GDP growth can be translated into around 2 million new jobs.[3] With a rough calculation, without measuring the effect of other factors, the created job opportunities have brought average over 6
percentage GDP growth in recent years. If China becomes the superpower, its economy would likely expand further, in which it will lead to more employment opportunities and potentially higher incomes for the vast citizens. For instance, since China began to open and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged over 9 percent a year, and more than 800 million people have lifted themselves out of poverty.[4] With the reduction of poverty when transforming into the superpower, in will inevitably solve the problem of inequality to a greater extent.

Additionally, China is growing and changing in the living standards which should be counted as a first world country. With even more rapid economic development, China will be able to invest more on basic infrastructure and healthcare, even on retirement in response to its biggest challenge now, which is aging. It is estimated that by 2035, around 400 million people in China will age over 60, which dramatically takes up 30% of the total population.[5] Within this, the Chinese government’s policy on delaying in retirement age will cause great pressure to the younger generation, in which they are pessimistic about having children, thereby worsens aging society. To solve the problem, China with greater economic development will probably invest heavily on social welfare and infrastructure. Already, in 2022, China has pumped trillions of yuan into infrastructure investment [6], in the future, this investment that benefits humanity will be paid much more attention.

B. Political impact

Political ramification will both positively and negatively affect its world class citizens.

Negatively speaking, since China is a somehow authoritarian country, in political aspect. The Communist Party of China (CPC) will reinforce its leader position domestically. The national curriculum in China in the status quo includes “sixiang zhengzhi education”-referring to a type of reinforcement on “authoritarian politics” in which repeatedly emphasizes how CPC should be worshiped by the vast majority, ignoring individual liberty on the freedom to think and speech. People are strictly forbidden to behave against CPC, in which extensively limits people’s free thought. Situations might become worse if only one ideology dominates the majority, and no voices are encouraged to speak against. Probably, if China becomes the superpower, the number of extreme patriots will increase largely across the country.

With China’s higher international position as well as status, citizens will behave differently since China has transformed into a unipolar country with authority. It was argued that international politics were centered by the interplay of West and non-Western civilizations and thus lead to conflict during time when U.S dominates the whole world. [6] This power incentivized a country to feel like there is a responsibility to do something and make policies, which inspired its citizen. Such unipolar system will have the same effect if China becomes the superpower. Citizens might get confidence to be in control of the world.

C. Social impact

For the residents within country, the rise of China will completely change the social atmosphere and social norms, which will relatively enable more people to have the resources to receive higher
education, unless capitalism intervenes to aggravate the gap between the rich and the poor, We know that China's poverty alleviation plan has already entered a new node. Looking back, as per China's national poverty line, 8.5 percent of people were in poverty in 2013, which decreased to 1.7 percent in 2018. [7] In 2020, China announced that it will enter the full poverty alleviation; despite such facts, China still has a long way to go in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. Maybe when it becomes a superpower, more social welfare will be given, the society will have hope, and the people will certainly be more confident in Chinese political ideologies and beliefs.

III. Impacts of China becoming the leading superpower on the rest of the world.

A. Economic impact

As a leading superpower, China will have even stronger implication for other countries. With rapid development, world markets are looking to China to point the way, and investors will be focusing on the direction of Lujiazui in Shanghai and the direction of China's currency and interest rate. Meanwhile, more Chinese companies have grown to compete with American companies, not just retail and small-scale manufacturing but banking, computer development, and more high-tech industry. Under this circumstance, U.S companies will begin to imitate Chinese designs and products, instead of the inverse way in the status quo.

Also, since China's goal is to maintain peace domestically and, in its neighborhood, China may form its own NATO and NAFTA with its neighbors (especially Mongolia, South Korea and Japan) - they may even call it "Greater East Asia Circle of Shared Prosperity” (GEACPS)- in which unionizes the countries in East Asia. It will develop defense technology to become the "China of the future", for example, anti-stealth technology, although Death Star or Dawn's Hammer is not possible because space weaponization is prohibited by international law. Once China as a country is wrapped in a security bubble, then China may start space colonization and exploration.

B. Political impact

China's rise as a superpower would have significant political implications for the rest of the world, in which the political impact will be the most noteworthy.

Let's first assume that China has incredible economic and military power today, surpassing any other country in the world, but the US has roughly the same projection capabilities as the UK or Russia today. First, as a military overlord, China can't do whatever it wants because the UN will control it with the support of other P5 military powers. What China has is people, and thus economic leverage. However, like the United States today, a hegemonic China wants geopolitical stability on its own soil. The United States today is sandwiched between two friendly countries that are geographically surrounded by natural defenses, and China also hopes to be surrounded by friendly countries, which will be a favorable geographical condition. However, China has many neighbors, and it will take a lot of diplomatic effort to make it happen.
To make it easier for the superpower China, the US presence in Asia would be zero, for example, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan would no longer have US troops. Taiwan will be reunited with China, and the world will see it as the end of an unfinished civil war. North Korea will be persuaded to peacefully reunite with South Korea, which will be heavily subsidized by China. The economic, military and foreign policies of South Korea and Japan will be consistent with China, because these three countries are natural friends and unnatural enemies. Any territorial disputes will be resolved in China's favor. But in exchange, Japan and South Korea enjoy a privileged relationship with China. Why? The real-world clues come from how Canada and the US resolve their disputes (almost always in the US's favor), but in return Canada has unique economic, defense and social ties. Mongolia and Vietnam may also seek a special relationship like South Korea and Japan, but the nature of this relationship is more like the US-Mexico relationship than the US- Canada relationship. China is economically superior to Mongolia and has a large ethnic Mongolian population. Vietnam's culture is like that of southern China, making it easier to develop economic relations.

The relationship with Russia will be the most interesting and the most headache. To some extent, these two countries may continue to be allies of convenience, since they are the only reasonable counterweights to the West in the United Nations. However, China may push to redefine their borders, as in 1858, not because of nationalism, but for border security: the Stanovas and Lake Baikal are better defensive barriers than the Amur. China is also likely to help Japan resolve the Kuril Islands issue. China wants to do its best to push Russia to a settlement economically, perhaps by offering to help develop the desolate Russian Far East and Siberia in exchange for pre-1858 border settlements.

C. Cultural impact

Modes of Culture exchange might vary. Several changes should be considered. Probably, in high schools all over the world, Mandarin Chinese is considered a mandatory foreign language. Words and phrases in Chinese are gradually becoming popular in other countries. Meanwhile, Chinese movies and TV shows are watched all over the world and are box office successes. Small local newspapers around the world have headlines dominated by Chinese politics. Chinese brands are household names, to Africans and Americans alike. Chinese musicians dominate global music charts including Grammy or Billboard. People from all over the world emigrate to China in large numbers. Therefore, immigration has become a social problem in China.

IV. Conclusion

In nutshell, if China becomes the leading superpower, it will have profound implications for its citizens and the rest of the world. Economically, it could bring new opportunities for job growth and improved living standards for its citizens. Politically, China's rise would reshape domestic policies and future world order. Cultural values may evolve, and individual rights and freedoms could face further scrutiny. On the global stage, China's ascent to superpower status would have significant economic, political, and social implications. It could inevitably reshape global economic structure by partly dominating some industries, bring in more opportunities on a better global
order or pour in confidence for its citizens.