Special to WorldTribune.com

By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com

Despite near-universal consensus that the Chinese economy is coming against strong headwinds this year, the official state media are keeping up nationalistic fervor by focusing on upbeat news and pronouncements. A dozen-odd news outlets have carried an Economist article predicting that the Chinese economy will overtake that of the United States by 2018.

Even more significantly, Yan Xuetong, a professor of international relations at the elite Tsinghua University, became the first academic of note to pronounce China a superpower. In a year-end article, Yan pointed out that the global architecture had evolved from “one superpower and a host of big powers” to “two superpowers and a host of big powers.”

Yan said that in terms of GDP growth and military spending, it would be well-nigh impossible for ordinary big powers to catch up with the two superpowers — the U.S. and China — in the foreseeable future.

Indeed, China’s generals, who had been the first to tacitly position China as a superpower, have recently upped the ante of their hawkish rhetoric. Maj. Gen. Yang Yi pointed out in a year-end interview with the Xinhua News Agency that, thanks to its new-found heft, China should not hesitate to resort to warfare to safeguard its core interests.

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  Chinese officials, Economist, Maj. Gen. Yang Yi, netizens differ on country’s ‘superpower’ status, Tsinghua University, Xinhua News Agency, Yan Xuetong