China, for most of its 3500 years of history, led the world in agriculture, crafts, and science. It fell behind in the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution gave the West clear superiority in military and economic affairs . In the first half of the 20th century, China continued to suffer from major famines, civil unrest, military defeat, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under Mao Tse Tung established a dictatorship that, while ensuring autonomy of China, imposed strict controls over all aspects of like and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor Deng Xiaoping decentralized economic decision making output quadrupled in the next 20 years . Political controls remain tight at the same time economic controls have been weakening. It seems the United States has taken a pro-active stance on relations with China attempting to censure it for its human rights and security violations while also trying to increase relations by opening China up to more trade relations with the United States. China has, however, taken an reactive stance resisting the United States urges for internal improvement while pressing to receive increased trade stance with the United States . Present issues in China are: incorporating Honk Kong into the Chinese system, closing down inefficient state-owned enterprises, modernizing its military, fighting corruption, and providing support to tens of millions of displaced workers . Today, China remains the major issue in U.S. security policy in Asia. The currently dominant security policy holds that China has essentially replaced the former Soviet Union as the chief strategic threat to the United States in the region, and the U.S. should essentially retain its containment strategy, with China as the new target. The basis of this new strategy includes a strengthening of cold war-era bilateral military alliances in with the development of a Theater-based Missile Defen...
