China Becomes a Political Power

I've discussed before about how I don't fear China's growth, China's US investments, or China's domestic subsidies. However, China as a global political figure does give me pause for thought. Although I don't support most of the United States' foreign policy, I believe that or global intervention has mostly been attempts to do good. With a hand full of exceptions during the age of imperialism, our military has mostly been a force for more peace and more prosperity. America's unilateral global leadership began after World War II as Europe recovered. In fact, America's post-war aid to Europe, the Marshall Plan, was one of our first acts as the global leader. Now, China is doing something similar:

Citing government sources, the paper reported that Mr. Li said “China is willing to buy as much Spanish bonds as Greek and Portuguese combined, that is, around 6 billion euros.” The Chinese financial support is so welcome that El País referred to Mr. Li as a new "Mr. Marshall"

And here are the political string attached:

China’s goodwill also comes attached to European willingness to open up its markets to Chinese companies and to relaxing restrictions of technology transfers.

So far it seems China's goals are similar to the United States, more trade and interdependence. It's important to remember that these have not always been the goals of other global leaders. Rome, Great Britain, Japan, and Germany come to mind. China, who was a global power before the Industrial Revolution in the West, is now moving up the ranks and I'm optimistic, but unsure, what their political aspirations are.