By Lynna Huo ’15, Staff Writer

In the words of Charlotte Smith ’15, “China is like a big shark…and the United States is a fish swimming precariously alongside it.” When it comes to economic properity and expansion in the past decade, it is without a doubt that the People’s Republic of China is slowly but steadily climbing into the ranks of international stardom. Boasting the world’s second-largest economy since August of 2010, a strong and collaborative domestic work force, as well as a variety of business and trade alliances in countries all around the globe, China is now more than ever worthy of standing alongside the United States of America as a keen director of events on the world stage.

The question is: should China’s economic success be taken as a challenge or as a possibility for further US involvement?

The Newark Academy community has always been dedicated to raising the awareness of its students on a broad international context, and China’s recent growth is no exception. Students at Newark Academy learn to research different forms of community-based, national, and international events in their humanities classes. During the week before school let out for spring break, the eighth grade classes held debates based on whether or not the United States ought to consider China an ally and a significant trading partner. In each debate group, both teams, pro and con, presented excellent evidence to support their opposing arguments.

The pro teams suggested that the United States should have no reason to fear China as an emerging world superpower, stating that China would not become a threat unless provoked. Rather than present itself as an enemy, the United States should collaborate with China to tackle major issues on an international scale, such as the global warming crisis and the spread of human rights, even within China itself. The United States can use China as a go-between to negotiate with countries that have threatened US interests, especially in North Korea, where the United States’ desire for weaponry sanctions is extremely high. Above all, the Chinese and American ‘interdependent relationship’ maintains that these two countries now hold the most control over global economics, giving them all the more reason to want to work together.

On the other hand, the con teams insisted that China’s rapid succession into power should persuade the United States to become wary of its actions. China’s economic GDP (Gross Domestic Product, the total monetary value of all final goods and services in a society) is now and has been growing at a rate faster than that of the United States’, and may soon come to surpass it. The country’s military, already vast from its enormous population and powerful from its technological and scientific pursuits, has become even stronger with the development of weapon-vehicles such as stealth planes and aircraft carriers. A severe lack of human rights in China, to the extent where citizens protesting against the presumably unfair treatment of the government are imprisoned and even beaten, should  also deter the United States from having anything to do with China.

Whether or not one believes that China’s growth should be considered beneficial for the United States, it is undeniable that the controversy has sparked immediate reactions in the Newark Academy community. Although previous connections had been drawn based on China’s power from everyday experiences in society, from seeing the “Made in China” labels on store-bought clothing, to the trillion-dollar payment China is still waiting on in US debt, the NA community had been relatively silent until China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. According to longtime Newark Academy Humanities teacher Mr. Ball, the greatest change the NA community has seen with direct connections to Chinese economic success is the heightened sense of pride within persons of Chinese heritage. Others, especially those concerned about the United States’ own development, are “…probably not fully aware”, said Mr. Ball, “that the United States’ GDP (14 trillion) is still far greater than China’s (5 trillion). In the light of the United States’ output, despite the debt it still owes China, it will still manage to keep its position as the top economic power.”

Some students at Newark Academy have taken their experiences with and surrounding China to a whole new level. Senior George Boyar spent his junior year in China. Experiences like these effectively ‘humanize a culture’. This, says Mr. Ball, is quite the accomplishment- “It is one thing to study a culture; another to experience it.”

In my own trip to China during the summer of 2010, I realized that many of the concerns students at Newark Academy held about Chinese-American relations were not necessarily shared by common Chinese society. While my grandparents and cousins living in China were certainly aware of their country’s increased economic and military strength, they simultaneously believed that this would only lead to greater contact and shared responsibility between China and the US. After all, the Chinese and American peoples are not so different from each other; a majority would prefer to work together and reach greater heights than they would be able to in opposition.

China’s steady climb to fame as a world leader will inevitably leave even deeper impressions in American society in the years to come, just as it has in the Newark Academy community today.