no, china will never become an economic super power as long as they are dependent on "almost slave labor" because if china grows too strong economically it will become too expensive to manufacture goods here and they will leave to the next developing country. china needs to develop creative thinking and become innovators not copy cats but that will not happen because creative thinkers end up in jail for "tax evasion"

agree with crimo, china cant be super powerful if it doesnt change its economic structure soon.china lacks of innovation,lacks of technology, lacks of industry core competitiveness ,lack of environment for liberal ideas n diversity ,etc.
the growth china makes today mostly is by the low price n the support of government.n the high asset price n low wage are making the young generation lack of innovation n diversity.n the policies are not enough to help the development of the SME. the governments are full of inappropriate operation n corruption, etc.
dont know if china may go the old way as japan did,but if china does.for sure it wont be able to recover like japan! we have nothing truly competitive!

Some economists predict that, with the financial crisis, China's economy could overtake the US in the next 20 years. With China's growth rate at 9% and the US's at 2% it could happen. Even if China's economy becomes the biggest in the world, it will have to improve infrastructure and social welfare systems and its government to gain the power and respect that comes with a big economy. China is too reliant on exports. This and other factors (like corruption and the huge income gap) are barriers to China developing as a nation.

China, in spite of some backwards cultural differences, it's copy cat mentality and obvious government corruption, is already well on its way to becoming the major economic superpower. If you talk about environmental issues you should know that China invested more in clean energy than any other country and is the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines and solar energy units.
China has been steadily rising on the list of economic superpowers and is expected to be on top of the tree by about 2016 according the IMF and is currently sitting at number 2!! China is not burdened by debt like many countries in Europe and while we might have a go at them culturally that culture has produced a country that still operates with most people not having access to credit cards and the saving mentality of putting their hard earned in the bank.
China has a non-divisive government and has not been saddled with any wars they needed to finance over the past 50 years. China has been actively buying the debts of countries like the USA and also that of Europe. The financial woes of countries like the USA, France, Greece and the UK have been well documented in the news. The only financial news about China is that they need to curb growth and inflation!
We say that the Chinese are not innovative but in the past few years they have built the world's fastest supercomputer and operate the world's fastest train. R&D jobs that Chinese would normally go overseas for are now being offered in the country so there is a greater tendency for bright minds to stay here.
I just teach English and many posts here voice things they dislike about China and I agree with many of them but on a global scale we should be aware that the country in which we are working and living is well on the way to being the number 1 economy in the world despite these problems.

Not burdened by debt ? That's just not true, nearly every local gov't is bust, can't repay the banks, the question is can/will the central govt bail them out. Don't believe the GDP, so much has gone on white elephants, and different provinces selling things to each other, and back again. There is more smoke and mirrors here than a KPMG audit.

yes the debt is much higher than anyone knows, they print money out of thin air worse than qe in america, quantitative easing, and the prices are kept low forcefully for basic necessities to keep a billion people  tame and eating. unless they kill off the old with a virus or biological weapon, the country will be poor before it gets rich, the demographics of a baby boom 20 years after our baby boom in america is going to crush them much worse than america is being crushed now. stagnation like japan for 20 years is coming.