G. B. Cressey On China-1944

‘China emerges from the Second World War as one of the Big Four of the United Nations, weakest in actual achievement but with a very great potential in area and position.

Before the end of the twentieth century she will probably have caught up with the West and regained her historic leadership in the East, provided that civil war does not retard her progress. . . .

‘. . . Although it is impossible to foresee distant centuries, it does not appear likely that China will become a threat to the rest of the world.

The Chinese have a peaceful and democratic tradition and, whereas they will be supreme in their own realm, their country lacks the geographic factors that might make for world dominance.

Under able leadership, China will find that she has the geographic resources with which to meet her geographic needs, provided her population remains within bounds.’

G.B. Cressey, Asia’s Lands and Peoples (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.; 1944; repr. in Foundations of National Power, Harold and Margaret Sprout, Princeton University; 1945; pp. 600, 601).

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