On January 11, China successfully tested a missile that shoots down satellites. The Bush Administration subsequently wet itself in trepidation.

Not to harp on the stupidity of the Iraq war, but were we not currently sinking in the rice paddies in the Middle East, perhaps the Administration could formulate a cogent response. Currently our most powerful, and therefore important, foreign policy minds are trying to solve an impossible problem and so they are not available to work on other issues.

For those not versed in international politics, the missile test matters because according to the CIA World Factbook, in 2005 China was the fourth largest importer of American goods (4.6 percent) and the second largest supplier of imported goods (15 percent.) They have a population of 1.2 billion people, of which 550 million are “fit” for military service, nearly double the entire population of the U.S. During the Korean War, the Chinese intervened in support of the North Koreans and essentially threw enough bodies at American guns to force our troops back to the 38th parallel. The test sends a signal that the Chinese possess a capability we do not and is intended as a declaration of superpower status and could use that power to harm us economically.

Alternatively, the missile test is benign because China needs the United States too much for us to take the test as a threat. China sells 21.4 percent of their goods to us while 7.4 percent of their imports are American.

The United States is the most innovative, scientifically advanced and politically stable country in the history of the world and it can draw from 300 million resourceful, hard-working and proud citizens for defense. Our greatest advantage is our intellectual capital while our only significant disadvantage is our financial and military commitment in Mess-o-Potamia.

Contrary to popular American belief and the Bush Administration’s policy, China is more of a “benign” threat than a significant danger to American power.

Their hold on 346.5 billion dollars of the our ever-increasing national debt which currently stands at roughly 8.7 trillion dollars is hardly enough to allow them to bankrupt us and provoke a militarized conflict. Our mutual trade relations greatly benefit the Chinese which increase the opportunity cost of any significant conflict either militarized or political. Ideologically, China’s political system hardly ranks among the most offensive in the world.

While their human rights record is at least as bad as its reputation (but then again we too jail residents without trials, spy on our citizens, torture prisoners, and permit capital punishment), China is not now, nor has been for over a decade, the red terror that was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the 1960s.

More important than any statistic, though, is the nature of the shrinking planet. While we students see its positive effects on a daily basis, globalization really is global. China and the U.S. cannot and will not ever fight a conventional war not only because of economic interdependency but because there is no such thing as a conventional war anymore.

Iraq demonstrates that war encompasses more than two armies fighting on the battlefield. In the same way that Skype challenged the former telecommunications monopoly, smaller countries or groups can better compete with superior armies. Increased communication, clever use of technology and revolutionary tactics defeated the most powerful and better trained army in Vietnam. Don’t look now but it appears like the same will happen in Iraq. Americans should be well aware of Davids vanquishing Goliaths in military struggles. Our independence came utilizing guerilla warfare against a superior yet stodgy army that insisted on marching in formation.

Inarguably, the Chinese missile test is an issue. The problem though, is not the Chinese message to the American military but rather their declaration that despite being inferior to the United States in many ways, China already is a superpower in several respects. China is not a direct threat like the Soviet Union but nevertheless this situation poses the next great American challenge: to maintain the principle economic position in the world and survive as its dominant power.