"In the past we have seen that every time China hasn't been able to feed its people or when poverty became too great, there were rebellions and revolutions (population unrest) that destroyed the country and forced political reform. However, in this age,"
I agree with you this is a complete other age and should be regarded as such. In this mater, and as interested in china's past as I am, no direct comparison is possible.
"the people actually assume that since the government is able to maintain the miraculous 8% economic growth it will surely become able to feed everyone and fight off poverty,"
But its just not the case. And that's all there is. Propaganda only goes as far. Hungry people do everything.
"if not now then in the future."
I seriously question how. Most of the country is still extremely poor.
"As long as China is able to maintain the magic number it will not have to deal with population unrest."
It is already facing large unrest and invest/loose massive amounts of cash in fighting this kind of unrest. All specialist agree tension can only increase. We are not talking about one source of unrest here. You have Tibet, all sorts of religious riots, democratic movements, starvation, unrest over pollution etc etc.. There are signs the gov is very afraid, almost paranoid over unrest in their country. They tend overact on the slightest sign of any danger that might occur. If anyone should know what is really going on in this field, it will be them.
"We have seen in the past financial crisis that China did manage to maintain said 8%, so why wouldn't it be able to maintain it in the future?"
Notice how this is a percentage, not a real number. That means it shouldn't be compared just like that with western %. But to answer your question: Because we have seen it with any nation with this growth percentages but also because of all other problems china is facing: energy limit, population growing old, pollution, unrest etc etc. You have the natural (bubble) effect any fast growing nation suffers from, it slows down a little and they talk about a crisis scaring investors.
"Don't know much inflation other than it being controlled by the Chinese government to gain a more advantageous market position to sell products to foreign countries at cheaper prices. Is this inflation really such a bad thing?"
When wages increase slower then the prices of consumer products, then the average Chinese gets poorer over time. That is bad for the internal market as well. So when you calc economic growth, you should look to inflation to put it in perspective.
"Nuclear energy perhaps, as China has many areas that are safe for nuclear plants. With control over the media and 99% of the population there will not be as much opposition to more nuclear plants in China as in Western countries. I truly believe this is a way for China to solve any future energy crisis. "
Nuclear energy isn't as cheep as coal energy, but more important it runs on uranium, which isn't endless. If China switches a considerate part of their electricity production to nuclear, prices would skyrocket almost immediately.
"And otherwise they could just force the entirety of the North korean population to run in threadmills to produce energy wink."
lol. But they will face a food problem, unless they let NKoreans eat each other.
"What satellite states?"
Like tibet, part of xinjiang and inner mongolia. The Uyghur people and Tibetans are only 2 examples. But now I'm only talking about china's inside. They try to control some neighbors as well.
"5.) keep on selling stuf?"
"Because people will keep on buying cheap stuff. Especially now, after the financial crisis, has the need for cheap stuff increased. Furthermore, with American dependence on China to buy up its debt, sanctions on China are unrealistic so China will be able to keep exporting cheap stuff to the USA."
China is dependent on USA's grain. That is even more important.
"Other countries who are less in debt (Europe, Latin American countries, other Asian countries, etc.) may not even want to stop buying cheap stuff."
Europe also has a huge debt, maybe less Chinese but ok.
When people become more and more rich (if ever) they will demand more, and production prices will go up.
"China has a very techinolically backward agricultural sector in this time. This could easily be intensified and modernized and made more efficient with newer technologies and the use of various fertilizers. Because of urbanization and China's one child policy, the amount of Chinese land owners who use their land for agricultural means (farmers >.>) should surely decrease, resulting in a larger portion of land being owned by fewer land owners, resulting in the land owners being able to turn bigger profits, afford better machinery and fertilizers, intensifying and modernizing agriculture. This again will result in a larger food production and, therefore, enough food to feed the elderly."
I was talking about how they will pay for their elder in general, not just the food production. The increasing amount of costly old people for the decreasing amount of money gaining young people is a serious problem.
However the food production is another problem they are facing. But that is worth another debate.
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.. I don't like to think about that.
