What was once known as the Middle Kingdom seems to have regained its prominence in the world today. Such an accomplishment did not come about overnight, as China has experienced decades of war and socio-political turmoil; it was only until 1978 when the country, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, started to embark on a program of openness and modernization. It represented a huge turning point in modern Chinese history such that China has emerged as one of the major powers to be reckoned with on the global stage today. This caused alarm especially within the First World countries as what they perceive to be the ‘China Threat’. The growing power of China’s economy and military as well as her internal and foreign policies, which proved to be unpopular with some foreign governments, posed causes for concern. Nonetheless, this essay seeks to argue that China’s rise in recent times is not necessarily a bane and could even be beneficial to the international community. This will be done by first establishing each factor behind the ‘China Threat’ view before disputing it. The research question would be analyzed based on two methods – short term versus long term, and the First World versus the Third World (or the less developed countries). The ‘China Threat’ view has been prevalent across the world due to the anticipated shift of power in favor of China in the future. Such rapid rise in Chinese power, as power transition theorists noted, would likely bring about conflict.1 One major aspect of conflict lies in the economic realm, where China not only emerged fast as a stronger contender as an economic power but its economic growth was allegedly attained at the expense of its trading partners especially the United States. By 2011, China has taken over Japan as the second largest economy in the world.2 Also according to Global Insight, the U.S. economy is projected to grow at an annual real rate of about 3.0 percent less than half of China’s, thus indicating that the size of China’s economy will exceed the U.S.’ by more than half by the year 2025.3 A particularly acute problem for the U.S. is its widening trade deficit with China in recent years.4 The increase in the trade gap, caused by the surge in U.S. imports of Chinese products relative to U.S. exports to China, has been attributed to unfair trade practices adopted by the Chinese, such as currency manipulation, dumping and the failure to protect intellectual property.5 The situation has escalated to the point that U.S. authorities launched several formal complaints against China through the World Trade Organization (WTO), resulting in a ‘lengthy battle’ between both countries over trade issues.6 Although First World countries like the U.S. have reason to be concerned that growing Chinese economic power has come about especially at its expense, such fears would likely be lessened in the future because of significant Chinese contribution to the sustenance of the global economy. This is best reflected in China’s purchase of U.S. bonds to the extent that it has amassed 1 trillion dollars worth of U.S. Treasuries and agency debt within a decade.7 As the largest holder of dollar assets since late 2008, China not only benefited from it by enjoying export growth that result from the weakening of its currency against the dollar but it also helped to lower U.S. interest rates, thus making houses more affordable and easing financial conditions in the U.S. economy.8 This would, in turn, prevent a global financial crisis to occur since the U.S. still represents the epicenter of the global financial economy. Since China’s integration into the global economic system in the late twentieth century, it has been increasingly dependent on the world markets and thus it is not in the interests of Chinese leaders to adopt policies that are economically damaging to the world at large. This applies especially to her economic relations with the U.S., which is still currently the world’s largest economy, as both China and the U.S. are mutually interdependent as far as trade and financial issues are concerned. Adopting policies that are counterproductive to the global economy would only be self-defeating to the Chinese economy and might thus jeopardize the domestic legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been the ruling party in power since 1949. Aside from the economic aspect, growing Chinese military might is another potential source of concern especially among its neighbors. It leads to a form of security dilemma, in which China’s military buildup or display of military prowess could reduce the adversary’s ability to defend itself.9