Wang Wen, an executive dean at Renmin University of China, wrote a report this past summer highlighting the academic mission of hundreds of US scientists in Antarctica. Seeing that the U.S. had expanded exploring in the Arctic continent, Wen saw it as a nod that China must do the same. And this is just a microcosm of many of the efforts China is making under President Xi to increase its global vision. But don’t get the country wrong: according to Bloomberg, it does not want to be labeled as a superpower.

Wen is one of many loyalists that believe in a "limitless future" for China. Echoing many of the reasons that the United States is exploring in Antarctica, he noted in his report that below the surface of Antarctica is 500 billion tons of coal, up to 100 billion barrels of oil and 5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. China is likely already envisioning the competition on the horizon for control of these resources by major global powers. China's President Xi has emphasized that the country needs to involve itself in these types of exploratory programs. 

“President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that China must participate more actively into rule-settings in new areas, including deep sea, polar regions, outer space and the Internet,” Wen's report concludes. 

And according to the article, President Xi's administration is avoiding the term "superpower" because they see it as ideologically unacceptable and spent. But there is no doubt that China wants to increase its global presence in coming years.

And what does that mean? Following in the footsteps of the United States: not only furthering research in areas like Antarctica, but also moving towards military globalization. For China, this means opening its first overseas military base, which it did last year in Djibouti. In addition, they have an aircraft carrier construction program that is underway and the country has raised defense spending from $21 billion in 1990 to $220 billion last year. This is more than three times Russia's budget.

And the fact that this increase occurred while the military's share of overall government spending actually dropped is a suggestion that China may have the financial firepower to inevitably be whatever type of power it wants to become in the future. China has done well to modernize its army while only spending a small share of its annual GDP doing it: estimates are between 1.5% and 1.9%.

Despite the ramp higher, China is still nowhere near the United States in defense spending, where they would need to find another $400 billion a year to catch up. However, President Xi supposedly grasps the lesson of the former Soviet Union of not relying overtly on military strength.

China's vision appears to be starkly different than the United States. With with an authoritarian political system and a state-run economy, it squares off almost face to face with the more liberal ideas put forth and promoted by the United States. But the country's crackdowns on free speech and social liberties show that it doesn’t have much confidence in itself and its citizens. Rather, it still paints the country on a global scale as looking insecure and worried.

Becoming a larger global player comes with larger bumps in the road, as China is also finding out. The recent trade war with the United States has resulted in about a 20% decline in Chinese equities since January with some already questioning as to whether or not President Xi has gotten "too big for his britches" with his global vision.

Meanwhile, the average Chinese citizen is less wealthy than the average Mexican citizen at a time when the country's population is aging.

“China will have to choose not between guns and butter, but between guns and elderly care,” stated Paul Dibb, a former deputy secretary for intelligence in Australia’s defense department. The country's 1.4 billion person population could start getting old before it gets rich, according to the report. 

There is also an increase in worry surrounding Chinese banks who have lent speculatively over the last few decades. They make up a picture of a growing China that many times also looks frail in nature. And for all of this exertion, China still has few, if any, major global allies.

David Shambaugh, a professor at George Washington University and author of numerous books on China stated that: "beyond weapons, superpowers require technology, strong economies and soft power influence to sustain themselves. China understands that."

Critics of the country's global ambitions say a focus on domestic issues should be the goal right now. 

Zhang Jian, associate professor at Peking University’s School of Government said: "I can’t find a single example of a superpower growing when its population was falling. Xi needs to take care about the domestic situation and worry less about being a great power."

And still, despite obviously following the lead of the United States, China swears it doesn't want to turn out like the most powerful country in the world. 

When Wang Wen was asked about what China as a global power would eventually look like, he responded: “Anything but America.”