Book excerpt: The 1980s have shown the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, to be economically vulnerable. The race to acquire the skills needed in the twenty-first century is led by the Japanese, and if the promise of a unified market, scheduled for 1992, is fulfilled, the European Community will become an even greater economic force. China has enlisted EC countries to aid her ambitions; her increasingly educated population and untapped natural resources make China an emerging superpower.