This paper sets out to determine whether or not China is exhibiting behavior identified as indicative of a rising superpower by reviewing rhetoric expressed within several chapters of China's White Papers on National Defense from 1998 through 2010.;Although China's economic and military power has increased it is still not a contender for superpower status in these areas. It is interesting to see how some of its rhetoric regarding certain topics has remained unchanged while in other areas it has become stronger. It appears China is working within the existing international framework to create a world more advantageous for it however this would be consistent with what the realist would predict of a country at its stage of development. The test will come over the next few decades, as its power increases further, whether or not China is satisfied with the changes it is able to facilitate or if it will want to take matters into its own hands and expedite the process through aggression.;Traits common to three prominent political science theories; rational choice, power transition and long cycles in history are used to identify behavioral traits of rising superpowers. Theories about the use of rhetoric are utilized to provide guidance on how to examine the rhetoric within the text.
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