|
|
May 25, 2013
|
|
|
|
DIG DIRECTOR
Martin Jacques is the author of "When China Rules the World: the Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World."
He is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics, IDEAS, a centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy, and a visiting...
|
|
||||||||||||||||
When China Rules the WorldEditor’s note: One of the first articles ever to appear on Truthdig was a dig led by Orville Schell, who asked the question “China: Boom or Boomerang?” Years later, with China’s economy continuing to thrive amidst a global economic meltdown, the answer seems obvious. But a boom to what end? China’s rise is well documented, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood countries in the world. China will soon become “the most powerful and influential country in the world,” says celebrated journalist Martin Jacques. It is predicted that by 2050, China’s economy will be twice that of the United States. What will Beijing do with all that power and influence? PART 1: A Chinese Primacy in the Making Robert Scheer: Hi, I’m Robert Scheer, the editor of Truthdig.com, and as part of our commitment to dealing with books—our book review section, our interviews with authors—we think that books represent a vibrant source of information, the old media is still very relevant in the new-media world. And it’s actually a pleasure to talk about a book that in a very exciting way deals with a very important and complex subject: “When China Rules the World” by Martin Jacques, who is a well-known writer, and particularly in England, where he writes for the Guardian newspaper and has covered international affairs. So, my first question: “When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.” Are you some kind of agent provocateur? This is to sell books? You don’t believe this, do you? Martin Jacques: Of course China will not rule the world any more than the United States has ruled the world for the last 60 years, or Britain before. But I think China will, in time, become the most powerful and influential country in the world, and that’s what I mean by ruling the world. Scheer: Why do you feel this? Because there are people who feel, oh, this is just a bubble, and they’ll blow away, and all they make are T-shirts, and where’s their imagination, and they’ll never be able to design, and so forth. Jacques: The thing is that for the last 30 years, China has had a hugely impressive economic performance. It’s been growing double-digit growth, the size of the economy doubling every seven years, and they’re responsible for the greatest reduction in poverty the world’s ever seen. And the consequence of this is that China is now a rapidly growing economy, projected by Goldman Sachs figures to overtake the size of the American economy in 2027, which is not so far ahead. And this is obviously more speculative, but by 2050 it will have an economy which is twice the size of that of the United States. Scheer: But why use the word rule? You know, “When China Rules the World”? Do you mean it in the sense that they will take over, they will tell us what to do? Jacques: No, but I mean it in this sense: that when a country of power becomes globally hegemonic, it basically sets the rules. It designs the major institutions. It has a huge reach, not just economically, but politically, culturally, intellectually, morally, militarily. Look at the United States and the way in which—or the West in general, before that Europe—have really set the tone of the world, the agenda for the world, overwhelmingly. Very few other countries have had a real look-in in that period. Now, the rise of China will see the same sort of phenomena, I think, which is that China will increasingly set the rules for the world, if you like. Scheer: Yeah, but the Chinese are in many ways becoming more like us. Would these rules really be so very different? I just read a story where the amount of English used in China now approaches the level of India, which is amazing, given that English was there in India because of their colonial experience, and that in China it’s pretty difficult to make the transition from Mandarin to English, and yet they’re getting the numbers even on that. Won’t they be looking very much like us? What about the theory that the nation-state will disappear, that it doesn’t matter where the center of economic activity is? We’ll all pretty much even look alike through plastic surgery, we’ll watch the same movies, we’ll think the same way, we’ll have the same kind of, sort of democratic order, isn’t that the expectation? Jacques: No, I think this is, to be quite blunt about it, balderdash. I mean, it’s certainly true that the Chinese are learning English, but they don’t learn it to speak in China, they learn it to speak with foreigners who speak English; it’s an interlocutor language. And we shouldn’t forget that twice as many people speak Chinese in the world as speak English as a first or second language. And while it’s certainly true that China has learned heavily from the West over the past 30 years in terms of technology, in terms of markets and so on, at the same time it remains profoundly different. And this is the point about modernization. People think of it as a process of Westernization. Well, maybe in part it is a process of Westernization, but only in part. Because modernization is also shaped by history and culture, so if your history and culture is very distinct and very different from that of the West, which in the case of China it most certainly is, the result will be a very different kind of society, a very different kind of identity. There is a classic example, actually; we don’t have to look very far, because it’s embedded in history: Japan. People think of Japan sometimes as a Western-style society; this is not true. Japan is profoundly different from the West. It’s got very different political and cultural characteristics; it works in a very different way, even though it is, on the face of it, to be Western. You go to Japan, you immediately know: This is very different. Scheer: Right. And China, as you’ve written, will likely be even more so. You stress in your writing the thousands of years of Chinese history, that this is not kidding around, and it’s not just because the Communist Party happens to be in power—that there’s the notion of the state, the notion of the responsibility to the citizen, that goes back. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? We seem to miss that. Jacques: Yeah. Well, I think—the bedrock idea, I think, in trying to understand China—you can’t understand China using Western concepts alone, or even mainly. China dates back at least 2,000 years to the victory of the Qin at the end of the Warring States Period, when it began to assume, roughly, its present borders, at least on the eastern part of China. So it has a 2,000-year history, and it is that 2,000-year history which defines the Chinese sense of identity—you know, the ideographic language, Confucian values, very distinctive idea of the family, and so on. So the Chinese sense of who they are comes not from the nation-state period—which is just the last hundred years, which is nothing in terms of Chinese history—but comes from 2,000 years ago. And the result is that the way China works, and the institutions that China possesses, are defined by this extraordinary history and the sheer vastness and diversity of the country. So, for example, the state is a very different kind of institution, I think, in China, to what it is in Western countries. Essentially, the state is seen by the Chinese as the custodian, the guardian, the embodiment of the civilization, the civilization-state. And for that reason it enjoys much greater authority, much greater legitimacy than any Western state does amongst its people, even though not a single vote is cast. Scheer: Well, votes are cast, but they’re not cast for the top. … Jacques: Well, they’re not cast in a way that’s familiar to us, that’s for sure. Scheer: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about that a bit, because this is probably the most provocative notion that I think you’re putting forth: that we don’t own the franchise on the modern model. Or the democratic model, or the freedom model, or the human rights model. And you’re arguing—and this scares people, because they think you’re going to start justifying tyranny, and you’re going to start rationalizing, you know, for maltreating people and so forth. But you have suggested in your writing that maybe they have the capacity to come up with something different that may also be better in some respects. Jacques: It will be different, that’s for certain. And I think in some respects—I mean, it’s very difficult to know, because one is projecting so much into the future—but I would imagine that in some respects it will be better. Maybe in some respects it will be worse. But in some respects I think it will be different. I think the idea that the West has a monopoly of all things that are good and wise, and everyone else is still sort of in a form of barbarianism, and as they develop they’ll become like the West—I think this is a very hubristic way of thinking. I think every culture, or most cultures in the world, have their own bit of genius, their own bit of wisdom. Values like accountability, representivity, tolerance are not Western values alone. Most cultures have, in some way, embodied them. And there’s no doubt at all that there’s some fine values in the Chinese tradition. What one has to distinguish, I think, is between—it’s dangerous to compare a developing country with a developed country. And this is constantly—we insist that the developing world is like the developed world, that we measure them by the same standards of human rights, of democracy, and so on. But in fact they’re in very different situations, very different circumstances to us. I mean, when we went through our industrial revolutions—the United States, the European countries—we weren’t democratic. We didn’t have universal suffrage. So why do we insist that they have the same standards as we do now when we didn’t have them at their level of development? So we need to be historical rather than ahistorical about it. Continued: Pluses and Minuses of Homogeny
Dig last updated on Dec. 17, 2009Advertisement New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Email to a friend
Email 
Print
Share
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Liquor Store Larry, December 21, 2009 at 8:08 am Link to this comment
johannes - We don’t call them Nazis here in California, we call them “progressives” “Jews for Peace” “Not in My Name” and other deceptive euphamisms.
Report thisBy johannes, December 21, 2009 at 5:44 am Link to this comment
I wrote if you have to beleef the internet site Jewwatch, they are ruling the world, the Zionist, maby you think it are the Chinees Maffia, in combination with ?
Do you know me, mister Liqueur boy, Keep in line please, respect old boy thats wath we need.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 20, 2009 at 9:31 pm Link to this comment
The problem with China ruling the world is they always want to rule the world over again 5 minutes later! *S*
Report thisBy Dayahka, December 20, 2009 at 8:38 pm Link to this comment
China is not going to rule the world. They have no interest in that. They are primarily interested in ruling their own country, the center of the world, and the immediately surrounding area.
What China represents is not the ascendancy of a new lone superpower, but a new bipolar world headed towards multi-polarity, as soon as Russia, Brazil, and India can get heir acts together. The EU is another possible prong in the multilateral world, but it is doubtful that the EU can ever be a unified and sovereign nation, rather than just a lapdog for the Americans.
No, China will not rule the world. Rather, China and the US now are center stage, one a free, capitalist, innovative system aiming for social justice for its people, and the other a fascist state looting the public treasury to enrich the rich.
Report thisBy Bobadi, December 20, 2009 at 5:46 pm Link to this comment
Martin Jacques: “Of course China will not rule the world any more than the United States has ruled the world for the last 60 years, or Britain before. But I think China will, in time, become the most powerful and influential country in the world, and that’s what I mean by ruling the world.”
So no, its not a question of anyone “ruling the world” but what group becomes more dominant and influential.
If you think about the massive and tragic economy of our militarism, the trillions of dollars we are borrowing for it; this produces the strong politics and manipulation that any other large economy enjoys.
It is very telling, that Obama stands behind his Presidential podium giving us all of the same Bush rhetoric about evil people and our moral crusade against them, while not a single word is uttered about the underlying politics, manipulation, and militarism in which Israel has managed for its benefit, which ultimately ends in our US detriment.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 20, 2009 at 3:10 pm Link to this comment
Johannes - how annoying it must be to believe that Jews are running the world and YOU do not even rise to the level of a pawn in their game. I hate to disappoint you but “Jews are not running the world” AND YET you STILL don’t rise above the level of pawn in anyone’s game because you are a pathetic kook who can only blame others for the fact that you never have achieved nothing and stand for even less. Look at it this way, if “Gentiles were running the world” you would still be an insignificant empty headed creep!
Report thisBy JeffersonSmith, December 20, 2009 at 8:23 am Link to this comment
China is not the most corrupt nation in the world, but they are certainly in the top ten. I have worked for a Chinese company and worked in China. If they are the economic and political model of the future then we are all in a lot of trouble. The oligarchy of wealth in China is focused in the Army and the CPC. If you don’t have a “partner” in China you cannot do business there and the “baksheesh” is worse there than in any part of the world I have done business in.
The government is not progressive in any sense of the word we understand in the West and they are not environmentally sensitive or politically open. We have provided most of the technology and capital to launch China’s “economic miracle” and without export markets their economy is unsustainable.
I have seen this type of analysis before, with Germany, Japan and now China. Soon we’ll be reading about India’s looming supremacy… I am not saying that China won’t grow, but until they have their, infrastructure, governance and social equality problems addressed, they won’t be “ruling” the world anytime soon, much less by 2050.
Numbers do not tell the whole story…
Report thisBy johannes, December 20, 2009 at 4:13 am Link to this comment
Its a question with to many answers, and possibilitys.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 19, 2009 at 1:51 pm Link to this comment
Compete with China’s low paid work force?
If I had known what having teenagers was really gonna be like I would have handcuffed them to a loom 14 hours a day until they were of legal age and labeled my product, “not made in Pakistan”. If every parent did this until their kids were of age it would kill two birds with one stone and resurrect the economy. We would have all the cheap labor we’d ever need and your kids would move out while they were still “young enough to know everything”!
Report thisBy Bobadi, December 19, 2009 at 1:21 pm Link to this comment
I would love to learn how to bring back a constructive value to this nation, where is that coming from?
Are we going to compete with China, and its massive underpaid workforce it has to draw from?
Perhaps we could become its retirement community, and trade our debt back to them by serving their growing aged.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 19, 2009 at 12:22 pm Link to this comment
RAE - trust me, the sky is not falling and it is not “capitalism or our western ways” that led to the melt down. It is graft and corruption that we will clean up and remain the greatest nation on earth. Learn Mandarin if you please but if you wish to live in China, remember, one benefit is you won’t need an organ donor card because if you express political opionions like the one you have expressed here they may just execute you, harvest your organs and implant them in some commie that sees things more like they do than you do YET!
Report thisBy omop, December 19, 2009 at 10:36 am Link to this comment
Whether “When China Rules the World” will go thru the ages annotated in a
poem by Will Shakespeare or not is still to be seen.
Some Truthdiggers might find it interesting and agree with its premise while
others may think BFD.
Herewith then
All the World’s a Stage
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
( Is this what awaits America?)
Happy New Year Everybody. 2010 is the Chinese year of the Tiger.
Report thisBy RAE, December 19, 2009 at 7:37 am Link to this comment
It seems that many, if not most, participating in this forum understand and accept the views expressed so clearly by fattkidd. There are likely hundreds of thousands more who would also agree.
So I ask: If so many are aware that our present capitalist ways will inevitably lead to the economic collapse and social ruin of America and other western nations, WHY do we collectively wave our hats in the air, yell Yahoo! and put pedal to the metal DOING THE SAME THING AS WE’VE ALWAYS DONE?
It can’t be that we’re ignorant. We KNOW what we’re doing. So it must be that we’re profoundly ARROGANT and STUPID - a recipe for disaster if there ever was one.
Well, I might be arrogant but I’m not THAT stupid - I’m signing up for a Mandarin course on Monday!
Report thisBy race_to_the_bottom, December 19, 2009 at 7:09 am Link to this comment
Most of the commentary on China, including on this site, is wrong because of a lack of understanding of Chinese culture and history and Leninism. Both are necessary.
It is normal to believe other people’s lives are guided by the same principles which guide our own. There is no objective reason that this should be so anymore than beliefs that the Earth is the center of the universe.
Chinese civilization developed independently from that of the West. Leninism is a completely different world view from capitalism.
Therefore, the axioms used by people in the west are mostly wrong when applied to China, and therefore their conclusions will also be wrong.
Report thisBy Bobadi, December 19, 2009 at 6:01 am Link to this comment
I am saving your comment to my hard drive, and linking to this site. That was a very succinctly and elegantly put capsulation of China/US comparison of political and economical realities.
Report thisBy jimch, December 19, 2009 at 5:15 am Link to this comment
Fattkidd:
That is a good, insightful post closely resembling my own take on our problems. Too bad the message doesn’t have a “contagion” element embedded in it.
Early on, when jobs were both being outsourced and sent to other countries, I suggested it was a myopic action that would eventually come back to haunt us when it was discovered that U.S. citizens had lost their purchasing power. And now it has arrived!
Report thisBy ofersince72, December 18, 2009 at 8:57 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
not to worry, Those of you that believe this climate
collapse isn’t going to change everything on this
planet have your heads in the sand.
It is going to be very different than what the
pundits tell us.
It will be survival within twenty years or less.
Earth is about ready to rejuvenate itself, its already started. It will remineralize its soils.
It ain’t nice to fool mother nature.
It is going to be so much different than what was
Report thistalked in Denmark. They even lie about physics and
the climate change. I much prefer to believe
Hamaker over Gore any day of the week!!!! Gore…
an OK kind of guy, but a known conservative who
like Obama is much of a fraud for big business
and also like Obama , had no reason to recieve a
Nobel Peace Prize !!!!!!!!!
By fattkidd, December 18, 2009 at 1:11 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
there is one HUGE difference between the Chinese economic model and the western that is completely overlooked by those who make claims that the chinese lack resources or that pollution is out of control or that the prosperity is only being felt by a few: The Chinese know these things and since their economy is managed by the gov’t, they are in a much better position to deal with them. Just today I learned that the oil/gas of the Caspian Sea region is going to be developed by China and a pipeline constructed to Bejing. So much for our adventure in Afghanistan! They make deals for energy with countries that are much more stable than the ones we choose to deal with. If it’s determined that their electronics companies need copper to expand, the gov’t buys up ALL of the copper in South America! They have already made commitments to provide ever increasing amounts of their energy from renewable recources than we ever will. They’re in the process of building a 5000MW (or something like that) wind farm off the coast that will provide electricity for millions of households in the near future. They have embraced green building techniques and recyclable materials in just about every new construction project in the country. They get it. They know where the future lies. They are not controlled by old world, fossil fuel based money interests like we are. The US may still be the largest economy in the world but that’s only possible due to our massive debt-financed consumption which is only possible because the dollar is the reserve currency but, there is no law that says it has to be this way forever. In fact, the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China have called for a new basket of currencies as a reserve and have quietly begun divesting themselves of dollar reserves. The US economy is now almost entirely dependant on military expansionism which is also debt financed and cannot continue forever. And, as bad as we think the wealth gap is in China, ours is much, much worse. We now lead the world in disparity between the rich & the poor. 1 in 4 US kids and 1 in 6 adults are dependant on food stamps to eat. The Chinese also know that in the nuclear age of mutually assured destruction, it’s rediculous to spend $1trillion/yr on building & maintaining a conventional military empire. Why would China want to invade the US? What do we have that they could possibly want? As was stated in an earlier post, we have no natural resources other than coal and China has plenty of that as well. Problem with America and especially of those on the right is that we/they believe their own hype. They believe we can maintain our global hegemony on military might alone and we continue to spend more and more of our GDP on the military industrial congressional complex. Do some research past empires and see how well that’s worked out in the past. Seems the Chinese have been reading some Stalin: ‘We will sell the capitalists the rope with which they will hang themselves’. Greenspan and Ayn Rand should have read some Marx at some point in their lives. ‘Capitalism only succeeds if there is a widespread sharing of prosperity. If/When the heads of capitalist system cease to share the wealth with those who actually produce the wealth of the country, those workers will demand socialism.’ And, he’s 100% correct and that is exactly what is happening in America today. The US will eventually become a social democracy the same as European nations because the owners of society have not learned this very basic principal. As they move more factories to China to exploit cheap labor & low regulation, they guarantee the destruction of the system that brought them their great wealth and power in the first place. Capitalists are destroying capitalism thru their own greed and at the same time giving rise to a new model of Chinese state managed capitalism. Short sightedness and lust for quick profits have doomed us. Ayn Rand couldn’t have been more wrong.
Report thisBy bobadi, December 18, 2009 at 11:02 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
remoran,
I think one can apply your question to how we here in the US have the same issue of low reproduction and so import our workers from other countries via the intractable undocumented worker/slave class. I imagine the Chinese will follow in this elitism, as well as following our vast world resource consumption by using the same economic levers we used.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 18, 2009 at 10:44 am Link to this comment
I appreciate remoran’s comments because they are a rational counter balance to this “the sky is falling” “blame America first” self loathing modality that is so prevelant. Humans are imperfect, we better get used to it, freedom still offers room for growth that anything less, stifles, even if ours is imperfect!
Report thisBy remoran, December 18, 2009 at 10:33 am Link to this comment
I have a problem with this analysis because of the lack of natural resources China has (even less then the US), the population overload and the environmental disaster. No mention is ever made about the fact the Chinese have the oldest population in the world, which brings up the question, how are the seniors going to cared for by the too few young who comprise the nation’s workforce. This very important fact was pointed out by an astonishingly honest interview conducted by the NY Times with the Chinese Foreign Minister about four years ago. To me, China will be a super power for a very short time because they don’t have the natural resources (Russia anyone) needed to keep them on top.
Report thisBy RAE, December 18, 2009 at 9:42 am Link to this comment
Damn this global poison - this “power OVER” mentality - gets tiresome. Empires come, empires go. How many more millennia must pass before the homo sapiens on this planet mature enough to try another way?
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 18, 2009 at 7:31 am Link to this comment
To read some of the comments from readers on would presume it would find broad acceptance on the far left to balance our budget by harvesting organs.
Report thisBy Liquor Store Larry, December 18, 2009 at 7:28 am Link to this comment
It is tragic to me that leftists, at once don’t see that our unique position in the world stems from our freedom, even as they are willing to scuttle our freedoms with policies that debase them. Whether this is done out of guilt or desire to feel equal or prolatariat or whatever, that disgusting quality of wanting to grovel to cultures who are “inferior” rather than to be comfortable with having found a better way and being confident in it. This is tortured thinking that misses the point.
Report thisBy omop, December 18, 2009 at 6:04 am Link to this comment
Me thinks the over-quoted, “He who holds the gold makes the RULES”, may have been the premise for Mr. Jacques’ provoking title.
At one time it used to be said that the best “friends” a Soviet General had were his counter parts in the US military and vice a versa.
B. Disraeli a one time PM of England is on record as stating, “The world is governed by different personages than what is imgined by those who are not behind the scenes”.
IMO “When China Rules the World” it will be more in a paternalistic rather then a colonialistic modus operandi. Obviously a realistic and factual determination can only be made after China Rules.
Truthdig and Mr. Scheer are to be commended for “provoking” their readers into the future.
Report thisBy PatrickHenry, December 17, 2009 at 6:38 pm Link to this comment
A largely non militaristic industrial country which knows how to manage a large and ever growing educated population, providing national health care, education and a low crime rate.
They have experience the U.S. lacks developed over millenia of cultural society.
Report thisBy tommy_slothrop, December 17, 2009 at 6:23 pm Link to this comment
Please don’t tell us that the Chinese aren’t inclined to confront us militarily. The people who have been trying to provoke them into doing just that (by sending spy planes into their airspace, stationing troops in neighboring countries and conducting military exercises off their coast) will be so disappointed. Leiberman, for instance, has submarine manufacturers in his state to support.
Report thisBy Ouroborus, December 17, 2009 at 6:18 pm Link to this comment
Ed Harges, December 17 at 10:58 am #
Report thisWe Americans should all be studying Chinese and Hebrew.
It’s best to know the
languages of those who rule us.
==========================================
LOL; but not really; interesting comment, but I see
Chinese as more important. Israel’s survival isn’t so
certain, IMO.
By P. T., December 17, 2009 at 11:47 am Link to this comment
For a different viewpoint, by Professor Dongping Han, that addresses the massive unrest in rural China, click on http://www.monthlyreview.org/091214dongping.php
Report thisBy loneagle, December 17, 2009 at 9:42 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
montanafearmongeringscaredhack is more
Report thisaccurate.
By Franklin Paine, December 17, 2009 at 8:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Another example of the myopic, over-simplified, popular tripe! Anyone who knows a thing about China knows that it is, in fact, a corrupt beyond words, fragile, inherently unstable country. while the US is certainly NOT the overwhelming power that it has been in the past, its economy continues to be more than twice the size of the next largest. The US military is also by far, more powerful and global in scope than that of any other country (or bloc of countries for that matter). Additionally, the idea that China owning US debt is somehow a major liability also represents the kind fearful, misleading (sophomoric) thinking that characterizes the populist mindset. Like it or not, if one intends to do global business, the Dollar will be the currency and English is the language. The truth is (although counter-intuitive) that China’s ownership of US debt is more problematic to China than it is to the US.
There is a global (financial/business) system in place—it’s controlled by western interests. It would be the height of naivete to believe that those interests haven’t well considered the “China-issue”. I’m reminded of the US hysteria of the late 80’s that Japan was “buying up America”! What was happening, in-fact, was that US interests were taking their flushed, cash-rich Japanese counterparts to the cleaners.
Finally, having said the above, the idea of evaluating the world in nationalistic terms is anachronistic. It’s a global world (and has been since early 80’s) and in that world there will be winners and losers. Individual Nations clearly have had less and less meaning in this new context.
Report thisBy Ed Harges, December 17, 2009 at 6:58 am Link to this comment
We Americans should all be studying Chinese and Hebrew. It’s best to know the
Report thislanguages of those who rule us.
By montanawildhack, December 17, 2009 at 6:27 am Link to this comment
Boy, that was a lot of reading and not nearly enough pictures….
This is a bit tangential but permit me to make a few comments on the Toys for Tots program as it relates to China….
Every year at this time U.S. Marines appear on my Tv set all pimped out in their dress blues with lots of shiny things on their chest asking for donations for the Toys for Tots program… What’s hilarious about this is that 99.9999 percent of these toys are manufactured in China and the money made goes right into the Chinese coffers to purchase more and better military hardware that will inturn be used to kill these same Marines…. Does anybody else think that is just about the funniest thing in the world????
“Oh no Montanawildhack, China will never attack us…We’re their biggest trading partner.” Yes, Now we’re their biggest trading partner but what happens when the proletariat in the USA becomes so broke that they don’t have money to spend on this Chinese shit???? What happens when the USA goes totally bankrupt????? What use will the Chinese have with us then?????
Report thisMe, I’m studying Manderin (sp) as our new Chinese masters will need passive toadies to make their Project for the New Chinese Century a reality….
I can already say, “This way to the ReEducation Camp you pigs.”
Page 2 of 2 pages < 1 2