Posted on 04/30/2007 1:14:39 PM PDT by RWR8189
Bump for later reading
bump
Very good article. Just like all of the henny-pennies who said Japan would take over the world 25 years ago, the China fear mongerers will be wrong also.
Yes, there are still enormous contradictions between the new capitalism and the totalitarian rule and centralized economy.
The Party controls the banks. They have admitted to $500 billion in bad loans, mainly to keep their clients in line and to produce goods below cost. A likelier figure is $1 trillion or so.
They have enormous dollar holdings, because of the benighted trading policies started by clinton and continued by Bush. But the whole economy is much like what went on in the old Soviet Union under the Five Year Plans. It is only marginally entrepreneurial. Between that and the political oppression, something is bound to give sooner or later—probably a major explosion.
I’m glad I read this, because I was really starting to believe the hype, the impression that America will be “replaced” that we’ll be little weaklings on the playground. This has me breathing easier. Thanks.
Bump keeper
China is about to run into something very typical, but for which its society is ill-prepared: greed. The U.S. system works because it recognizes that evil actions are comprised of decent, God-given motivations perverted or driven to excess, and, therefore, evil actions may be prevented by the proper harnessing of those motivations towards good ends. The Communist system, on the other hand, considers greed evil, even if, in the Chinese case, it sees it as a necessary evil.
Take no comfort in the notion that China is headed for collapse. It will not collapse soon; and in the meantime, it is building an alarming portion of the manufacturing capacity in the world. Maoist depopulation will precede the collapse, and the nation, once made desperate, will be terrifying.
bttt
I haven’t read the article, but China alone isn’t the worry. It’s an alliance between a neo-Soviet Union, China, perhaps India, and Marxist South American countries (oil, manufacture, and nukes) that poses the current threat to America.
Innerestin’
However, they are pumping billions into their military and are embarked on a naval shipbuilding program that is astonishing in terms of the scope of the numbers, and in terms of the modern nature of what they are building.
I believe that there is a fulcrum point coming, whether it sees them imploding under their own weight, or exploding outward is yet to be seen...but it is clear that the inner circles there are not building towartds their blue water fleet with the expectation that they will implode.
In addition, even if their aims externally are unrealistic in the short term, and unlikely given the current superiority US, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Australians, etc...that has not stopped totalitarian regimes from attempting the impossible before and the world paying a heavy price to put them down.
BTTT
I don’t believe China is living on an economically thin edge. It should be able to weather now (thanks to the hype that even leaders of industry believe) almost any economic eventuality so long as it is not too deep and extended. However, I don’t see that China can “replace” the United States, regardless, much less “own” the century. At some point the realization of China’s potential to become ‘a’ superpower has lept off the cliff of rationality, and the discourse has become that China will be “the” superpower, not simply rivaling the United States or even topping it by developing a slightly larger economy.
No, China in the conventional discourse will be “dominant.” How did we arrive at this conclusion in just a few short years? (Yes, the difference between the talk of China’s potential now and even at the turn of the 21st century a handful of years ago is dramatically different.) It’s because of hype, hyperbole, exaggeration, and the common, off-the-cuff statements that can be found in the article posted earlier this morning that claim China’s impending “dominance.”
Personally, I’ve begun to contact authors and journalists making these claims. Whether that does any good or not remains to be seen.
ping
bump
While possible, I don’t imagine China won’t go out with a wimper given that they are amassing quite a military aresanal.
review
The remaining 1 billion, however, remain among the poorest and most exploited people in the world, lacking even minimal rights and public services.And given the draconian birth control laws, the population of China will (at best) halve each fifty years, leaving the 2100 A.D. population at 300 million.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.