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I am reading The Hundred-Year Marathon now. It is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see and understand China's long-term game.

Well, it’s not like we gave them everything they ever needed becasue they have cheap labor. Oh well.

Neither of our political parties, are standing for America.

Nobody is standing for America.

In 2049, he says, China could have an economy three times the size of ours, could suppress dissent and squelch democracy not only in China but abroad, could export pollution and proliferate weapons without serious opposition.

Essentially, we would not be a superpower compared to China, but at most a nuisance. They would have a larger military, a larger economy, massively larger manpower, and most likely will have matched if not leapfrogged past us in military (and other) technology.

By that time, the Eurasian landmass will probably be split 3 ways between a Caliphate, China, and India. I suspect that India would get split between the Caliphate and China. Perhaps the US will play a spoiler role in determining whether China or a Caliphate will be the dominant world power.

None of this is a surprise to anyone who critically read Barbara Tuchman’s “Stilwell and the American Experience in China.”

The Chinese have a proverb: “We can always fool the foreigner.” Which means several things:

1) They consider themselves superior to everyone else;

2) Because we are inferior barbarians, they are free to screw with us

3) That means they will lie, cheat, steal, and are bound by no rules when dealing with us “foreigners.” And that means everyone who is not Chinese.

There is also a saying among savvy businessmen about dealing with the Chinese; “It’s after you sign the contract that the real negotiations begin.” That all flows from their unwillingness to “play fair.” They will smile and sign a really sweet deal...on paper. Once the deal is done they demand that you perform to the letter but they will blatantly disregard any obligation on their part and thumb their noses at you.

Any American or country who does business with the Chinese are fools. The Chinese play the game of “fool the foreigner” very well, it’s been part of their culture for millenia.

They are not, never have been, and never will be “our friends.”

If you look at China and it’s history several things become very obvious.

1. China LOVES and needs Centralized Control over it’s people. Through the various Emperors all the way to today’s Chinese Communist Party they have always looked to a central figure to lead them.

2. As long as China and the Chinese people in general FEEL/Think that they are on top and that no other civilization is superior to them they stop all progress and actively start to suppress the gathering of new knowledge. Why? Because in their history knowledge and its associate Learning and the dissemination of knowledge had/has been seen as a potential problem and even a hazard to the Centralized government.

Confucianism was accepted because it promoted the status quo and those who were sages made sure that the ‘authorities’ knew they were in support of the status quo. Otherwise they tended to ‘disappear’.

3. Also I would like to point out that the Chinese people wonderful as they can be individually have the disturbing cultural tendency to have little regards to property rights especially intellectual property rights.

3a. They will steal anything that they see as having the potential to make a profit. And to give them credit they can usually improve upon an idea.

3b. The Chinese also show as a cultural tendency to not pioneer new fields of exploration. Why that is can be seen in their history. Risk takers, explorers both physical and of new knowledge tended to lose their heads when what they have discovered goes contrary to what the central governmental authorities are comfortable with. That is now pretty much ingrained into the Chinese psyche.

Bottom line for me is this; the Chinese will continue to make gains in the areas of economics and international politics for some time to come. Until they, like the United States over-extends their reach. They won’t do it the same way as we did, theirs will be a uniquely Chinese way. But it WILL happen and when it does we will all look back and say with perfect 20/20 hindsight that that ‘point’ was their downfall.

But until that does happen the future will remain a 20/400 vision problem for all of us.

“In 2049, he says, China could have an economy three times the size of ours....”

The only problem is that half the population will be over 60 by then. How is that going to work out?

A book about China would previously interest me. But since interacting with a native Chinese naturalized pastor who divided and decimated church membership I can’t. I am painting with a broad brush and he may not represent the whole of Chinese men but if he is culturally representative as I suspect we are in trouble, more than we know. Sweet agreeable front while arrogant and hard headed demeanor-my way or the highway attitude. I believe the Chinese men (this man at least)are every bit as convinced of their intellectual superiority as the Nazi Germans.