"Let me assure you that I have done everything in my power to weaken and ruin this country. I have been focused like a laser beam on making China the number one super power. I'm hoping my wife will be able to continue where I left off."
Posted on 05/02/2003 3:22:21 PM PDT by kattracks
Ex-president Bill Clinton predicted this week that either Communist China, which helped bankroll his 1996 reelection campaign with hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions, or the European Union, would replace the United States as the world's number one power within the next 30 years.
"In all probability, we won't be the premier political and economic power we are now," Clinton told the Washington Post in an interview from Mexico on Thursday. Saying the shift would occur within "a few decades," the ex-president cited the growth of China's economy and Europe's already formidable economy as factors that would doom continued U.S. supremacy.
Clinton said the question of whether China or Europe would replace the United States depended on how their respective governments invested in military might. While Europe's defense investment has been minimal since World War II, China now has the fastest growing military budget in the world.
In 1996, the Clinton administration approved the transfer to Beijing of key missile guidance technology which enabled China to hit most major U.S. cities with its intercontinental ballistic missile fleet.
Clinton offered his prediction to the Post in an attempt to clarify comments he made to an Australian audience in February, where he warned "This is a unique moment in U.S. history, a brief moment in history, when the U.S. has preeminent military, economic and political power. It won't last forever. This is just a period, a few decades this will last."
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For now.
SARS is still
Guess cotton and plastic don't transmit the disease.
Buyers won't go to China. Most companies have imposed a quarantine; Nike is already looking for somewhere else to make their shoes.
China will get on top of it with draconian quarantine measures.
Except that (a) they're too damn slow to do it (the time for a quarantine was six weeks ago) and (b) quarantine doesn't help much with stuff that's airborne, unless ChiComs can stop breathing for three weeks.
It's one thing to say that American power won't last forever (which is obvious, even though leftists seem to think this observation makes them smart); it's quite another to say that we should hasten or welcome or even anticipate a decline. Unfortunately, leftists can't seem to tell the difference.
When people become old, they often need wheelchairs. Everyone will become old eventually. Uh, that doesn't mean 25-year-olds should go out and get wheelchairs, and start wheeling themselves around instead of walking, to prepare for when they're old and need wheelchairs.
I mean, 1. that's just stupid, 2. it will make the decline come faster (legs atrophy)...
... which is what leftists want in this case, of course.
I believe it won't be China's century unless they significantly alter their political system.
People are often too mesmerized by population statistics.
China will have to break up into pieces before real growth takes place.
Do you think WalMart is bailing on China. I don't think so. Nike has been in Bangledesh for years and is always looking for a little cheaper way to go. I've been buying New Balance for years. Made in the USA. The last pair came UPS, made in China. And so it goes.
"Let me assure you that I have done everything in my power to weaken and ruin this country. I have been focused like a laser beam on making China the number one super power. I'm hoping my wife will be able to continue where I left off."
I look for the money to be the most powerful force and the government to follow. Could be wrong, but isn't this a wonderful country.
For that matter, the squabbling over the Iraq War will probably mean that the EU will be considerably weaker than one would have predicted a couple of years ago.
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