China: Friend or Foe?
Mar 30, 2010
Hardly a day has gone by in recent memory when I’ve turned on CNN or picked up The Wall Street Journal and haven’t come across at least one story about China. Are you really surprised? At 1.33 billion people, China has the world’s largest population. With a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of $7.8 trillion, China has the second largest economy in the world, following only behind the U.S. I don’t know about you, but those numbers alone are enough to cause me to sit up and take notice. In business terms, it reeks of a hostile corporate takeover!!
China is funding a good chunk of the U.S. deficit. If you think this makes China a ‘friend’ to America, think again. The Chinese Yuan is tied to the U.S. dollar. The result? Our hands are tied when it comes to tweaking exports and decreasing our trade imbalance. No closeout sales on Chevys or leftover NASA space shuttles: China’s Yuan always buys at the same ratio as the dollar. Sounds like more ‘foe’ than ‘friend’ to me.
For a long time, it seemed like China was becoming more westernized by embracing everything American. However, since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China has moved the other way, becoming more…well, Chinese. The country’s leaders have turned into bullies that have no interest in playing nice with the U.S. or the rest of the West. Arguments have erupted over spying, censorship and arms sales, not to mention disagreements over climate change discussions. Coupled with China’s growing economy, public infrastructure spending and voracious appetite for raw materials and energy, China is well on its way to becoming the world’s biggest and most uncontrollable BULLY!!
The U.S. has led the world economy for decades. America’s freedoms and democratic values have also inspired and taught the rest of the world. Everyone knows actions speak louder than words: we not only talk about our values, we also demonstrate them through our actions and deeds. We are not only a powerful neighbor; we are also a friend to the world…often at great risk and personal detriment.
Will a new and powerful China become the same leader, friend and partner to the world that the U.S. has been? No way!! Take the recent earthquake in Haiti. The U.S. government provided $100M in aid; the Chinese government provided less than $5M. Wake up people: China isn’t a friend to anyone other than itself.
JZ, the situation with China is actually more complex than how you’ve painted it here. Our economies are effectively fused at this point. They need our purchasing power and we need them to continue to buy up our massive debts. Unfortunately, we’re economically joined with them for the time being, and a violent separation of the two would be disastrous. There’s actually a well-researched book on the subject, “Super Fusion,” which should be required reading for anyone alive today.
As for your claim that China appeared to be Westernizing for a long time, that’s plainly untrue. China was and is modernizing, which is a very different animal altogether. But becoming more Western? More liberal? More open and free? China has never remotely exhibited that. From T-Square to Tibetan silencing to people just “vanishing” in China, democracy isn’t their MO. One could even argue that China-as-civilization doesn’t consider dictatorial rule a bad thing, considering that they’re the oldest civilization to still exist, from dynastic cycle to dynastic cycle and so on. Do I think that’s “right?” Of course not. But people in China may not think that it’s “wrong,” and may, in fact, considering their long history as a culture, view “democracy” and “freedom” as abberations to the natural world order…with China at the center, of course.
As for China’s voracious appetite for raw materials, and their desire to lead a modern lifestyle, complete with cars, suburbs, malls and the rest, that’s truly an issue. But, can you blame them? Who WOULDN’T want to have access to all that modern society can offer? Moreover, considering that it’s primarily the United States that has contributed the most to our climate problems, and considering that it’s the United States that has continued to waffle on legislation and action regarding said climate problems, we’re perhaps not really the people to throw the stones, lest our own house be broke.
I also take issue with your pro-America paragraph. One of the largest issues we continue to face as a society is the inability for we, the people to see where our government isn’t inspiring, isn’t a beacon of hope and change, and isn’t in the right. Don’t get me wrong: I do think that the US is pretty much the best thing out there, but we’ve engaged in bully tactics of our own. We’ve illegally removed and planted people in power, including Saddam. We’ve engaged in wars of opportunity for resources. As a country, we’re clearly suspect to the corruption of power, just as the British were before us, and just as the Chinese are. Even Reagan, who played the role of saintly mayor of our “City on a Hill” to the hilt, had to feign senility in order to distance himself from his obvious involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. We’re not perfect…but we’re the best there is…
…and that’s what’s truly, deeply scary about China’s rise. We’ve always been told that in order for the marketplace to operate effectively, we need freedom. We’ve promoted that model: free markets require democracy and vice-versa. Europe promotes another model that also includes freedom: regulated markets decided by democracy, or democratic socialism. What China represents to the world is something scary and new (and for the record, not communism…we’ve yet to see a classless society outside of a kibbutz.) They’ve paired the market to a dictatorial system. And it works. And it’s influencing places all over the world, from Vietnam to Dubai. That’s the horror we should all guard ourselves against. They’ve shown that you don’t need democracy for material modern life, and in many ways, they’ve exposed the weaknesses inherent when everyone has a voice to dissent.
awesome reply Aaron its refreshing to hear some one with comun sense and some one who tries to be just in his or her views, because the world isnt like that any more. the article was so plain I was embarrased, I tought he was intelligent! perhaps I was wrong. I thought he was going to study the situation in depth since this is his blog but that wasnt the case. If u ask me, and I have travelled. the best system is the european social system, it really works. What makes countries crumble like Rome, Persia or even Babylon is the “Pursuit of happiness” if its not attainable then there is unrest in that society a certain balance has to be acquired to ensure the longevity of that society.
Thats why the American model in the new world isnt accepted as before, Poverty rates are to high, the gap between the rich and the poor is wider in the richest country in the world, How could this be? People associate happiness with financial stability if this issue cannot be tackle as the world perseive it or if it has been tackle but clearly the outcome has been total failure. Then a new model needs to be develop.
Santo, to be fair to JZ, he’s a very intelligent man. That he looked at this issue myopically doesn’t detract from his intelligence (and it may be that myopia, that focus, that makes him the big bucks.)
JZ is merely reflecting back what we’re exposed to in the mainstream, which is that China is fixing their currency to create a massive trade imbalance. That’s only part of the overall story. Economically, the world is living under the “Chimerica” model. The two largest economies are fused. To separate them suddenly, would crash both, and thus the world. It’s why having the remini float is a horrible, horrible idea. It would rise. The dollar would crash. The Euro would crash. The world would crash.
Furthermore, we, the people, need to get our act together regarding what we want out of our relationship with China. Do we want decent paying American jobs in manufacturing? Then we need to be willing to pay more for a sprinkler at Wal-Mart. There’s an entire circle happening here; we enable China to grow and prosper as they enable us to buy cheap goods and thus, curb inflation.
As for the outcome of the American model being a total failure, that’s entirely untrue. In so many ways, the American model has been, and continues to be, a massive success. More countries are democratic today than at any time in history. People are still coming here for their slice of the American Dream. And it still has a robust, effective economy. It’s very easy to critique the United States at present. We’ve just had the worst president in our history take us to the brink in so many ways. We have a president who is attempting to fix that, while mired with red ink as far as the eye can see (and, of course, a bunch of white supremacists pretending to have a tea party.) And we’ve just come out of the bad end of a boom-bust cycle…which we haven’t had to deal with prior to Reagan and his policy of deregulation to the extreme (hence, the New Deal.)
The point is this: it’s easy to look at a hurting America and predict the decline. And it’s easy to view China’s rise as a replacement of sorts. But, look at history. We all thought that Japan was going to be the model in the 1980s. Nope. There was a brief moment where the EU model looked to be “the one.” Yeah, good luck with that. And then there was “the wonder of Dubai,” a city-state which dared take the Enron model of financing and apply it to an actual city! So much for that.
So, while China may represent a model for dictators who want to get rich but don’t want to give up power, America remains the model for actual citizens who want to at least try for a fair chance. Put another way, even the poor in America have cable.
Fantastic stuf very interesting the debate. Aaron you have really tried to set the records straight,JZ reminds me of the nonsense that what was propergated after the 9/11 desaster” THEY’RE ENVIOUS OF OUR STANDARD OF LIFE THAT’S WHY THEY HATE US”.And thrust me they had alot of Americans believing that nonsense of a smoke screne.China stance is (1)As far as China is concern they need america only for while until the chinese people aquire the same acusition power as american has today and that ‘s not going to be very far away , as we can see the rate of their developement.(2) Because of America’s legacy as a military bully The world Over China will never Thrust America or American Politicians.(3) The issue of the big “D” word .Dimocracy in many ways alot of world politicians accept that American Democracy is one of convenience and that is why China had to prove,that economical developement dont necessarily have to be based on this hopocritical one sided dipolmatic manipulacion called democracy according to those in control.Eg ; Nicaragua ;Chile;Grenada;Panama;Palestine; Iraq just to name a few. Who in their nomal rational mind could look at the suituation in Palestine as domocratic sense it is supported by the world most democratic society with all the power to change the suituation if they so desire sense 1948 to date the world and the palestine people have been deluded by this “D” word.Recently on the Iraq issue ,a million marched on London before the invasion. slogan/( NOT IN MY NAME /DO NOT INVADE IRAQ) Never-The-Less the democratically elected prime minister went irregardless of the clamor of his electors.( American Democracy for you) These and the many more that’s not in the public domane which the Chinese and many other governments are quite aware.The Chinese however sees the american population as a community and they know that there is nothing america or any body could do( outside of creating a war) to stop them from being the biggest economy in the world in the very near future so they are watching the american reaction as they go about ataining that world position, which is why they are taking there malitary stance parallel with there economic power because they know what they know.