Reply With Quote
I think I heard an excerpt of that do entary on "The World" tonight. Their UN ambassador sounds really cheeky starting about halfway through this:
http://audio.theworld.org/wma.php?id=08173
China is overtaking the world's major economies one by one. It leap-frogged Britain in 2005 and now has Germany and Japan in its sights.
Its growing economic muscle is bringing diplomatic and military strength.
So should the rest of the world be worried?
Robert Kaplan, visiting professor at the United States Naval Academy, said the growth of Chinese power would affect the US, the current superpower.
"For the last 50 years the US Navy has more or less owned the Pacific Ocean as its own private lake," he said. "That is not going to hold for the next 50 years."
Mr Kaplan said the Chinese defence budget has been growing much faster than the economy in general. Spending has been closely targeted at developing missiles and buying submarines, with the specific aim of constraining the US Navy off Chinese waters.
However, Sha Zukang, China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, insisted there was no cause for concern.
If you read China's 5,000-year-long history, he said, "it's not difficult to discover that China basically is a peace-loving nation".
US rival
The Bush administration came to power convinced that China was America's strategic compe or. But then came 9/11. To Beijing's enormous relief, Washington's focus shifted to terrorism, and there was less attention on China's discreet military build-up.
China's Guo Boxiong and Donald Rumsfeld of the US, 16/7/06
The US accuses China of under-reporting its military spending
Nevertheless, Pentagon planners are concerned about developments, and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said much of China's arms spending is being concealed.
Ambassador Sha responded strongly to the allegations. "It's better for the US to shut up," he said. "Keep quiet. It's much, much better."
This is a crucial question for China's future. Will it be just an economic superpower content to sell the world shoes and washing machines? Or will it have the military muscle to protect its new interests around the world?
After two centuries of feeling victimised by the West and then Japan, China chafes under a Pax Americana. At present it is keen to protect the economic achievements of the past 30 years and to avoid confrontation with Washington.
However, the issue of Taiwan could still provide a flashpoint. Ambassador Sha said there could be no compromise on this vital national interest. "For China, one inch of territory is more valuable than the life of our people," he said.
Most mainland Chinese I know are equally passionate about Taiwan. Nationalism has replaced Communism as the glue that holds China together.
The other key is prosperity. China is turning a nation of subsistence farmers into a 21st century industrial workforce. That has created an enormous demand for resources and much of China's foreign policy is now focussed on securing supplies, especially of oil and gas.
Global push
In Africa the impact is particularly stark. Garth Shelton of South Africa's Wits University welcomes the attention, saying there is a lot of optimism about the renewed Chinese interest in his continent.
"If we deal with the United States or West European governments they would bring a list of 33 items requiring restructuring of your democracy, your human rights issues," he said. "China would arrive and say we accept you as you are. And that's a refreshing change."
China has invested heavily and offered aid to many African countries, especially those with energy resources. It now is a major consumer of oil from Angola and gets 7% of its oil from Sudan.
People walk in and out of the China town compound in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2002
Chinese investment is welcome in Africa
There is international criticism that China has blocked UN resolutions criticising the Sudanese government over actions in Darfur, and that it has helped prop up regimes like those of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
Senegalese journalist Adama Gaye, who has just written the first book by an African about China's new influence on the continent, accuses the Chinese of practicing "cynicism at the highest level".
He questions whether the investment is in Africa's long-term interests. "The moment they no longer need Africa they may disappear overnight and Africa will be left dry under the sun," he said.
Mr Gaye also voiced wider concerns that regimes would be attracted to a "Beijing Model" of economic development without democratic elections.
For Jing Huang of the Brookings Ins ution in Washington, this is the real threat to the West from China.
"What it really challenges is a value system. Who we are and what we want to be," he said.
However, China's problems remain immense and it needs markets and resources around the globe to sustain its economic growth. We can only hope the enmeshed interests of this century prevent the great wars of the last.
But even without armed conflict, the rise of this first giant of the global era will surely expose the developed world to the culture and values of a billion strangers. A sudden intimacy that may make both rich together, but may also make the West more vulnerable.
Carrie Grace presents "Analysis: What China Wants" on BBC Radio 4 at 8.30 pm Thursday August 17th
I think I heard an excerpt of that do entary on "The World" tonight. Their UN ambassador sounds really cheeky starting about halfway through this:
http://audio.theworld.org/wma.php?id=08173
Yeah, once... er, if... the global Islamist threat is repulsed, then we get to face fascism again, except this time not only do we have to worry about a foreign power, we have to worry about the dominance of corporatism in our own country.
The 21st century will be as challenging as the 20th was. The 1990's were just a respite between struggles.
London - The United States should "shut up" with its concerns about China's growing military spending because the increase is no threat, a Chinese ambassador said Thursday.
Sha Zukang, China's ambassador to the
United Nations in Geneva, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that American concerns about his country's growing military might were misguided.
"It's better for the U.S. to shut up," Sha said. "Keep quiet. It's much, much better."
Sha said the world need not worry about China's growing economic and military might because "China basically is a peace-loving nation."
"China's military buildup is not threatening anyone," Sha said. "This is a legitimate defense."
China's 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army is the world's largest fighting force, and Beijing has alarmed its neighbors with double-digit percentage increases in military spending nearly every year for a decade.
U.S.-China military relations have been strained over a number of issues in recent years, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's push for Beijing to be more open about its defense priorities, its military budget and its nuclear arsenal.
The audio link I posted above has that quote.
It's worth listening to -- he makes it count.
In other words, the US is not happy being a rich and powerfull nation. They have to be the only one (or the richest and most powerfull).
hey I don't like it anymore than you do, but let me tell you something, when it comes right down to it, I'd rather have the US as sole superpower and NOT the Chinese.In other words, the US is not happy being a rich and powerfull nation. They have to be the only one (or the richest and most powerfull).
Think about what would happen if the al Qaeda types try a 9-11 against China. They have already done some stuff against india.
If you really get down to brass tacks, any struggle with militant muslims would have 3 billion (Europe, China, India) people and something like 90% of the world's economy against a few nutbags.
It would not be so simple as many christian concervatives (read "ethno-centrists") would have us believe.
Wouldn't take a lot to kill a TON of people in China. They are packed in that place like sardines!
Agreed.
My issue is with people here in America feeling that China’s growth is a threat to them. Why? It’s like we Argentines feeling threatened because Brazil is doing well economically.
you'd be amazed at how many jackasses over here believe that very same thing
No they arent at all. Sure, they have their share of big cities in the south with a concentrated populous. But the majority of Chinese people live in the most defunct, backwards, uneducated rural nowheres, they probably couldnt name their current president.
China is a ed up place.
I think the point was that you could kill the majority of people in the non-defunct, forward, educated urban somewheres and China wouldn't be a threat anymore.
I think that was the point.
Heh, consider it a missed point upon me. If that was the intent, then I completely agree.
China's ruling fraternity is very, very minute and obvious.
Well, 01 Snake wa talking about Al-Qaeda wreaking terror upon the PRC.
Are you talking about the same thing?
I hope you weren't talking in terms of killing 100 million people in order to neutralize an economic compe or.
Nope. Not me. I was merely saying what I understood another poster to be saying.
I'd kill a hundred million people if their government was planning to kill a hundred million of us though.
We have to keep an eye on any emerging power in case they get an eye towards military adventurism against our interests.
It's hard to imagine China would want to kill 100 million Americans, since they hold large amounts of American debt, and need our economy to stay productive if they hope to get a return on that investment.
If they wanted to engage in military adventurism, they would have to weigh that against the hit they would suffer in foreign investment. It's hard to imagine that would be worth it. The current Chinese leadership is not prone to megalomaniacal and illogical behavior. They are quite canny little fascists.
The threats to us are that China will outcompete America in the global economy, and that it will discourage international democracy in favor of international fascism. Military action is not the moral or appropriate solution to either of those threats.
It's not that they will outcompete America in the global market it's that they will do it on the backs of nickel-a-day laborers and completely ignore humanitarian business practices when competing with the United States in a global market.
Their success comes at a much lower price than does ours.
^ Military Might will be the only advantage we have over them if they do in fact "catch us" economically.
My company does alot of business in Asia. What you arent hearing is their undervaluing of their dollar, and that their workforce wont be as cheap as some like to think.
S.Korea is already unionized. I sent a small team to do a very standard machine install in Seoul in July. Usually takes 2 weeks if youre dealing with new operators and such. Their 30 day visas expired last week, they had to fly home, get another 30 day visa, and flew back today.
Why? Because that cheap Asian workforce decided to strike last month.
This will be the first of many, IMO.
Yeah, well South Korea ain't China. Try to strike in China and they'll probably imprison you and pull some more Chinese peasants from the backwaters to take your place.
China already is experiencing some shortages of skilled labor, which is driving up wages.
Right again. We have machines in Japan, Korea and soon to be China (Oct 07). I will speak from 1st hand experience then.
http://bangkokpost.com/breaking_news...s.php?id=99046
Know your enemy:
Bangkok Post
China on 15-year quest for high-tech weapons
Beijing (dpa) - China on Thursday unveiled a plan to "enhance its capability to develop and rapidly supply new-generation weaponry" over the next 15 years, state media said.
The plan "stresses that the country will develop high and new technology weaponry to reinforce a mechanized and information-based army," the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 15-year programme will include development of "new and high technologies for the space industry, aviation, ship and marine engineering, nuclear energy and fuel, and information technology for both military and civilian purposes," the agency said.
"The outline development programme of science and technology for national defence (2006-2020)" was agreed by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence in the eastern port of Qingdao on Thursday, it said.
China on Thursday also criticized as reflecting a "Cold War mentality" a US Department of Defence report that questioned the purpose of China's military buildup.
The Pentagon report on Tuesday said China's leaders "have yet to adequately explain the purposes or desired end-states of their military expansion."
"The outside world has little knowledge of Chinese motivations and decision making or of key capabilities" that have resulted in the military buildup, the report added.
The Pentagon estimates that China's defence spending is two or three times higher than the officially disclosed amount of about 35 billion dollars in 2006. China has regularly raised its annual military budget by more than 10 per cent since the early 1990s.
The Pentagon said that the weapons acquisitions and the modernization of the Chinese military are geared, in the short-term, toward preparing for a possible confrontation in the Taiwan Strait.
However, the report cautioned that the Chinese military buildup "could apply to other regional contingencies, such as conflicts over resources or territory."
The US, including Department of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have criticized China's lack of transparency with regard to its military.
While Taiwan is the obvious target -note However, the report cautioned that the Chinese military buildup "could apply to other regional contingencies, such as conflicts over resources or territory."
Resources meaning the Spratley and Paracells.
Without resources - The PRC cannot become the Regional Power it aspires to be.
Yantai – a port city
Dalian – another port city right across Korean Peninsula
BTW:Very unlikeily that Taiwan will announce independence. Well over 75% of Taiwanese support to remain with the status quo
Which they enjoy de facto independence without provoking China.
Just that Taiwan has a very vocal minority (less than 15%)that make an impression to foreigners thinking that every Taiwanese wants independence which is totally untrue.
BTW, there are over 1 million Taiwanese now living and working in China.
Notice how clean the streets are. No what you Texan's would expect, A Lot cleaner than San Antonio's
They even have Tex-Mex in Shanghi
North Star Mall traffic has nothing on Shanghi
A REAL RIVER WALK
Last edited by AFE7FATMAN; 08-19-2006 at 12:37 AM.
China represents 1/5th of world population, it's not impossible to imagine that if the globalization continues (and it will) China will one day represent 1/5th of world economy.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
