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Tim ReidyFebruary 27, 2012

From Mensaje magazine via Mirada Global:

Should we be worried about China? Its rise as a relevant actor is undoubtedly the central phenomenon in 21st century international relations. The deep political and economic changes currently in course show a radical transformation of the international order established after W.W.II, an order that was bipolar until de demise of the U.S.S.R. and unipolar during the latest twenty years. The perspective of a multipolar world, as China seems to desire, opens unknown perspectives and therefore, eventually dangerous.

An important fact is the strategic weakening of the United States after the obvious failure of its Nation Building policy promoted in Afghanistan and Iraq. The military interventions have only lead to greater destabilization and uprisings against US intervention. In the meantime the other powers, as well as the new alliances between nations seem to move towards the bunkerization of their respective strategic spaces instead of the project of globalization and liberalization promoted by liberal philosophy. The prevailing idea among them is the impulse to strengthen security, which leads to accusing foreigners of all the evils that affect the nation, to limit or even hinder the displacement of people, and to overreact facing real, exaggerated or imaginary threats. In an act of mistrust in relation to the South, the European Union accepts the installation of U.S. missiles formally directed against Iran and North Korea to be positioned in Southern Spain, directed towards the Mediterranean.

This scenario presents an important challenge: Doesn’t increasing the security of one country or group of countries weaken the security of the others?

Also available in Spanish.

Tim Reidy


 

 

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Stanley Kopacz
12 years 9 months ago
China is our friend.  They provide non-unionized cheap labor ad infinitum for the great free trade capitalist system.  Their pollution from making our stuff also reduces global warming.  Keep outsourcing.  Reduce our military budget by having our military hardware made there.  Running over Occupy Tienenmin with tanks showed how well they maintain stability, better than our feeble pepper spraying.  Now there's a place to build your factories.
Craig McKee
12 years 8 months ago
East coast China's development during the past 30 years should not be automatically superimposed on the entire country. While Chinese checkbook diplomacy is working to save face on the surface, it masks some very deep-seated inhouse problems during a crucial point in their political life as the old guard steps down later this year. For all their striving to be more ''first world'' economically, they are now poised to duplicate many of the problems which sent Western markets into a tailspin, including a 20-25% devaluation of the real estate market in 1st and 2nd tier cities as well as mounting bad credit. And given the fact that there are currently 118 males for every 100 females born, a military buildup is completely understandable, though lacking in overall focus and direction other than to protect national ingestion of fossil fuels. The myth of cheap labor is now being revealed as salaries continue to rise on the mainland, creating a new middle class with no outlet for its newly found buying power (along with the realization of the mass-destruction of natural resources like clean air and water) and Chinese factories have begun ''outsourcing'' work to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Churchwise, the cold war continues with no spring thaw in sight:
http://www.ucanews.com/2012/02/28/difficulties-ahead-for-china-vatican-relations/
Craig McKee
12 years 8 months ago
re:what is that enormous army being used for now?
For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOZVArwgY8s
Because SNOW is more plentiful than saltpeter...
JR Cosgrove
12 years 9 months ago
A couple comments:


The PLA is the most powerful institution in China and they are aggressive and are making problems for their West Asian neighbors at this very time and are active elsewhere around the world.  They spend lots of money on modern military equipment and there are 4.5 million currently in uniform which could be expanded to tens of millions in a short time.


A lot of the so called economic gains by China is probably bogus and many of their banks are broke but this is not allowed to be reported as such.  These banks have lent out money for real estate investment all over China which are essentially ghost cities but the investments are carried on their books as fully viable indicating they are growing when in fact they are collapsing. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E


This is what happened in Ireland where 25% of the economy was people building for each other.  Eventually it was a disaster when no one wanted the buildings.


Will there be a day of reckoning?  Probably some time in the near future there will be but they do not have any Western standards for accounting.  It will affect the Chinese people more than anyone but there will be repercussions around the world.  And one scenario is when it does happen the military will mobilize to control everything.  Pray that does not happen.  They are not nice people.
JR Cosgrove
12 years 9 months ago
David,

''The article is anti-American in tone,''  What would expect from an organization that praises Cuba.  From the article:


''Western Supremacy isn’t threatened so much by the rise of China or other powers, but by the progressive failure of a liberal system based in a financial capitalism whose biggest mistake has been to forget the value of man.''


What utter nonsense!  And this from the people who praise Cuba and China itself where Mao and his forward thinking did in 60-80 million people.  It is not that some very undesirable things didn't happen due to capitalism but freedom which essentially started with the Greeks has produced an incredible number of positive advances.  The achievements of Western Civilization is endless and they are still going on and most of it was funded by the excesses provided by capitalism. 


I wonder how they will like ''Coming Apart'' here.  I just finished it.  It has a very different story to tell about what is wrong with America.

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