Via Jim Henley, this piece in Marginal Revolution on the emerging economic might of China.
It would not, as suggested, be wise to create a new Cold War in which only the actors and the spheres of influence change.
Worth a read, and you might ask yourself if you, like me, are simply getting the hysterics too early every time you read about China doing what soveriegn nation states do- amass regional and global influence, enhance their economic might, and work to provide for their own security.
p.lukasiak
Worth a read, and you might ask yourself if you, like me, are simply getting the hysterics too early every time you read about China doing what soveriegn nation states do- amass regional and global influence, enhance their economic might, and work to provide for their own security.
of course it makes sense for China to control its own destiny — and those that panic every time China makes a move that enhances its security and self-determinative ability are being paranoid.
The problem, of course, is that China will emerge as the dominant world economic and military power in the next 50 or more years — and that China will at some point be lead by someone like George W. Bush….
Al Maviva
And send bag men to help pay for political campaigns, after which the beneficiaries ship defense sattelite technology to the bagman’s home address.
You forgot that one.
Al Maviva
And by the way, P, China is intensely xenophobic, posessed of a sense that the world’s whole mission is to oppress China, and convinced that until China holds clean title to the entire Pacific rim, that a massive injustice is being perpetrated.
China is already headed by somebody just like George Bush, except about 3 orders of magnitude worse. It’s a police state featuring forced abortions, the sale of organs of political prisoners, and whole portions of the country under the control of Islamists or other rebels.
China will be a problem, Unocal or not.
hilzoy
I don’t get hysterics every time China does what nation states do. I do, however, get hysterics when I consider the amount of power we have given them over our economy simply because we would rather run deficits than actually pay for the government our representatives have seen fit to give us.
David
Power over the US economy… yes.
A certain amount of anxiety it warranted for sure in regard to China.
It is a country that had approximately 2 million cars in the mid 1990’s.
There are now approximately 200 million cars in China.
General Motors predicts that in the next two decades, China will overtake the US as the primary consumer of autos.(Upwards of 800 million autos.)
How did they do it? They build the cars in China, make them cheaper (by using their own steel and resources and by implimenting lower standard pollution controls) and then created a financiing system by which those who were building the cars could also buy them.
The Henry Ford model.
Fledermaus
The scary part about a new cold war is I fear we may find ourselves on the short end of the economic stick. The Chinese are already seeking to buy control over Unocal, with refining capacity already at maximum that is one powerful lever.
Kimmitt
Oh, like we won’t nationalize Unocal if they get uppity. Possession is 9/10th of the law. We’ll even compensate the Chinese under Eminent Domain.