This is a
bold move by the Chinese, and is part of the tectonic shift of power away from the West to China and other new BRIC countries. Some see it as sinister - but it is really a win-win for China and Greece and a wake-up call that 'we' are no longer the only players in town anymore and that things are changing fast. I believe we should welcome China's 'peaceful rise' rather than assume aggressive intent. The West's own history of militarism and imperialism is too easily projected on the new powers in the world, who themselves have long memories of being subject to colonialism, in particular China, India and Brazil.
The recent attempt by Brazil and Turkey to break the impasse over Iran's nuclear development was another sign that its no longer a unilateral game of the West dictating terms to developing countries. On that occasion, the move was rejected by the main powers, including Russia and China. But if the West won't deal with Iran, China and Russia probably still will.
People tend to have an emotional reaction to China and focus on its human rights abuses, which there are of course many, but fail to note its achievements and the fact that unlike the USA, it is not a plutocracy run by and for millionaires pretending to be a democracy. Treating China like a uniquely evil dictatorship is wrong - all large developing countries have serious human rights issues, including India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. All have margnalised minorities too. Tibet has a very long history of being a satellite state of China, long before the 1949 revolution.
In China even rich people can go down for corruption and some of them even end up being executed. Harsh, but perhaps some exemplary punishment of the ripoff merchants would be good in the West too. Unfortunately, the foxes are inside the coop and have taken us for a ride already, and are now back to business as usual. In China, the national interest means something - eliminating poverty, building industry, even greening the economy, whereas in the US and UK, the national interest is what suits the banks and the military industrial complex and never mind the rest.
Here are some comments on a very Cold War style scaremongering
article in The Guardian from security correspondent Simon Tisdall, who just spouts spook speak from the West's security agencies.
Quote:
I love the way Chinese business investment is always 'aggressive and expansionist'! As opposed to the uniformly benign American or UK business presence around the world?
"The Chinese are hard-headed realists..." says Breffni O'Rourke - as opposed to the utopian idealists of the West, who never fail to leave behind them a trail of happy, healthy, wealthy people of all creeds and colours wherever their business goes?
'Greece is probably safe for now. But it wouldn't do to be complacent.' Beware the Yellow Peril! Kaiser Bill, come back, all is forgiven, you were right all along!
I'm no fan of the Chinese regime - most of my family on my mother's side fled China during the Revolution of 1949 - but I find this kind of innuendo-laden, biased scaremongering preposterous in the extreme. The sheer hypocrisy of such a piece is breathtaking.
Second Quote:
Both the comments and the article show just how much non-Chinese do NOT know about China.
- The government today may be called communist, but it has far more in common with the traditional Chinese governments over the last 5000 years than it does with the communist image in westerner's minds. thinking the government is "communist" only helps the Chinese distract and confuse westerners.
- The government is centralized under a semi-elected group that controls many aspects of the economy and society. They are semi-elected because only a subset of the population gets a vote, although that subset is actually quite large.
- China has no intention or desire to project military power as they learned long ago (4000 years ago) that that is a waste of time and wealth. Read the Art of War (it is free on the internet at http://www.sonshi.com/index.html). China knows that entangling alliances work far, far better than military aggression (and are a lot cheaper and more profitable).
- As long as China has existed, it has been entrepreneurial. This was suppressed for a while under the British and the early Communist rulers, but it has come fully back.
- Because China has more centralized rule, it is able to better address situations that could go into the mud real quick in the west. So yes, China has some excesses in their economy, but they are well aware of them and are making changes to tamp the excesses down. Unlike the US and UK where bankers can easily pay off people to remove restrictions on their raping and pillaging, this can not happen in China where for the most part the central control tries to do what is best for society overall (doing the best for society instead of the best for the individual is deeply ingrained in their culture). Some fine examples of the value of central control are: (1) investing in rebuilding their passenger and freight rail systems so they are more energy efficient and run on non-oil energy so when Global Peak Oil happens, the trains will still be able to run, (2) Investing in the development and implementation of non-oil energy so when global Peak Oil happens, China will still have the energy it needs to function as a modern country, (3) Implementing massive roll out of high-speed broadband so the intellectual capitol of China can continue to be freely tapped.
- For all practical purposes, Taiwan is now completely integrated with China in a manner similar to Hong Kong. While both sides keep up the fiction of separation, the reality is there is next to none and a vast majority of Taiwanese have no problem with the current defacto arrangement and have no desire to go back to the bad old days when the two were separate.
- As for Tibet, a good analogy would be the old south trying to break away from the Union during the US civil war. Tibet has been controlled by China for hundreds of years and like the US does not look favorably on part of the country trying to break away, especially when the US financed the revolution. Just as the Union did in the US civil war, China is putting down a rebellion of a minority of Tibetans. To help integrate Tibet more closely with China and share China's economic success, China has invested huge sums in making transportation available to Tibet. If the people in the US didn't like the south trying to break away how can we say anything about Tibet?
The bottom line is China is NOT the west. It does NOT think like the west. China plays its own game with its own rules. China does NOT want to rule the world. but trade with it (as profitably as possible). China has enough issues ruling the people of China, it has no desire to rule anymore. Note that China's military spending is minuscule compared to the west and the spending is mostly defensive.
The bottom line is unless a westerner has studied China's 5000 years of history, culture and philosophy AND has lived and worked in China for several years, they are totally unqualified to even discuss China (most westerner are in this category which is why western governments make so many mistakes).
And yes, I have studies Chinese history, culture and philosophy and have lived and worked in China. I am now back in the US but still work closely with Chinese companies.
Most of what is written about China in the west is flat out wrong and full of misinformation. Tisdall is just as wrong as the rest.
