Posted on 01/18/2011 6:01:42 AM PST by nuconvert
For the past several years, the buzz among those who take more than passing interest in world affairs has been about the meteoric rise of Communist-controlled China as the new global power.
There are those around the world who view China’s emergence as a certainty, long anticipated, and deserving celebration. For them, this historic development is also indicative in some ways of the diminishing importance of the West, and in particular the decline of the U.S. from its pre-eminent superpower status.
Among the many voices who have thrown caution to the wind in embracing China’s rise as inevitable and good is Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist and author.
In a column published in September 2009, Friedman gushed without embarrassment that one-party autocracy, as in China, “led by a reasonably enlightened group of people” could be positive. He decried the wastefulness of American politics and democracy, and urged Washington could do better by learning from autocrats in Beijing how to make and implement profitable decisions.
Sometime in the middle of last year, China’s economy overtook that of Japan to rank as the world’s second largest. With economic power, according to conventional wisdom, comes military power and the recognition of a country’s status as a great power.
But apart from China boosters and those who entertain the fantasy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend,” the autocrats of Beijing have few friends within and outside the country.
Communist-controlled China might well be a giant striding forward, but its feet are made of clay. The autocrats are fearful of their own people wanting freedom, and this fear writ large is indicative that contemporary China’s appeal as a cultural and political model is woefully limited.
Development without respect for human rights ultimately stunts growth for people yearning for individual liberty. The story of Liu Xiaobo, incarcerated for the past 20 years by Beijing’s autocrats, is revealing of how great is Communist China’s internal vulnerability, and why the world needs to be cautious about its future.
Liu Xiaobo was named the recipient last year of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since he could not be present at the award ceremony, Liv Ullmann, the Norwegian actress and film director, read from one of his writings titled, “I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement.”
“Freedom of expression,” Liu Xiaobo wrote, “is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.”
These words of Liu Xiaobo deserve wide circulation and read not merely as a rebuke of Beijing’s autocrats, but also as an admonition and warning to the “politically correct” crowd in the West, ever ready to trim individual liberty and censor free speech.
Historians for the longest while have been captivated with the idea of the rise and decline of great powers. But there is another equally compelling theme demanding notice in modern times — that tyranny has a short shelf life of just a few generations.
And societies, such as China or Iran, ruled by autocrats fearful of freedom are “paper tigers” to be held in pity.
Our debt payments are now almost entirely funding the Chinese military buildup.
This is far, far worse than selling scrap steel to Japan in the 1930s.
Is it not interesting that one of the top communist leaders of the world will be given a state dinner at the White House? I believe it is the first time in our history that China is given a state dinner.
I noticed on Drudge that the Thug-in-Chief couldn’t resist bowing to his Chinese friend.
Yup... China’s autocrats have managed to balance tight fisted control with free market economy. For them it works. Why change when you don’t have to?
I worry more about the precipitous Fall, China may be the biggest bubble of all.
Very true, I cannot understand why folks cannot see through the fog and realize that China does not allow freedom, only what maintains and grows the power of the imperial communist party..Perhaps the world has bought the idea that we should all be able to have everything w/o doing anything for it, but wait until they are awakened at 5 am 7 days a week and told to get in the fields, and at the end of the day are given a potato and a few sticks of firewood for their shacks...ah that’s a good comrade..
We have become so foolish with our out of control spending and thinking the world is now “civilized” and would not be so harsh as to oppress the people whoever was in charge...
I think its because we are no longer able to say things clearly w/o being labeled racist, or war monger..etc...
Freedom of speech means so much...but so many want to take it away..
You cannot spray money outside an economic engine and expect the engine to make more power. The Chinese are learning this - we have forgotten it. We've become a nation of economic morons.
“The last White House state dinner for China was 13 years ago, when President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed President Jiang Zemin and his wife, Madame Wang Yeping, in October 1997.” (NewsMax)
“I noticed on Drudge that the Thug-in-Chief couldn’t resist bowing to his Chinese friend”
Oh, no. Not again?
-——Why change when you don’t have to?-——
That is part of the China thinking fallacy. The evidence is that there has been change on a pretty massive scale. China ‘11 is much different than China ‘71
The question for history is...... in what direction will political change go to keep up with the economic and cultural change?
The answer is not known to the west and will not be revealed till a lot of old men finally die and are out of the picture.
China that is is not China that was nor is it China that will (can) be
China has plenty of internal problems that the ChiComs try to hide:
1) Huge peasant population that’s very unhappy
2) Demographic problems from the one child policy—too many males, not very many females
3) The rapidly aging population that will strain their economy
4) Big reliance on manufacturing that China’s neighbors like Vietnam can do even cheaper
5) Big Muslim problems inside their nation..
But... but...
Meteors fall...
Never saw a meteor rise.
Makes you wonder....if it was 1942, would he be bowing to Hitler?
When the US outsources all of its manufacturing for a decade while keeping their economy in a fake bubble by using a credit card to do it there's bound to be consequences.
I’m sure his people have told him to bow to everybody. That way maybe it won’t be such a big deal. Kinda defuse the criticism.
Thanks for up dating me. I hadn’t realized that.
Say hey Red Dawg
We both must have relatives in HONG KONG.
Their chickens will come to roost in Red Square sooner than the Corrupt Bastards envision. The corrupt bastards will have to be re-educated by an AK-47 and that will come sooner than their puppet Barack thinks.
Chi-Com corrupt bastards!
Right Turns
Caddis
6) Heavy, heavy pollution in its major cities, bodies of water, and country side.
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