Posted on 01/05/2005 6:57:05 AM PST by maui_hawaii
If I may be permitted to paint this in very broad brush strokes, for better or worse China has always been a "player".
Maui Hawii will help me out of this, but it was the mid-18th century Chinese Emperor Chien Lung who upon receiving the British representative Lord Macarteny issued a memorandum to be delived to George III of Great Britain.
In part it reads:
"You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by your humble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilization, you have dispatched a mission respectfully bearing your memorial. Your Envoy has crossed the seas and paid his respects at my Court on the anniversary of my birthday. To show your devotion, you have also sent offerings of your country's produce....
I have perused your memorial: the earnest terms in which it is couched reveal a respectful humility on your part, which is highly praiseworthy. In consideration of the fact that your Ambassador and his deputy have come a long way with your memorial and tribute, I have shown them high favour and have allowed them to be introduced into my presence.... so that they too may share in my all-embracing kindness.
"...(Your) strange and costly objects do not interest me. If I have commanded the tribute offerings sent by you, O King, are to be accepted, this was solely in consideration for the spirit which prompted you to dispatch them from afar. Our dynasty's majestic virtue has penetrated unto every country under Heaven, and Kings of all nations have offered their costly tribute by land and sea. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures....It behoves you, O King, to respect my sentiments and to display even greater devotion and loyalty in the future, so that, by perpetual submission to our Throne, you may secure peace and prosperity for your country hereafter... "
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No country* with a attitude like that -- and we shouldn't imagine that the Chinese "soul" (for want of a better term) has shed this attitude in only 200 or so years -- will ever be a "player".
(Which, IMHO, most countries in the Middle East are as well.)
LOL!
I think you're right.
But the problem is China still producing cheap and non-durable products after all these years. China cannot be compared with Japan anyway.
China becoming a "world-factory" just because they have cheap labour and loose environmental regulations.
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