Posted on 06/26/2005 3:02:06 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
The Far East: Some may cry "sellout," but President Bush and the leader of Vietnam had good reasons to celebrate 10 years of normal relations in the aftermath of a bitter war. And one of those reasons is China.
The U.S. and Vietnam are drawing closer for the same reasons that Victor Davis Hanson, in a column that ran on this page Thursday, cited for warmer ties between the U.S. and Japan. China's Wal-Mart earnings may be a generally good thing in helping build its private sector, but they're also strengthening that regime beyond its borders.
Year after year of reported 9% growth and tight exchange and capital controls have beefed up China's coffers and with it, its ability to project power. China's businesses do have an interest in peace, but China's increasingly irrelevant non-trade sector (read: communist government) is beginning to look for a new animating cause.
That cause seems to be projection of international power. It's beginning to menace Japan, Australia and the friendly Tiger States of Southeast Asia. China may envy and loathe Japan the most on historic grounds, but the impact of China's power projection probably hits Vietnam the hardest.
The reason why has more to do with Vietnam's weakness than China's strength.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Only one of many countries on the list.
Maybe we could replace the facilities we lost when the Philippeans refused to renew our lease.
China already owns Vietnam.
Years ago, the Vietnam government kicked out all those Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry, along with their technical and economic knowledge.
Now, do they have anybody left who knows how to run a private industry?
The Pinatubo volcano did most of those facilities in.
The idiot politicians delayed the lease approval (which the US would have gotten) right up to the point when the bases were not worth the lease as the rebuilding costs would have been astronomical.
I think the US pullout was a shock to even the most nationalist of the Filipino politicians.
Just a clarification - Subic was basically undamaged, but needed an airbase nearby, and Clark, the airbase, was a total loss.
They still have a lot of Viet-Chinese. The Viets aren't all that bad at business either.
Sure, the Japanese.
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