New book on China raises a storm (So what? They still love Chicom money)

IHT ^ | 11/18/07 | Richard Bernstein

[TigerLikesRooster]

New book on China raises a storm

By Richard Bernstein

Sunday, November 18, 2007 NEW YORK: Even given the inherent ruthlessness in the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, there was something almost poignant last week about President Pervez Musharraf appearing before the press and practically imploring the United States to understand the reasons for his move.

Dictators don't usually do that. They don't go in for a lot of public self-justification in Cuba or China or Burma, although none of those countries are remotely as tied to the United States and dependent on American support as Pakistan is.

Still, as the Bush administration searches for ways to restore some semblance of democracy in Pakistan - and a semblance of democracy is the best that has generally been managed there over the decades - the question remains: How can the United States best promote its own values around the world, which the Bush administration declares to be one of its major goals?

China, in this sense, emerges as the world's most important remaining one-party dictatorship, but, unlike Pakistan, where Washington simply says, "hold elections," the encouragement of democracy in China is more complicated and less obvious, but just as hotly contested a question as ever.

Indeed, a recent book, which argues that on human rights grounds, American policy toward China has been both a failure and a fraud, is making a considerable stir among China policy makers and scholars in the United States.

The book is "The China Fantasy" by James Mann, a former correspondent in Beijing for The Los Angeles Times and now author in residence at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

[TigerLikesRooster]

People conveniently ignore that there is a nasty barrier China has to break through, which it won't do willingly. Chinese comminist regime would not go down like Eastern European counterpart once did. It will fight tooth and nail. Those burgeoning middle class, would get embittered, angry, and turn virulent and violent. We should not have given them so much money and technology to use against us when the time comes. By that time, all money you earned from Chinese venture will evaporate when overpriced market finally goes south for good. Of course, many believe that it will not never happen. It happens only inside the mind of doom-sayers who never realize that dynamics of history changed for good, according to them. An enduring fantasy which strikes mankind regularly, but it has long period which allow people to forget about it so easily.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[cripplecreek]

We let the soviet union crush itself under its own weight. Apparently we aren’t going to let that happen with China.

[Jeff Head]

Here's another book that talks about the potential of what is coming in somewhat more stark terms, unless we change course:

DRAGON'S FURY SERIES
World War against America and the West

[snowsislander]

The problem is now this panglossian idea of "constructive engagement" has created a Leviathan: Red China's rapid build-up of its armed forces is highly destabilizing.

"Engaging" a totalitarian state simply makes it stronger, particularly one that has zero history of any type of representative government. Red China now has the cash money to engage in all types of mischief. At least when the PRC was poor, it was far harder for it to be involved in Africa and Latin America; now it is rapidly becoming a very important political power across the globe.

Having a vast, bellicose, totalitarian state as an important political, economic, and military power is not a desirable situation.

[Jeff Head]

Free download of the Adobe eBook version of Dragon' Fury to all freepers ... HERE

[Cringing Negativism Network]

People who keep feeding our national treasure to the Chinese Communist Party via Wal*Mart and so-called “free trade” policies — with the naive hope it will somehow make China become a democracy, or more friendly, are delusional.

Economic success is not making China more democratic. Economic success is not even making China more friendly to our national interests — in fact quite the opposite seems the case.

Economic success, is simply making China a stonger adversary.

[cripplecreek]

Just the other day DOD officials expressed “surprise and concern” over the ammount of our military equipment was being made in China. When defense contractors were questioned they simply said that they don’t have any means of tracking where things are manufactured.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111502120.html?hpid=sec-nation

[charles m]

The problem with China is that the burgeoning middle class is currently complicit with the regime. Both the elite class and the middle class are afraid of the lower class (peasants).

I think we are being too rash to consider the “Chinese experiment” as a failure. The middle class in China is still too small a proportion compared to the total population. Once a critical mass is reached, we may very well hear a different tune from China.

[charles m]

Those burgeoning middle class, would get embittered, angry, and turn virulent and violent.

See, that's completely the wrong analysis you have here. The middle class in China today aren't the ones who are rioting or protesting. There are 70,000 protests/riots in China each year, all of them are from peasants or migrant workers.

Again, the reason you don't see political change as China gets richer is that the newly rich middle class are complicit with the Chinese government. For this to change, you will need a much larger middle class than right now.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Well, if economy goes south, those middle class folks are suddenly faced with drastically reduced living standard. That will make them virulent.

Currently, they are not at that stage yet. That is why Chinese war toys are piling up but not used against U.S. or other enemies yet.

When economy goes south, these middle class folks could join poor peasants. Together they may fight among themselves(civil war) or somebody like Mao emerges and incite them into confrontation with foreign enemies.