Why China is the REAL master of the universe

Daily Mail ^ | 4.11.08 | ANTHONY BROWNE

[JSteff]

“I saw little evidence of monolithic communism outside of Beijing. “

A couple of big differences between ‘Nam and China. China is now a player in many facets of the world economy and financial markets. NV never had any influence near what China does.

Also China is actively developing a powerful transportation infrastructure..air, sea, communication, and road. NV never enjoyed that type of access to their own country let alone the rest of the world.

The common person can not escape being affected by that ability to relatively quickly connect.. to anything, anywhere.

Even if only an illusion for most, it still is far more powerful to think you can get around (IF you have the money) to other places beyond your town or village.

No average Vietnamese ever had that type of illusion. It took many dirty days (and often still does)to go 100 miles in their own country in under a couple of days.

Heck in even a lower level modern society, most can do that in a couple of hours. China’s population has a taste of that and the government will not (can not) easily take it away now.

Nor would want to! That would lower the amount of money the population and the country as a whole makes for their government to take from.

Government is the same everywhere.

[Mariner]

The writer is ignorant.

The US Economy grew, from 2000 to 2005...as much as the total GDP of China.

The British have nuclear subs with ICBMs...the Chinese don't.

Actually, the writer isn't ignorant, the writer is silly.

[endthematrix]

What point is is it to have a 21st Century China that's authoritarian aka State-Capitalist? As long as the communists have control, the gun barrels point towards the people, not the other way around.

[Cronos]

idiots — the Nano is made by an Indian company — Tata, which just bought Jaguar and land Rover. Indian companies don’t make cheap imitation cars like the chinese

[Cronos]

In a way, yes, China is thirsting for revenge for the humiliation it faced from the 18th century onwards —> note that as recently as the Napoleonic era (1810), China and India combined had over half of the world’s productivity and GDP

[endthematrix]

"There are now 60,000 Chinese students in Britain"

Tech transfer giveaway...

[Cronos]

Japan won't dominate Asia --> most likely Asia will have 4 powers joggling for space: China, India, Japan and Russia. Maybe even Australia. The East coast of Africa will be taken over by India while the west coast seems set to go China's way. Russia's far east will de facto be Chinese, but I doubt the Chinese would get into a war for the land they already dominate.

Korea as a major power? Not a chance, they'll fall into China's orbit as they have for millenia. Oh, and yes, the US and the EU will be external powers looking in on Asia. I fully expect the EU to expand to all of non-Russian asia, while the USA would take over Canada and Mexico (ok, you may not like it, but signs really do point that way)

[Cronos]

The author is wrong in calling it an accident of history — by that measure any sign-post in history could be construed an accident: i.e. it’s an accident the Persians never conquered Greece and we’d all be speaking Farsi now (key note: for this scenario, the Persian empire would have demolished the Muslims and there would be no Islam)

[Cronos]

Good point -- by the end of the 1700s, you had firmly developed STATEs, not just kingdoms -- the cohesive states were the ones that developed first: England had been united since King John lost Western France, Spain had been united since Francis and Isabella in 1491, Portugal since the 12th century and these were the first major colonial powers and, I must'nt forget the Russians who since the defeat of Kazan had been expanding their empire east. Then the netherlands came and so did the Belgians. The Italians and Germans were johnny come latelies who were eager to grab a piece of the pie but found that most of the good bits were taken, so they fought.

The same thing is happening now with China -- China is really envious of the way the US had tied up most of the world economically (I say "had" because we're losing our grip on Africa and S. America)

[Cronos]

well, not a 1000 years — more like 500....

[Cronos]

I do think China and India are and will disrupt the world order for the next 12 odd years until 2020 — by that time most of the demographic lines will converge and one key thing that we forget is that by that time, Islam’s oil will have run out and the world will not give a d for Saudia. Then, the Islamic world, which has a combined GDP equal to Belgium, will collapse and lash out at everyone else. During that time, I strongly think the US, Russia, the EU, India and China will band together to hit at the common enemy

[wastedyears]

[AwesomePossum]

From the UN to the IMF to the World Bank, the international institutions that attempt to govern the planet were made in the image of the victors of World War II

Funny, I always thought that they were made in the image of socialism.........

I really don't think China is on the verge of taking over the world............IMHO, China is on the verge of implosion.......

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Unfortunately, the Chinese warlords are not just princes in their own right, but they control nuclear weapons. A renegade prince, who decides to unilaterally attack either Taiwan or a US fleet, has long be considered a major threat scenario.

Add to that the official white papers from their command staff that recommend unlimited unconventional war against the US, and you have a serious problem.

The conventional threat from China is just as troublesome. It is predicated on the Chinese neutralizing the US ports of Bremerton and San Diego, perhaps with smuggled nuclear weapons, paralyzing the US Pacific fleet. We have no other full service Pacific deep water ports, and our carriers cannot transverse the Panama Canal.

Noteworthy also that our other ships might not be able to do so either, as both ends of the canal are managed by the Chinese, who could easily sabotage the canal locks. The Chinese have also built a deep water port in the Caribbean, from which our Atlantic fleet might be attacked or its movement to the Pacific slowed.

However, for our part, the US Navy has long been aware of this situation, and is doing any number of things to mitigate or even prevent such scenarios from coming to fruition.

[ffusco]

It was a unified pagan empire with a common currency, language and safe, efficient transportation and roads that let the “magic” happen, as well as a favorable latitude.

[gusopol3]

you talking Rome, because that doesn’t sound like Britain before Christianity.

[ffusco]

Britain wasn’t “Romanized” before Christianity?

[gusopol3]

"It is an accident of history that Europeans took advantage of their window of opportunity in the last half of the second millennium to take over the world."

clearly the reference wasn't to Rome. Besides I don't dispute what you say about Christianity regarding Roman Empire, which is abundantly sketched in Acts, as in Paul, "I appeal to Caesar."

[Last Dakotan]

Any idea what the factory pictured above is making?