[decal]

"...they would never dare upset it in our favor."

Lots of people do things against their own best interests out of spite.

Remember all the Japan-bashing of 20 years ago? They were supposedly going to buy America and we were all going to have to learn to like sushi.

We did nothing about it and they've been in a self-imposed recession ever since. China will run into the same problems soon enough - you can't export your problems.

[Number57]

This is not Japan we're discussing.

China is a completely different animal. A rabid animal.

[RFT1]

Japans problems were due to its corrupt political system, of having one party rule since WWII, with their banks making bad loans that caused its economic system to seize up. On the other hand, Japanese heavy industry still does quite well, just the ability of Japanese banks to provide capital to Japanese industry has been cut off because of the bad loans the banks made, mostly due to real estate deals gone bad.

Also, there was a de facto tariff against Japan thhat dated from 1985, and that was the Plaza accord, that reduce the value of the dollar against the Japanese Yen by almost 50%. From 1985 when the dollar was at almost 200 yen per dollar to 1988, where it went down to 110, the value it dropped was far bigger than any tariffs imposed against Japan in the past. On the other hand, the Chinese gov refuses to do anything to adress the value of the RMB.

[CowboyJay]

"China will run into the same problems soon enough - you can't export your problems."

Comparing China to Japan and using that to make an asessment about the theat of China's ascendency makes no sense whatsoever. Completely different political system, military allegiances, access to raw materials, and population size.

[NonLinear]

Japanese investors got their clocks cleaned by falling prices for an oversupplied office & real estate market.

But, OTOH, sushi is here to stay!