The world's next superpower

Taipei Times ^ | 07.23.03 | Jonathan Fenby

[Thinkin' Gal]

Time to order new stationery!

[Enemy Of The State]

"And they are ruthless, relentless, persistent and patient about revenge"

Makes sense. Wasn't it an old Chinese proverb that says revenge is a dish best served cold?

[The Pheonix]

And 90 % of Kung Fu movies has a story line that it is the sacred duty of NUMBER ONE SON to avenge the father's death-----the revenge against the father's killers is a MUST for the son, no matter even if it is one against a 1000 enemies,........

[Quix]

It would depend on a lot of things.

They really are sensitive to public opinion to a point and in certain contexts and when it involves a significant percentage of the public/grass roots etc.

Li Peng is STILL one of the most hated men in China.

In some respects, the Chinese care little about anything but themselves and their nuclear family and sometimes some parts of their extended family and to put on a front at New Years that the extended family is one harmonious group of warm and fuzzy people.

HOWEVER, in other respects, in certain contexts and contingencies, they are a boiling cauldron underneath the surface and it wouldn't take much to have a mass demonstration spring up and flash into a forest fire.

The leaders would NOT want to trigger undue demonstration and public outcry.

Therefore, they'd want to minimize the deaths and maximize the intimidation.

I doubt they'd want many deaths--especially near to the incident in time or easily tracable to the incident over the next 6-12 months.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Where would they be most likely to try to acquire? It seems to me that their immediate neighbors to the south and west are heavily populated and are already pushing their land to the limits. Siberia is supposed to be vast and rich in resources but the Russians can be pretty tough to handle

Not that tough any more. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was saying thirty years ago that Chinese expansionism into Siberia was the really serious long-term threat to Russia, and he is right. The Chinese have always contended that Siberia rightfully should belong to them. There is plenty of oil and minerals there, plenty of timber, plenty of water, plenty of land (cold though it may be) -- and it is contiguous to their existing territory.

At the rate present trends are going, I don't see how Russia can continue to hold Siberia against the Chinese for more than another 2 or 3 decades at the most. Given China's 5000 history, that is only a blink of an eye.

[Enemy Of The State]

Was that supposed to be humor or were you making a point?

[Stefan Stackhouse]

THEIR SIGHTS ARE AT LEAST ON AUSTRALIA and the world. Well placed military and other types have persistently insisted that taking over Australia was not only their right, reasonable and inevitable--it was their duty to their people.

Tell them to pack lots of water with them when they come!

[Stefan Stackhouse]

My Chinese friends locally insist that China has targeted the USA for acquisition but only after plenty of their other ducks are in a row.

I am sure that there are a few people in China with a dream of someday making the entire globe Chinese. . . a pipe dream, that is.

[The Pheonix]

Re your post #124

You are correct there

The Chinese Govt would be reluctant to push their luck too far, by having another Tien-An-Men type of incident

Another such tragedy may finally cost them to lose their "MANDATE OF HEAVEN"

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

I've heard they are already doing a La Raza on them.

Hope they are paying better attention than our leaders are.

[The Pheonix]

I am trying to illustrate that in traditional Chinese Culture, revenge for perceived crime against one's family . in many cases seen as a form of "natural justice"

[Enemy Of The State]

Ok gotcha, but Im not sure that I follow the reasons that led you to point this out?

Anyway, the "traditional culture" for revenge you speak of is actually something form ancient Chinese culture and not something that is practiced today. Unless of cours you are a member of the Triad family.

[wbill]

Interesting. That's more like 52-48.

[Enemy Of The State]

Nevermind, I think I must have been running a little slow on figuring out where you were coming from on that comment. I didn't realize that you were referring to the converation that I was having with Quix. My apologies.

[The Pheonix]

Yes, in modern times, a lot of old, feudal mindset , like this revenge syndrome would have just passed away

[The Pheonix]

Thanks for your explanation, but no need to apologise

i must confess that I tend to ramble on, sometimes. Yes, I was refering to your converstion with Quix and your mentioning the word "revenge"

[Ff--150]

HOWEVER, in other respects, in certain contexts and contingencies, they are a boiling cauldron underneath the surface and it wouldn't take much to have a mass demonstration spring up and flash into a forest fire.

I agree! Now satellites are beaming America to China for them to see how life may be lived and the tv's lack of morals going into their subconscious minds.

With that supposed lack of female companionship, and seeing how to get the ladies with the $$$$s, the youth may be mobilized into revolution--or coming our way to get our stuff? They can raise a 200 million-man army according to our State Dept., I believe...

[Ff--150]

Thanx, but I was referring to the dragon mentioned in the Bible's book of Revelation actually. Though that refers to the devil in the Bible, IMHO I believe Red China's worship, if you will, of the dragon is more than a cowinkidink with that biblical reference.

I'd forgoten about the Mandate of Heaven...

[A. Pole]

If China were a pure communist state there would be no 'tycoon class'. The only reason China is having success is it has let some degree of capitalism in and it has elimated some of its socialsitic ways. Unfortunately China still is run by a brutal totalitarian regime.

What is more important, capitalism or representative republic and freedom? In other words is the capitalist dictatorship better than socialist democracy with powerfull middle class? What about bankrupt Latin American style oligarchy?

[tortoise]

Say what you will about the Chinese, but they are not historically an ignorant or uninventive people.

No, but they were very slow at innovation compared to last millenium Europe, and they have never been rapid innovators. A good portion of the power of the West and particularly the US has been its ability to innovate at blinding speed. Things just don't move that fast in Chinese culture.

Gunpowder is a good example. The Chinese had it for the better part of a millenium before the Europeans imported it. Even though the Chinese knew how to make it, after all that time they still hadn't even come close to mastering practical applications of it and it served mostly as curiosity. When the English got their hands on it, they mastered the technology in a couple generations. Remember, one of the first exports of England to China was well-engineered and functional gunpowder weaponry, less than a hundred years after bringing gunpowder to Europe. For all the time they spent at it, the Chinese never came close to producing anything like what the Europeans figured how to make in a matter of decades.

The Chinese had a huge head start on the Europeans technologically, but innovated at a very slow rate. When the Europeans finally wandered out of their primitive dark ages, they brought with them a culture that could innovate and adopt technology at a startling rate. This ability allowed them to catch up to and surpass all the advanced cultures in the world very quickly technology-wise, despite their late start.