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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
COMING SHIFTS IN PACIFIC POWER BALANCE
f the outcome of the Cold War has shown one thing, it's that economic power begets military power -- and not vice versa.
Today American power is unrivaled, the product of three centuries of unbroken industrial and territorial expansion. A half century ago its sole Pacific rival was Japan, a nation that had begun building an industrial base a mere seven decades earlier. Today Japan is wealthy but stagnant and adrift, its spiritual and political back never having mended after having been shattered by World War II and subsequent occupation.
While not entirely writing off Japan's potential to pose new challenges, the U.S. has begun eyeing China as the next strategic rival.
Barely three decades after China began ditching its centralized command economy for the glories of capitalist wealth, most of its 1.25 billion citizens remain mired in an agrarian subsistence economy. But the 125 million Chinese participating in the industrial economy of the coastal regions have fueled China's drive for superpower status. By 2015 it will match the U.S. in GDP -- then double it by 2025. Militarily China has been a formidable land power since the Corean War. Now the Red Army is acquiring state-of-the-art warplanes, missiles and submarines. It has announced plans to send a man into space by 2005. China's overriding aim is to keep the Pacific from becoming an American pond.
Any shift in the Pacific power balance must also take into account the two Coreas, Taiwan and Russia. At any given time each of these nations are triangulating a course of maximum advantage with reference to the U.S., China and Japan. The precise posture these nations ultimately adopt may well tip the balance.
How will the Pacific power balance shift in the coming decades? What developments will pose the greatest threats to American power?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:10:11 PM)
AC Dropout,
Maybe so and there is lot of crap talking about the US and China from each other.
But, do I see lots of people flocking to immigrate to China or a long wait list to do so? There may be some, but not a whole lot.
I'm not shy to say (I've been to China and spent time there)- am so glad I live in the US and not China. But, as my handle says- the USA is not a perfect place, but I'd much rather live here than in China.
USA Is Not Perfect But My Place To Live
Thursday, March 14, 2002 at 09:43:29 (PST)
USA Is Not Perfect But My Place To Live,
Yes there are vents for social critism in China. If you look around the walls of College Campus in China they are full of social critism.
To think a government can have absolute control on 1.3 billion people is somewhat ridculous.
If you lived in your counterpart location in China. I'm sure you would realise rather quickly, it is all more or less the same.
If you swap the words USA and China, and China for USA, in both reports, they make sense also. They are both a load of crap.
AC Dropout
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 09:24:17 (PST)
Amen!,
"Confucian/godless Sinic (Chinese)."
Chinese are predominently Buddist. The Buddist religon permeates asia; like Judeo-Christianity permeates the America.
Only some confused white guy would offer up Confucian as a religon of asia. Confucian is like Locke of the Asia. A social/political philosopher. Would you make Locke a religon of the west.
I would always iconoclast with some dumb white Asian Study professor and discredit their life's work when they say stupid stuff like that.
AC Dropout
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 09:13:31 (PST)
FOP,
It is because I had the opportunity to live in China and USA for extended period of time I can see a lot of exaggerations in both reports.
Because many people on Goldsea don't really have that opportunity. They can now experience first hand what kind of garbage governments will publish to discredit each other, instead of taking things at face value.
But that's just the way I see the world.
AC Dropout
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 09:08:41 (PST)
To T. H. Lien:
Thanks for pointing out that Asians are not anti-Semitic. There is simply no or little history of anti-Semitism in East Asia. If anything, Asians have come to the defense of Jews on at least a couple of occasions when it truly mattered. There is Chiune Sugihara, who as Consul-General for Japan in Lithuania risked all to write more than 6000 visas, against his government's orders, for Jewish refugees fleeing annihilation. Some 20,000 Jews, maybe more, took refuge in Shanghai to flee from the Nazis during the Second World War because China was the only nation that didn’t require Jews to get a visa. That alone saved more Jews that what Oskar Schindler did.
As your example of the Nazi Cafe in Seoul (perhaps as a chic name for a business looking to profit from the young rebel type) suggests, Asians actually have a greater degree of freedom in their thoughts and expression when it comes to matter like race, religion, and sexuality. We, Americans, lost that freedom in the last thirty years when we were forced to became “politically correct” in everything we say and act. We can’t even talk about the 9/11 acts of terrorism for what it really is. Our President Bush said the terrorists did it because they envy our freedom and lifestyle.
To what a shame!:
I hope you don’t view and accuse Asians as anti-Semitic. Nonetheless, what Americans of asian descent want more than anything else in America is to be treated with equality as a true fellow American. Hollywood could and should do more to portray us in a better light.
True Blue American Patriot
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 08:23:54 (PST)
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