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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)
Hey AC Dropout!
Contrary to what you think, the Chinese are not Buddhist but are predominantly atheist. Buddhism never came into prominence in China because Confucian elites looked down on it. Get educated about religion in China by going to: http://atheism.about.com/library/world/AJ/ bl_ChinaIndex.htm?iam=dpile&terms=religion+in+China
Thanks to the Cultural Revolution there are more atheists (over a billion people) in China than anywhere in the rest of the world. China is possibly the only nation in which science and atheism are officially encouraged. Every other People in other nation believe in weird religions and do strange things. Thus, the Chinese may be the only rational People in the world. The White race is notorious for labeling each other and other people as Satanic and evil; i.e. the Evil Empire, the axis of evil, etc.
There shall be no peace so long as the White race does not give up their false Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). In the same way the West is lecturing the Islamic world to become more secular, the Chinese must lecture the West in becoming more secular!
Religion Sucks, Amen!
Friday, March 15, 2002 at 21:39:50 (PST)
USA Is Not Perfect But My Place To Live,
If you travel the world a bit more you will realize America is the only nation on this planet that promotes itself as the "Land of Opportunity." No other nation in the world promotes itself to citizens of other countries as a destination point.
I have my own hypothesis on this phenomenon, which is two folds.
1) USA high standard of living in a classless society has promoted the concept that all citizens are entitled to at least a middle class living. This is phenonmen can be seen in the fact a person who has dropped out highschool will not pick up my garbage nor drive me on a bus for minimum wage anymore. Or in the fact a fireman in the line of duty can die and the family gets 2 million dollars or more.
2) Since many American still believe in infinite advancement, who is left to do the scut work of society for realistic compensation. The immigrants of course. Which is why the USA has one of the most complex immigration system of any other country in the world.
Hence, if you apply this model to China. You can see why China does not wish to promote itself to the world as the final destination for people seeking individual opportunity.
1) Chinese still has a class system that has survived the cultural revolution.
2) There are enough lower class people to do all the sckut work for China and the rest of the world.
That's nice you like living here. I never questioned that. Since you lived in China, if you pointed to specific instances where you felt as a human you were unjustly treated, then post them.
I just find your blanket negative statements about China to be less than compelling.
AC Dropout
Friday, March 15, 2002 at 12:35:44 (PST)
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