*China = Best possible customer for Q!*
Who is this Roth sounding alarms and no doubt calling for extra funding from the taxpayer to fund his research into the terrible ways of the alien Chinese commies with no human rights and a singular desire to put one across the great, glorious and free USA?
We [in SI and Q!] want to sell a lot of stuff to China. NZ is much more likely to suffer from China's power but we have great relations with China and there isn't much fear here of the yellow peril. Though I must admit a lot of people think Chinese immigrants' driving ability is appalling. My wife exclaimed "Maurice!!" at me when I groaned when realizing we were approaching a Chinese function in our car and I said that it would be a circus of hopeless drivers with their cars stuck in odd positions. Guess who was right!
It was so funny. But a Chinese traffic jam is fine because everyone is so civilized. Nobody pulls out a gun, abuses each other or like Mike Tyson kicks one in the groin and punches an oldish man in the jaw. It turns into a kind of social occasion and shortly, people start trading and forming business relationships right there in the traffic jam.
Anyway, I digress.
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China specialist Kevin F. Roth, writing in Princeton University's
Journal of Public Affairs, sounded an alarm.
"In the commercial haste to get a piece of the action in the Chinese market, it
is important to remember that the post-Cold War environment in Asia and
within China could be volatile in the future," Roth warned. "Hence,
governments should guard against the pressures of high-tech firms wishing to
sell their goods and technology abroad."
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Okay, Richard Gere gets upset about Tibet and China taking it over. China is also making demands that Taiwan be returned forthwith to their tender mercies though most Taiwanese aren't in favour of that. THEY want to take over China! The mainland Chinese government isn't having any elections about that - they might get an answer they dislike. They have reclaimed Hong Kong, though of course there was no election in Hong Kong to see if anyone there wanted to return to China's possession.
They had a civil war called the Communist Revolution which in per capita loss of life was probably similar to most civil wars, which even the great and free USA contrived to deploy amongst the slavery and other social foibles of the 19th century. They confiscated property on a grand scale with a view to Chairman Mao running it for the good of all using the power growing out of the barrel of a gun, which turned out to be not such a great motivational tool for capitalist endeavour.
Deng seemed to figure out that black and white cats can both catch mice so I dare say the mouse population has taken a dive. Now we have Zhu Zongji and Jiang Zemin bringing the place into serious civilization and prosperity and the mice in Shanghai wouldn't have a chance among the heavy machinery on construction sites.
You can sing along with Jiang here:
insidechina.com
So although China has done a bit of aggro in Tibet, I can't recall much in the way of China invading other places or having any great desire to rule the world.
Their history has been more of trying to keep the bloody foreigners out, from the time of the Great Wall construction to keep the Mongols at bay, to the British demanding the right to sell opium, putting down Boxer rebellions or something and taking possession of Hong Kong and generally being boss and in a final act of horror the Japanese deciding Nanking and China should form part of a greater Japanese co-prosperity sphere. Ramsey can give you urls on the Japanese civilization of Nanking that you won't want to look at.
They've scrapped with Russia, India and Vietnam briefly.
Anyway, my point is that China has got a lot more to worry about from the USA and foreigners in general than we have about them. It will suit me just fine if they become a very prosperous, advanced, civilized society once again. Part of that is to have military strength to prevent casual inroads on their property from the usual band of crooks from overseas. New Zealand unsuccessfully invaded Vietnam [with some help from the USA] not too long ago, right on China's doorstep. Of course China has to have sufficient military strength to repel threats to them since there isn't any real United Nations mechanism of international government to protect them.
Any trade relationship with China enhances their ability to threaten USA interests and build a military structure, whether it be a sale of Big Macs in Shanghai, purchase of cdmaOne or WWeb technology from Q! or rocket technology from Bernie; even nuclear technology from Canada. The USA can't keep them in the stone age and it isn't good for the USA if the USA succeeded in doing that. The USA can't stop China's military development either - China has got a billion people with enough brains between them to invent any technology they want, funding the development from sale of soft toys to the USA. What's Jerry Falwell going to do? Ban the import from China of those homosexual purple dolls with triangles on their heads to prevent nuclear rockets landing on the USA?
China is more civilized than the USA [in many ways]. If the USA could just learn from China, then the USA too could be civilized and citizens in the USA would enjoy the basic human right to go about their business without the fear of being gunned down by some criminal or overly enthusiastic policeman or dragged to their death by some KKK freak or hung out to dry on a fence by some religious anti-homosexual nutcase, or shot in front of their family for selling abortion services to women who have an unwanted pregnancy.
If the USA sells China lots of cdmaOne gear, then China will be able to help the USA with becoming a civilized country will full expression of human rights. The USA will first need to study what 'free trade' means. We are running courses in Noo Zeeland based on cheap sheep.
Xena, Jerry and Charlene could come and learn. Bill is coming next year for the APEC jamboree. Ewes are nervous and excited!
Mqurice |
