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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2110)	12/18/2003 11:44:48 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

China's biggest threat: A wary America It will not be easy assuaging American fears of a rising China, an eminent economist warns By Larry Teo THE greatest challenge to China's leaders is not coping with domestic problems but handling a United States wary of its rapid rise, according to an influential adviser to the Chinese government. American-trained economist Justin Lin Yifu, founding director of the China Centre for Economic Research at the prestigious Beijing University, said some in the US would regard a China growing in strength as a threat to American supremacy. Advertisement The neo-conservatives in the so-called Blue Team would not want to see China grow strong and might put obstacles in its way as well as derail bilateral relations. A current source of conflict was the widening trade deficit which the US kept running up with China, he pointed out at a recent public lecture in Singapore organised by the East Asian Institute. 'This is not just a trade issue, but a highly politically sensitive one,' he said. According to US figures, the deficit hit US$103 billion (S$176 billion) last year and is expected to top US$120 billion this year. Unsettled by this imbalance, Washington recently capped imports of some Chinese textile products, took steps to pave the way for anti-dumping duties on Chinese TV sets and kept up pressure on Beijing to let the yuan float according to market forces. Aware that lopsided trade is harmful to bilateral ties, China's response was to send missions to the US on a buying spree as a way to reduce the deficit. Professor Lin said balancing and trimming figures was the easier part. Assuaging US fears about the so-called Chinese threat was the more difficult task. He offered this thought to the US: as China's rise is not containable and will be fully realised in about 30 years, Washington should accept that and make the best of it by working with, not against, China. 'The US should accommodate, though it may feel uneasy over China's different political system,' said Prof Lin, who received his doctorate in economics from Chicago University. However, going by the demonisation of China, he believes such an attitudinal change will not happen any time soon. Drawing lessons from history, he noted that the US displacement of Britain as the world's leading power in the late 19th century had been peaceful largely because the two had much in common politically and culturally. But Sino-US ties were complicated from the very start by gaping differences. Added to that was China's hugeness, which worried the Americans, he said. 'A country five times their own in population and whose economy will grow to 2.5 times the size of theirs in 30 years is indeed a worrying spectacle,' he said. Fortunately, said the professor, the times were changing and there were now many companies in the US which had developed close ties with China. While globalisation fuelled the trade dispute, these companies were now among China's strongest supporters - a phenomenon not seen in the British-US rift in the 19th century, he added. straitstimes.asia1.com.sg