On China’s Rise

After WWII, Japan began its recovery making and exporting products that were most often of inferior quality. I recall that anytime we encountered a poor quality product we automatically labeled it as “made in Japan”. For some time “made in China” carried the same portrayal. Not so much anymore. 

Deng Xiaoping followed Mao Zedong as supreme leader of China in 1978 and is considered the primary architect of China’s emergence onto the world stage. His admonition to his people was “Hide your strength and bide your time.” His aim was to quietly reform, innovate, develop, and grow internally. He understood that to be a preeminent power globally you had to first achieve a solid, leading edge, growing economy domestically. The strategy he formulated was successfully adopted by his followers.

Today China has 155 modern cities with populations over one million. Over the last 20 years China has become the world leader in solar power and wind energy. It manufactures more motor vehicles than any country. It has over  25,000 miles of high speed rails with trains that can travel at well over 200 mph. China has more vital rare earth minerals than any country. It is the 2nd largest economy in the world, after the US – –  and catching up. 

Good for them. That’s not the problem.

During the early stages of its growth, China was content to keep a low profile and to gradually expand its influence, not directly challenging the US but, nevertheless, trying to block it where possible and prudent. After the debacles of our long and costly adventures into Afghanistan and Iraq, and following our 2008 financial melt down that spread all over the world, the Chinese began to see and to exploit the weaknesses it perceived in the US – – weaknesses that were becoming more and more apparent worldwide.  China took advantage of every opportunity to displace the US when it withdrew from associations and international organizations, not only to be a participant but with the aim to eventually direct and control.  With its growing wealth and surplus manpower, it rushed in to extend substantial loans and to build infrastructure and factories in needy countries, earning their dependence and receiving their political support. They are building modern military forces and constructing ports and bases far beyond the shores of China. They are trying to find ways to displace the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency and to create a viable alternative to the international monetary clearing system, long dominated by the US – – – and often used as a weapon. 

These are the problems that should concern us.

While we are busy arguing whether abortion should be banned after 6 weeks, or 10 or 15 or always; while we debate, endlessly, some form of gun control, or not; while too many are still obsessed with a ‘done deal’ election that ended nearly three years ago; while far too much attention is given to wokeism and critical race theory and efforts to rewrite history and to self flagellate ourselves for the past, somehow and mysteriously reasoning that will make us a better country; while each political party spends most of its awake time and energy contemplating ways to frustrate the other’s every initiative and while we seem powerless to agree on routine national responsibilities like spending limits and debt ceilings or even to control our own national borders, – – – and yes, while we are pre-occupied with all these things – – that we are not doing very well, China is demonstrating to the world that it is becoming the indispensable world power – – – not only economically but also politically and diplomatically. China is busy winning friends and influencing countries and brokering rapprochements around the world that was once pretty much a US prerogative. Nero is fiddling while Rome burns.

The US is still a great power, it has the means, it has the ability and it has the moral authority to retain the position in the world that those before us worked so hard and gave up so much to attain.  

Will those to whom we have entrusted power stop their unending bickering, start working together like Americans who are actually on the same side, and focus on the really important imperatives of the times?          

God help us if they don’t.

– – – – Just the view of a common man.