The rise of China and the decline of America

Very good article outlining the emerging China that will dominate this century...

... recommended reading...

www.kuro5hin.org...

.... actually just as informative are the rebuttals underneath it
Both are great reading and both give differing and interesting viewpoints



It's China's "New Economy": producing, consuming, and trading in increasingly-free markets the wealth created by a billion individuals. Over the last two decades China has pursued the globalization we Westerners find controversial and profited enormously for it. What's more, the supposed disadvantages of globalization have never manifested themselves in China. Its native culture is thriving, foreign investors continue to pour capital into the country, and even in the midst of the "Asian Flu" China is expanding its foreign trade partnerships. GDP per capita has risen almost 50% in the last two decades, and as the central government continues to shed local control crime has been decreasing while social diversity increases.

Is this the new land of the free and home of the brave? Not exactly. But China's willingness to embrace cultural and economic prosperity as a social Good -- rather than as a threat to political power -- is a refreshing change of pace. But what could make this clearer than juxtaposition with today's United States, a nation doubly at war and itching for more? A nation ruled by a cabal of political fearmongers who are spending more and more of the country's shrinking wealth for their own political ends every year?

This juxtaposition is instructive to those who understand what truly makes for national greatness. At the moment, the United States appears more powerful than ever, but this merely confirms its decline: as the US drifts toward mediocrity and irrelevance in economic and cultural markets, it casts about wildly for symbols of prestige and dominance -- and finds them in expensive, pointless conflicts, hastening its collapse. Capital flight away from the US, on top of growing alarm over the US dollar's weakness and Washington's steeply-climbing debt, makes for a national State balanced perilously on the edge of economic ruin, while increasing entanglement abroad ensures that the resource drain will be protracted and bitter. Every move the US makes seems to mire it deeper in the muck of its ongoing problems, and Washington seems powerless to force itself, let alone the rest of the world, to conform to responsible policies of governance.



[Edited on 6-6-2003 by Netchicken]

[Edited on 6-6-2003 by Netchicken]

Excuse me while i stick my fingers in my ears and tie a flag over my eyes while screaming LALALLA I'm not listening.

It's going to take a long time for China to overtake the US.
Well over a billion people and most of them below the poverty thresh-hold.
They're going to have to seriously raise the standard of living for their people to become seriously productive and competitive.
And that's going to take a lot of money and a lot of time.

China ... better??? uhhhh ... ummm .... is that a respectable website or a terrorist sympathetic craphole? No one can be better than the US

[Edited on 6-6-2003 by e-nonymous]