Never before in the history of mankind has a country done so much for so many in so little time as China has done to lift hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty over the past 60 years.
Indeed, what can one say about China; except to marvel at the speed and ease with which it is replacing the disintegrated Soviet Union as the world’s only other superpower.
Of course, much is made of China’s unprecedented rise as an economic power. But equally noteworthy is the fact that it has used its “soft” power (call it Yuan diplomacy) to amass geopolitical influence that now rivals that of the United States throughout much of the developing world.
(By the way, if the leader of your developing country hasn’t induced the Chinese to fund the building of a national stadium, you should vote him / her out of office, or mount a coup as the case might be…. Just kidding; but the Chinese are awfully generous to governments that flatter them with deference only accorded a superpower.)
To be sure, though, China is fast building a military industrial complex of conventional and nuclear arms that is commensurate with its size and influence.
Frankly, after watching the Chinese reinforce their jingoistic pride in such unprecedented, spectacular and awe-inspiring fashion, I have no difficulty envisioning a world in which China, not the US, is hailed as the sole superpower.
[Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympics…, TIJ, August 9, 2008]
Meanwhile, even the US has become deferential to its international clout; not least because China has now surpassed Japan as the US government’s largest foreign creditor, owing nearly $1 out of every $10 in US public debt.
But no one could’ve imagined it would be thus just 20 years ago when the Chinese government massacred hundreds of people who joined millions in Tiananmen Square to protest for democratic freedoms.
Now it seems everyone has bought into the fiction that this totalitarian government can oppress and exploit its people as much as it likes so long as it continues to grow the Chinese economy at unparalleled rates.
If you can’t beat ’em join ’em … eh?
Happy Birthday China…
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Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympics…
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