Are they making friends with Vietnam, glynch? The Philippines? Taiwan? They are building islands in the South China Sea on top of reefs and as well as in 300 feet of water in order to construct military bases for their army, airfields for their air force, ports for their navy, all in international waters hundreds of miles from their shores, and very close to the countries that have those "islands" within the 200 mile ETJ of those countries and others. In the East China Sea, they are constantly threatening Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, as is the Philippines and South Korea, another country threatened by Chinese expansionism. What's "friendly" about that? That's setting aside the environmental impact of the huge projects they have suddenly started with the enormous resources at their disposal.
What difference does that make. Like I said on the 1st page. China's economic success may not necessarily mean they're treating their citizens any better or much better than they have in the past. As good as China is doing economically I'm sure there's a good portion of people who still want to get the F out. So what... The US does the same thing and have military bases all over the world. China is doing what is expected. And considering the history between China and Japan I seriously doubt they give a flying flip about them being a US ally.
I'm saying that if China is going to consider building an IP regime like the one America built it will neither balance interests or be fair. Or you can blindly say that free markets are godly without posting much evidence or data either way. no, it's thanks to public research and subsidies, though they also happen to go all ways. and huge growth? http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...enewables-fewer-subsidies-and-more-rd-please/
Not disagreeing with you on china. Global inequality down thanks to globalization. Determine for yourself if you think that's godly. http://www.voxeu.org/article/global-income-distribution-1988 And yes there are research and subsidies into renewables. But the growth is being driven by companies investing in deregulated power markets (Midwest, Texas, California, northeast)
With all due respect, you are being incredibly naive. Is the US building "islands" in international waters within the ETJ of other nations as is recognized under international law? And you seriously believe that China doesn't "give a flying flip" about Japan being a US ally? I don't know what planet you're living on, but please let NASA in on how you got from there to here. Thanks in advance. As for what China is doing in the South China Sea, we should be assisting the Philippines in contructing their own artificial "island" exactly where China is threatening and harassing that country's military, which is hanging on to an ancient, rusting former US ship with about a dozen military personnel, Marines, I believe, stuck on a reef that is internationally recognized as being within that country's ETJ and, unlike the absurd contruction projects being built by China, quite close to the Philippines. What's good for the goose is sure as hell good for the gander. Send a few ships from the US Navy to prevent Chinese interference and hire a host of those sand sucking barges to do the dirty work. If China complains, tough. Tell them that it is a direct result of their own illegal actions. The difference being that if the Philippines did it, it would be legal under international law.
Your article specifically says: ohh, a decrease in 2 Gini points. apparantly. The table below presents the estimated world income Gini index over the last 200 years, as calculated by Milanovic.[36] Taking income distribution of all human beings, the worldwide income inequality has been constantly increasing since the early 19th century. There was a steady increase in global income inequality Gini score from 1820 to 2002, with a significant increase between 1980 and 2002. Was worth 2 Gini points? Hardly godly by any metric, if that's the one you want to bring. I don't think we agree on China embracing the free market being a whooly positive thing. Of course before that came Maoist dumbs**t economics, so anything could have been better, but I think China is rapidly realizing it needs to adapt away from the extreme corporatist system it has implemented.
I don't know what that pic is, but the gini coefficient under reports the billions leaving poverty. Who cares if there are also more billionaires at the same time?
that picture is characteristic of the smog that covers urban China. coupled with the inedible food, and the worker suicides, it's not a pretty picture.
Fair enough. There's no doubt there are downsides- pollution, lack of worker protections, lagging infrastructure. But I don't think they'd go back
They will never go back to Maoism, that was just dumbs**t economics. but I don't think they will stay where they are either. There are a lot of downsides to what China has been through as you have acknowledged. I will readily acknowledge there are a lot of upsides as well, but I've come to regard capitalism as more of a bridge than a final state, especially the extreme version being practiced in China right now, which combines strong state intervention in certain areas (state control of entire sectors) with an absurd lack of regulation in others (worker rights, environment etc.).
What exactly are you suggesting the US do differently? China also owes a great deal of its success to lack of regulation - allowing its businesses to abuse employees, pollute the country, etc. It seems like their model is the antithesis of everything you believe in.
If China gave a flip you wouldn't be talking about sending military over there to help those countries in the 1st place. And was China a super power when those international laws were made by the western world...??? China has the big Richard over there and they're swinging it around. And don't bring up illegal actions when the country we live in is fueled by propaganda wars and the illegal drug trade but I'm sure the US will waste more of the taxpayers dollars to do something about it.
This is an incredibly short sighted view. Every developing nation is highly corrupt, even the democratic ones. In reality, China is actually consistently ranked better than the likes of India, Phillipines and other developing nations in terms of corruption. Every developing nation is highly polluted and every developed nation of any size during its developing stage was also highly polluted. I don't really know why the media concentrate so much air time on China's air quality, there's not a single Chinese city in the 20'worst cities in terms of air pollution. The air quality is starting to improve recently. On the other hand, you'll have a very hard time trying to convince me that China is running circles around the U.S.
Assist the Phillipines why? Plenty of other countries don't agree with Phillipines claim either, namely Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia etc , help Phillipines in this issue and you'll piss off all those other countries. The entire south China seas dispute is extremely murky, there's no clear cut answer to any of those countries claims and there are no clear right or wrongs. You are not talking about inhabited islands, cities etc,, all of these island are uninhabited until very recently ( as a way of strengthening each countries claim) and the vast majority are just a size of a big rock. China's and Taiwan have identical claims in South China Sea, it's all based on the 9 or 11 dash lines policy. ROC as one of the major victorious "power" of ww2 reclaimed these "islands" as part of Japan's surrender. Just because something is closer to one country does not convey ownership, falklands is certainly closer to Argentina than the UK, senkaku is actually closer to China and Taiwan than Japan etc Personally, I think China have shown significant restraint in this dispute, if they wanted they are fully capable of taking over every single one of those islands in under a days time and probably without having to fire a single shot. They are not even using their military to do the harassing work, so far it's mainly unarmed coast guard vessels. Just look at what happened in Georgia and what's happening in Ukraine, if the international community if not willing to help in cases involving massive civilian deaths, taking over real territories with cities & hundreds of thousands of citizens why would you think any country would lift a finger in cases involving uninhabitable rocks that can barely fit a house on.
Deckard, the quintessential Cold War liberal seeking to put that old spin on all international events. Didn't Vietnam, the Fall of the Berlin Wal, increasingly mass tourism to China and Vietnam, etc affect your thinking at all? Isn't the recent tension over the Ukraine caper with our overthrow of the elected government and trying to put NATO missiles on the Ukraine Russia border enough for you? It must be disturbing that the Euros are not really into that one.
I am suggesting that the US spend more money on infrastructure, education etc. at home and doing business deals or actual non military foreign aid or infrastructure building in other countries. Spending so much of our resources on military attempts to try to control the whole world, the Ukraine, South China Sea area or Latin America or the Middle East is not helping us or them. I am not in favor of this even if viewed as just a good way for our corporations to make money on weapon systems.
