Thread: An article about China’s development on TIME magazine

China's policy of looking outwards will play a rich dividend for the Chinese nation and will also win friends amongst the poverty stricken and underdeveloped world, especially in Africa.

This global 'weaning' by China which is mutually benefiting will be of great importance in the strategic paradigm that China has chalked out in tandem to its economic expansion.

One important aspect of China that is often overlooked since China's action is usually studied from the near term impact by countries which are in competition with China, is that the Chinese do not do thing in short measures. They have foresight and more importantly, patience.

China is a country that has to be observed very closely and with greater insight.

The adage, When China awakes, the world will regret it, is by no means a hollow one!

ray,

not quite the quote! but the small difference in wording has quite some difference in meaning.

"China is a sickly, sleeping giant. But when she awakes the world will tremble."

-Napoleon Bonaparte to Lord Amherst

Astralis,

Aren't you a Chinese?

I bow to the wisdom, sagacity and alacrity of the Chinese!

The Colonel does not agree with me when I tell him that the Chinese should not be taken at their face value. They are deep and are profound thinkers and their homilies are honed with great substance that the average can't fathom.

And I am not talking about Nap and his quote!

Thanks for the correction!

ray,

i go by chinese, or taiwanese, but i prefer taiwanese-american!

as for not taking chinese at face value, that is something that is endemic throughout east asia, where saving face/politeness are valued above blunt honesty/being forthright in the US.

but are the chinese or taiwanese or japanese a deeper, more profound race than others on account of that? not at all!

i have dealt with too much idiocy and short-sighted thinking in all those countries, and sometimes idiocy is idiocy, whether it comes obliquely or forthrightly!

The Taiwanese American talks with the wisdom of a hardworking and industrious ant!



:Low bow:

I find it interesting how this article portrays China as the savior to these people by doing the same thing the US does around the world. Yet we are the bad guys because we buy things made by people in similar economic hardship making sub-western wages.

China's investment in the poor parts of the world is great, but let's not forget who spends more money doing pretty much the same thing around the world, until self-righteous humanitarians like Bono started to villify us.

Ray,may your bow be low and greatious but as the sleeping dog awakens tread carefully..China has not been asleep to the West and beyond. Their economy is as strong as any major mover..turn any of your appliance over now and see where it is made..and the sleeping dog has only yawned!!!!Time will tell..

gunnut,

actually, the article mentions:

"China's commitment to nonintervention means that it doesn't inquire closely into the internal arrangements of others. When all those African leaders met in Beijing, Hu promised to double aid to the continent by 2009, train 15,000 professionals and provide scholarships to 4,000 students, and help Africa's health-care and farming sectors. But as a 2005 report by the Council on Foreign Relations notes, "China's aid and investments are attractive to Africans precisely because they come with no conditionality related to governance, fiscal probity or other concerns of Western donors." In 2004, when an International Monetary Fund loan to Angola was held up because of suspected corruption, China ponied up $2 billion in credit. Beijing has sent weapons and money to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, whose government is accused of massive human-rights violations.

Most notoriously, China has consistently used its place as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to dilute resolutions aimed at pressuring the Sudanese government to stop the ethnic slaughter in Darfur. A Chinese state-owned company owns 40% of the oil concession in the south of Sudan, and there are reportedly 4,000 Chinese troops there protecting Beijing's oil interests. (By contrast, despite the noise that China made when one of its soldiers was killed by an Israeli air strike on a U.N. post in Lebanon last summer, there are only 1,400 Chinese troops serving in all U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide.) "Is China playing a positive role in developing democracy [in Africa]?" asks Peter Draper of the South African Institute of International Affairs. "Largely not." Human Rights Watch goes further: China's policies in Africa, it claimed during the Beijing summit, have "propped up some of the continents' worst human-rights abusers."

which is by and large true.

however, china is passed off more gently than it ought because 1, it represents a huge source of trade and support for africa which not too many people had saw coming: IIRC, african-US trade went from ~$23 billion in 2002 to ~$60 billion in 2005. in that same time, african-china trade went from ~$10-12 billion to ~$40 billion. this latter figure outstripped estimates that it would only be around ~$30 billion in 2006.

2, the audience for bono and other pop-star humanitarians isn't really chinese so when bono et al come looking for money and try to guilt the populace into supporting a cause, they're going after an audience they know (an audience which has vastly greater wealth than the chinese, too).

The US does the same thing and maybe more.

However, the Chinese do it as if they are doing a favour by helping the impoverished and chuck in some populist homily that initiate psychological orgasms that with this aid the impoverished nation will conquer the world!

.............And the Chinese laugh their way to the Bank on their way to their dream or vision if you wish of becoming a world power!

The dragon moves with the speed of a turtle with a fire breath six times its length
- Sun Ray

Originally Posted by Ray

The US does the same thing and maybe more.

However, the Chinese do it as if they are doing a favour by helping the impoverished and chuck in some populist homily that initiate psychological orgasms that with this aid the impoverished nation will conquer the world!

.............And the Chinese laugh their way to the Bank on their way to their dream or vision if you wish of becoming a world power!

The dragon moves with the speed of a turtle with a fire breath six times its length
- Sun Ray

Sir, that is the most elegant, most cynical description of the situation I have ever witnessed. I humbly bow in your presence.

I have much to learn.