politics

China's rise takes the world into uncharted waters

58 Comments
By KEN MORITSUGU

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They use the revenues to attack the US and its allies in the region.

In THEIR region where the US are invaders. Why should they respect an invading force? Again you have some deluded sense of American exceptionalism as if your country is coming from any kind of moral high ground. What a joke.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

After the 2nd world war, the two powers that led the West were UK and USA. With the rise of the EU and the creation of the Euro, in parallel with the Growth of China and India, the USA and the UK have been losing influence and economic power. From the EU's point of view, the times we live in are of transformation due to the redistribution of wealth at a Global level.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Look at all the counties they’ve put sanctions on. Look at the tariffs they’ve imposed over the few years. Demanding fealty. Trump demands counties do things for him personally using the power of America to enforce it.

Countries like Iran sell oil for US dollars using the US financial system. They use the revenues to attack the US and its allies in the region. Iran funds and arms both Hezbollah and Hamas. They arm the Houthis against the Saudis. They have attacked US forces in Iraq and help arm some enemies in Afghanistan. So the US says Iran cannot use it's sovereign currency or any aspect of the US financial system to conduct business, which the US has every right to do. Likewise the US tells the world you are not permitted to use the US sovereign currency to conduct business with Iran. Again, the US has every right to do so. If firms willingly violate these rules there is a price to pay. The US is not obligated to facilitate the economies of its enemies for the sake of comity. If the nations involved don't like it, find another currency with which to conduct business with America's enemies. Good luck with that because nobody wants Iranian Rials in payment for anything. They don't want Chinese Yuan either for that matter. Or maybe you like places like Iran, Syria or China?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Both are demanding fealty to their unreasonable demands.

I hope you don’t think America is coming from any kind of moral authority. That would be entirely laughable.

Unreasonable to who, exactly?

Using tariffs and fealty are two completely different concepts and not interchangeable.

I'm not american so could care less about the U.S, but I guess your kotowing to china gives them the moral authority.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Both are demanding fealty to their unreasonable demands.

I hope you don’t think America is coming from any kind of moral authority. That would be entirely laughable.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

How many nations are paying tribute to the U.S?

Look at all the counties they’ve put sanctions on. Look at the tariffs they’ve imposed over the few years. Demanding fealty. Trump demands counties do things for him personally using the power of America to enforce it.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

How is this any different from America’s foreign policy for the past four years?

What has been U.S foreign Policy in the last 4 years?

How many nations are paying tribute to the U.S?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

China wants to re-establish itself as the Middle Kingdom to which all surrounding nations pay tribute too as vassals. 

How is this any different from America’s foreign policy for the past four years?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

China takes the turn with goal never seen before. not to conquer anyone but to build a shared desitiny and community with equally benefits 

China wants to re-establish itself as the Middle Kingdom to which all surrounding nations pay tribute too as vassals. You are either supremely naive or one of China's paid internet trolls in the 2nd Directorate of the PLA General Staffs Directorate.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"Twice in the 20th century, Japan challenged the West, first in a military-led attempt to become an imperial power and then as an industrial powerhouse. Now it is China’s turn to take the global stage."

China takes the turn with goal never seen before. not to conquer anyone but to build a shared desitiny and community with equally benefits .

0 ( +1 / -1 )

And the CCP continuous brainwashing of their population,you can have a vivid example of this through some posters in this forum.

It's more complex than that. First of all the Chinese are not taught many things about the world around them such as the details of the many conflicts in the Middle East, Sub Saharan Africa, the Balkans, much of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Arab Israeli wars, etc. They have a very superficial understanding of the world around them due to the limits of their education system. But the average Chinese is not brainwashed. They are highly critical of their government in private and don't believe their erstwhile leaders. Worse yet for the CCP no one I have met feels any obligation to their government. My own family likes to say "the government does what it wants and we do what we want". Nobody wants anything to do with any level of government there and avoids contact with government agencies to the degree that is possible. My own wife absolutely freaked out when I challenged a traffic ticket in court. She assumed I would be thrown in jail for challenging authority. But, because of their police state nobody dares challenge the CCP openly. They aren't all brainwashed. They are scared to death and know if they don't do and say the right things they disappear and their family will suffer as well. I know this first hand.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Its the west which is still invading countries in this day and age

Western nations aren't taking other country's land from them. Stop spouting lies. China takes islands from the Philippines and Vietnam, is trying to take land from India (the current dispute with India is over a route for Belt and Road that China wishes to control) or tying nations to them in debt servitude by building ports, airports and Belt and Road infrastructure that the hose nation is on the hook to pay for. Yes the US and other NATO nations are fighting Islamic enemies in Syria and Iraq but NATO is not seeking to keep Syria and colonize it. NATO is just trying to defeat Daesh and hopefully nail their coffin shut. Turkey however has other interests in conflict with the rest of its NATO allies including the slow but sure genocide of the Kurds while initially supporting Daesh.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

North America and Europe have developed very strong regional economic co-operations in the last 50 years. Asia on the other hand behaved rather selfishly and did not work on developing a strong regional co-operation similar to the EU and NAFTA (CUSMA). If we want a steady and strong growth, and more liberal economies across Asia without being reliant on the NA and EU, we need to work on ASEAN harder and make this co-operation the largest market on the planet. In this regard Russia and Turkey should decide who they see as their trade partners in the future- the EU or ASEAN? The current challenges between Japan and China should no longer prevent ASEAN from becoming a global rival to NAFTA and EU. That said, I cannot even view the webpage of ASEAN at the moment. Ha ha;(

0 ( +1 / -1 )

That picture is so cringe, but glad to know that the people's army is filled with people who could be considered incompetent and apathetic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So far only democratic countries have had the ability to shine longer than bubbles.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It’s time for many countries to reconsider to shift Supply Chains to other counties

It’s time for some developing counties to reconsider the reliable countries to obtain their loan. Needed to refrain from being shortsighted

3 ( +4 / -1 )

What has China done really? Did it do anything remotely close to the invasion of Iraq?

It invaded a free Tibet and then suppressed Tibet's culture. I dont recall the US suppressing Iraqi culture and try to control their religious leaders and beliefs. I would say it was and is still currently much worse than Iraq which has its own leadership back. Tibet is still occupied.

China is the most destabilizing force in the world today, with Trump being a close second.

a gradual buildup of its military forces to boost its standing.

No it is to boost it's ability to dominate it's neighbors and bend them to it's will or face a mighty military machine. A large military does not = increased respect or standing, but it does increase fear and intimidation of peaceful nations. For a country that has no identifiable military threats to its sovereignty it can only be building it military to force others to bow to it.

Boycott China.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

It’s the same west that brought you democracy and freedom after second world war.

Or maybe i@n you preferred that your country sided with China and North Korea.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

How powerful can be the tool of a government without freedom in brainwashing minds.

The west has the duty to firmly stand against such unhealthy values that communist China is trying to export.

What values are you talking about?

Its the west which is still invading countries in this day and age.

And brainwashing people that it is righteous and their duty to do so.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

China is the only nation on the earth does that with 1.6 billion populations

Duh!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A future of worldwide economic development as opposed to a world of unilateral bullying and warmongering

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Good, now finally will the world wake tf up and see why China started Covid-19 in the first place?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Nobody wages wars in Japan's backyard, peroid. Japan isn't some random pushover, it has every technology the other two have, including nuclear capabilities, if necessary. I'm sure both bullys understands this.

If they really want to fight, go fight deep in the ocean or in the space.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

I think the Chinese leadership is pretty smart and understands the limitations of their military and economic power and influence. I think they will be cautious for perhaps up to another decade before becoming fully confrontational with their ambitions, territorial and political. Whoever gets in the White house next should start preparing for this eventuality.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

China has grown her GDP by 1000 times since 1950. It is no surprise that some get scared, because China is the only nation on the earth does that with 1.6 billion populations. Too good, or too bad ?

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

Uighur treatment can't be swept under the table.

You're saying that's the reason for the anti China campaign?

Which anti-China campaign by whom? Dissidents in gulags? Imperialist bogeymen and splittists? Xi himself? How long's a piece of paranoid string?

I was calling for balance, not entitled victimhood.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

When it comes to dealing with China, an old Roman proverb springs to mind:

Si vis pacem para bellum

If you want peace, prepare for war

8 ( +8 / -0 )

The photo reminds me of another country with an exceptionalism complex.

Xi Jinping has his own problems with the military to deal with. The CCP and the Chinese military are full of competing factions. Patronage is the rule with lower level officers and party officials rising in concert with the promotions of their patron. Xi has enemies among the patronage networks of the high party officials and military officers he jailed for "corruption". Xi is as corrupt as any he has jailed and those officials are all leaders of factions who opposed his sudden rise from obscurity It wasn't that long ago that if someone mentioned Xi Jinping's name nobody would know who you were talking about until you said he is Peng Liyuan's husband (she's a famous singer) he was so much of a nobody. In late summer or early fall of 2017 a PLA faction tried to depose him. The coup attempt failed and four generals were jailed (one "committed suicide" while under house arrest, gee just like Momma's first husband supposedly committed suicide when the Red Guards arrested him). Xi has enemies in the military and makes a point of holding flashy displays of his power at military units. Xi is juggling a lot of very sharp knives with all the problems China has at home and abroad, and keeps adding newer and even sharper knives to his juggling act. One has to wonder how long he can do it before he starts dropping knives?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Just wait a few years when 500 million persons start retiring and want MONEY! Gonna be a hard time for China.

On top of that the size of the working age population has been declining since 2014. so there will be fewer working age adults to support this vast new cohort of pensioner. China has a demographic problem even more profound than Japans that will stunt her growth and threaten social stability.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

China is the big thread for all what we stand,freedom and democracy.

And the CCP continuous brainwashing of their population,you can have a vivid example of this through some posters in this forum.

How powerful can be the tool of a government without freedom in brainwashing minds.

The west has the duty to firmly stand against such unhealthy values that communist China is trying to export.

It is an alien thinking for us and unwelcoming.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Reckless, hahaha... why would retiring people want money ? When you become a senior in China, you are entitled to free benefits, all you do everyday is dancing and singing. That is called happiness.

Momma is 86 years old and lives in Shanghai. Your description is far from true. We pay much of her medical bills and keep her supplied on her meager Shanghai supplied old age pension. Since the Red Guards ran her out of the classroom and out of Shanghai to the countryside she doesn't qualify for anything more in terms of retirement. A party cadre still lives in the family home in the former French Concession. Now she has a small flat in Minhang and has closets full of Kirkland products we send her. When she goes to the hospital our relatives there have to bring her food and we buy her medicines. The relatives change her sheets too. The hospital staff does very little.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

China's goal is simple: to return it to what THEY think is ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE on Earth:

That is, the "Center" of everything. Chinese population, nationalism, restrictions on informational access and ethnocentrism, combined with a fascist government, is a recipe for disaster, if not war. China's action in the South China Seas is Exhibit A of this recent trend of 'We're China, deal with it' attitude, combined with a 'hey, HISTORICALLY we were the greatest empire, so all we are REALLY doing is reclaiming our past empire.'

Exhibit B? The building of artificial islands of the coast of China.

Exhibit C? Choking off the water supply to the Southern neighbors of Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia.

Exhibit D? The VIOLENT and deadly border dispute with India.

Exhibit E? Hong Kong.

Exhibit F? Uighur situation in Xianjiang (or is that 'Western propaganda', Akie?).

Exhibit G? An unprecedented military buildup because...Japan is going to attack China again, or is it Korea, or is it India? Please be real here.

Say what you will about the U.S., the U.S. actually holds elections and allows its citizens to (a) discover, obtain and inveigh upon different viewpoints (b) CRITICIZE its own government (ha, try that in China, Akie!) and (c) vote out Presidents (and there's that whole 'term limit' deal unlike 'Emperor for Life' Xi).

9 ( +10 / -1 )

The West is about to destroy their economies and society with all this "build back better" nonsense.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Reckless, hahaha... why would retiring people want money ? When you become a senior in China, you are entitled to free benefits, all you do everyday is dancing and singing. That is called happiness.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

A lot. Millions starved to death in crazy Communist policies, crushing of any dissent, the oppression of Tibet, persecution of religious groups, forced sterilization, organ harvesting, etc etc. It's all common knowledge and all done under a dictatorship that will hopefully, one day, have to account for all its crimes.

I didn't know those were the reasons for the trade war and anti China campaign.

All clear to me now thanks

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

> The greater risk is that the world’s two largest militaries get drawn into a limited conflict...

This would be the mother of all " Houston, we've got a problem" moment.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

No one believes reckless lies.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

Uighur treatment can't be swept under the table.

You're saying that's the reason for the anti China campaign?

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

kurisupisu, hahaha, where did your receive your education ? Each year there are almost 10 million Chinese come to Japan and spend more than 1.5 trillion yen. How many of them want to be stay in Japan ? Why is that, in your words ?

-8 ( +4 / -12 )

What has China done really? Did it do anything remotely close to the invasion of Iraq?

Bingo!

Uighur treatment can't be swept under the table.

Nor can we be forgiven for failing to condemn state terrorism from whatever quarter.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

OssanAmerica, you never learned Japan's history, did you ? Japan has more than 3000 years history, not 75 years.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

“China has goals”

take back Tibet

take back Hong Kong

take back Taiwan

take back Okinawa

rule the South China Sea & all its natural resources
7 ( +10 / -3 )

What has China done really? Did it do anything remotely close to the invasion of Iraq?

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

Once Chinese people get the funds to leave China, they do-why is that?

7 ( +10 / -3 )

AkietheWumaoToday  09:03 am JST

OssanAmerica, to say Japan is unlike China is a lie. Japan's fate is to be like China, that is unchangeable. What Japan needs now is a Japanese Deng, a reformer.

No Akie, Japan already tried Authoritarianism, Fascism, Militarism. They failed. The last 75 years of democracy have brought peace and a better life for the Japanese people. Nobody wants to back.

Perhaps China's fate is to be like Japan. Start a war with everybody and get totally devastated. Is that what it will take to get China on the right course to be a respected member of the international community?

13 ( +17 / -4 )

OssanAmerica, to say Japan is unlike China is a lie. Japan's fate is to be like China, that is unchangeable. What Japan needs now is a Japanese Deng, a reformer.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

With all the complaints about "Yasukuni", do we ever see photos like these? Harping on remnants of 75 year old history when fascism is growing right in front of our faces. With China, the whole country is Right-Wing.

AlternativeOpinionToday  08:49 am JST

Be careful what you wish for Japan, a lot of Chinese still hold a grudge from Japan’s attempt.

Japan wishes for peace. Unlike China. And the "grudge" is held mostly by Chinse nationalists and the wumao armies. The vast majority of Chinese love to visit Japan and buy Japanese goods because they believe they are better (and safer) than Chinese ones.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

"In a different era, when the sun never set on the British Empire, a rising Japan sought to join the league of European colonial powers by invading and occupying China and several Southeast Asian nations, often in brutal fashion."

and European and American colonialism was gentle? Go ask Vietnam about the French and Malaysia about the British.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Orac said "China has goals. What are Japan's goals ?

To put it simply, to stop China."

Orac, that is your goals. Don't mix it with Japan's goals.

-5 ( +9 / -14 )

A very hard to read article but the jist appears to be Japan challenged the west’s dominance and lost, now it’s China’s turn, good luck China. Be careful what you wish for Japan, a lot of Chinese still hold a grudge from Japan’s attempt.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

China has goals. What are Japan's goals ?

To put it simply, to stop China.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

The photo reminds me of another country with an exceptionalism complex.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

From 1971 onwards, China, with the support and friendship of the western nations plus Japan has become the world's most economically and militarily powerful authoritarian dictatorship. Today it's heavy handed approach to diplomacy and territorial expansion agenda has made China the biggest threat to regional and world peace we have seen since the Cold War ended. What makes China so much more dangerous than other fascist regimes we have seen historically is that their "rise" is in the digital age, where they can infiltrate global communications systems. Armies of Wumaos both paid and unpaid flood the internet and SNS with CCP propaganda. Only now are the nations of the world waking up to, and responding to this threat. This is not a "Trump" issue, as the U.S. position towards China is bipartisan, and will continue into the next administrations. And it is a position shared by nations which have had and continue to have difficult relationship with the Trump administration. As for those wumaos who are mistaking ethnic or national pride with supporting the CCP, it's a safe bet that China will be the first (and hopefully only) country to control their massive population through chip implants at birth. Those living in China are prevented from having access to websites whereas the wumaos living outside of China enjoy living in democracies and take advantage of their freedom to support CCP propaganda. These are young people who do not know the suffering endured by older generations who escaped to Hong Kong, Taiwan and western countries when the CCP took over. The young people in Hong Kong who are now standing up to CCP tyranny are the true Patriots of the Chinese people.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

China has goals. What are Japan's goals ?

-7 ( +9 / -16 )

The world of political diplomacy has changed in the last 30+ years since Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms too. The CCP needs to get its head out of the 70’s and understand this. Antagonizing other nations the way they do now is not a good road to go down and global opposition will just increase.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

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