In Other Words

The Middle Kingdom

So China. China? Yes, China. What am I going on about, you wonder? China, obviously. The right question would be why am I going on about China. Asking that question would generate a more revealing response. The reason I’m going on about China is because on an international scale China is probably at least as interesting right now as America.

China is changing the world.

As she (is China a she?) rises up we can start seeing the impact on the world economy. Not just in manufactured goods, either, in everything. Take this article in the Straits Times, for instance. The Chinese government has finally okayed tourist trips to European countries. This is expected to boost the number of Chinese tourists world wide to 100 million, per year. That’s twenty times the number of people in Singapore and this from a country that is still, in all respects, second world.

Imagine what it will be like in five years, ten, twenty? What if they develop a wanderlust like the Irish and the Dutch, who have more than half their people leaving their country every year? One billion tourists. Countries would end up catering to the Chinese market and the Chinese market only.

As China rises up to rival the US (which it can, easily, especially with all the untapped resources all just outside their borders) how will the world change? How will relations slide the world over? At least some semblance of balance will be restored. A single super power is just not a good idea, how ever benevolent that super power might be (and the US isn’t all that benevolent).

Lets just hope that for right now Chinese government doesn’t get any funny ideas, as a good portion of the world’s economic growth right now is fueled, fed and maintained by the Chinese boom. If China would enforce its ‘one China’ policy, for instance, the world (and China) would be fucked. The instability that would result, the pulling out of investment that would occur, the military build up that would happen, would be bad for all concerned.

China, who woke up the sleeping Dragon?

posted by Symbol @ 1.9.04