China will not counter USA. China will balance USA, and vise versa.
USA and China have successfully engaged each other and penetrated each other. US official policy is to make and treat China as a responsible stakeholder. And China lives on US market, Chinese money supports US daily operation.
By the end of February, a 50 men delegation of house buyer will visit San Francisco, New York and Boston to buy US houses. And US welcome them to spend money and support US house market. This is just one of countless instances that is going on on daily basis, reflecting how US and China depends on each other. If you are still in doubt, please listen to what Hilary Clinton’s saying in Beijing these days. If somebody still doesn’t believe it, a visit with a brain doctor is strongly suggested. No joking!
The major problem with Sino-US relationship stays in Taiwan issue. US has benefited greatly by dumping obsolete weapons with the price of perhaps 10 times, if is not 100 times, more than market value. I believe US is wiser than most people believe, as US is a country paying attention to material gains more than any thing else. As US’s stake in China getting higher, the weight on Taiwan is becoming lower. Let me tell you a true USA: if it comes to US interest, it can dump Taiwan at any moment as long as its interest is more on mainland side. Of course, US can maximize its benefit by engaging on both sides. As mainland and Taiwan are hotly engaged in economy, with some proposal to build up military trust across the strait in rumor, gradually the issue will be cooled down. That day is a day of
Chimerica!
Now let’s review the relationship beyond Sino-US bilateral relationship.
China encourages US’s continued occupation of Japan. This will prevent Japan from finding excuses to make further military expansion and balance Korea issue.
US officially ask China to take more world responsibility as US declining power make it unable to tackle each and every concern it has. Thus China’s clout has been projected never so far in its recent couple of hundred years history.
China has unprecedentedly projected its navy power across India Ocean and reached Africa. (Sorry, I know somebody is not happy about this.)
China has also built up huge influence in Latin America. As recent as yesterday, Chinese vice precedent Xi Jingping was reportedly so busy sign agreements with Venezuela that he even missed airplane schedule! And big-mouth Mr. Chavez vows to guarantee supplying China 500 years of crude oil.
Chinese projects and influences are mostly welcomed in Africa, which is of a simple truth for even no-brainer.
China also successfully engaged with EU countries. Typical evidence is that recently G7 meeting announced that China’s economic policy is good and is benefiting the whole world. They encouraged China to stick to its flexible monetary policy, in a sharp contrast to their initial noise.
In South Asia, China’s engagement with SA countries is also unprecedented. It has widened its activities for peace and prosperity with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka with a scope and depth never seen before. While some narrow minded Indians view China as its number one enemy or potential number one enemy (what a joke!
), nobody can deny that Chinese economic engagement with India brings benefit for both countries. Only groups of Indians hating to see these are those of warlords, military expansionists and neo-imperialists, because they’ll have no reason to have their military budget increased.
For those ignorantly believe non-democracy is a soft sport of China, and the rest ought to gang up against China. How naïve and stupid that is! 1) The 21st century has no place for those with pure ideology, except for those exhumed mummies. That is the reason why so-called “democratic alliance” ( of India, Japan, Australia and USA) failed soundlessly. No wiseman will give it a sh!t. 2) Hey, let me explain to you that so-called non-democracy is a strong spot of China. Why? Because a political system has to match with the country’s cultural soil for the system to survive and thrive, and to benefit the people. Chinese democracy is not perfect, as every any other countries, but is growing in a healthy way with right trend. As a matter of fact, the worldwide financial crisis led by democratic beacon USA has made people cast a doubtful eye on democratic capitalism, and start to study seriously command capitalism.
In conclusion, China will not counter USA, and USA is not going to and is unable to contain China. Both are striving for a world called
Chimerica, which is also rightly dubbed as
G-2, a world where Ying and Yang are rightly balanced by USA, China and other worthy players (I'm not quite sure yet whether India is on the list, sorry).
