Year of the Sheep, Century of the Dragon?

[MattSh]

BEIJING -- Seen from the Chinese capital as the Year of the Sheep starts, the malaise affecting the West seems like a mirage in a galaxy far, far away. On the other hand, the China that surrounds you looks all too solid and nothing like the embattled nation you hear about in the Western media, with its falling industrial figures, its real estate bubble, and its looming environmental disasters. Prophecies of doom notwithstanding, as the dogs of austerity and war bark madly in the distance, the Chinese caravan passes by in what President Xi Jinping calls “new normal” mode.

“Slower” economic activity still means a staggeringly impressive annual growth rate of 7% in what is now the globe’s leading economy. Internally, an immensely complex economic restructuring is underway as consumption overtakes investment as the main driver of economic development. At 46.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the service economy has pulled ahead of manufacturing, which stands at 44%.

Geopolitically, Russia, India, and China have just sent a powerful message westward: they are busy fine-tuning a complex trilateral strategy for setting up a network of economic corridors the Chinese call “new silk roads” across Eurasia. Beijing is also organizing a maritime version of the same, modeled on the feats of Admiral Zheng He who, in the Ming dynasty, sailed the “western seas” seven times, commanding fleets of more than 200 vessels.

Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing are at work planning a new high-speed rail remix of the fabled Trans-Siberian Railroad. And Beijing is committed to translating its growing strategic partnership with Russia into crucial financial and economic help, if a sanctions-besieged Moscow, facing a disastrous oil price war, asks for it.

Complete story at - http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175959/

[liberal N proud]

1. Meanwhile, America crumbles

because we must cut taxes, we must destroy big government and the middle class.

There are no plans for infrastructure projects, no high speed rail, no modernization of airports, no repairing an aged highway system. We keep hearing small stories about re-shoring, but in the reality , more and more products continue to be made overseas.

But we can still build bombs! Military industrial complex is where it is all at, build planes that would bankrupt most nations, and bigger boats and guns.

As we continue to decline, however much it gets slowed from time to time, we will at a point, no longer be able to retain that most powerful military in the world.

[MattSh]

2. If we build enough bombs...

everybody will be afraid of us and do as they are told.

Well, that used to work but even that is failing us now. We get into stupid wars, for no logical reason, against so-called "lesser" opponents, and we still get our asses handed too us. But not before we leave an utterly wrecked country behind that breeds more terrorists that demand that we fight more wars.