Asia Times: China eroding US dominance

[seafan]

Dec 8, 2005

China eroding US dominance
By Donald Alford Weadon Jr


The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation's recent attempted acquisition of Unocal raised American fears that China could challenge American energy security. Inside the beltway, conventional wisdom said spiking such Chinese deals would make the United States safer. Torpedoed by concerted lobbying by energy firms and administration China hawks, the deal was replaced when, only days later, the Chinese acquired PetroKazakhstan of Calgary for over US$4 billion in cash, a fateful transaction which barely merited ink in the US media.
Rather than making America safer, the Unocal affair only increased China's incentive to seek and bolster reliable energy supplies through bilateral trade on a global scale at America's expense. Other energy deals are being reported weekly.

...

Furthermore, the Chinese understand leverage in the trade equation on all levels, and they have utilized it to bolster their trade development in the Middle East, whether it be through sophisticated financial guarantees or petroleum-based finance. In the Gulf, Chinese companies are slowly translating growing trade relations into a concrete presence and regional political influence.

...

What is the best metaphor for this situation, which lacks both the linearity of checkers and the exquisite dynamism of chess? Perhaps it is the national game of China - wei ch'i or "Go" - where control of the board is the crucial objective and the timeline is slow and deliberate. As in this 4,000-year-old board game, China is using economic wedge maneuvers to expand its financial influence, harden its economic achievements into political interests, and ultimately achieve control of the "board". Note how a string of Chinese actions defending Iran at the UN dovetailed with a series of large China-Iran energy deals.

Energy and economic engagement with the developing world are not the only diplomatic tools at China's command. China is now capable of unilateral action, with its UN veto a sheathed sword against US action. American influence as has been traditionally exerted will be a thing of the past unless China's goals are understood, and they are effectively engaged.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/GL08Cb05.html

[Selatius]

1. If this nation continues to be led by corrupt, incompetent leaders...

We will fall. These guys have that "I've got my piece of the cake now go fuck yourself" mentality with the rest of America. They're just in it to make money. A few billion here off of arms sales, another few billion off of war--that's what counts: The bottom line, making money. They can retire to some remote spot on earth, while China becomes the next superpower, and the US is slowly crumbling like Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Corporations now bankroll the campaigns of many politicians. People used to enter public service to try and do good. Now they enter public service to steal away a piece of the cake for their corporate financiers or for themselves.

[seafan]

3. Yes, sadly. Poppy has cultivated his long-term friendship with China.

And for what?

It was never about intelligence or honor with the * clan. It has always been about money, global power and vanquishing perceived enemies with a cold-heartedness never imagined by most of the population.

This family is a metastatic disease sickening and ravishing the entire world.

[bullimiami]

2. its not china. it is our incompetence, short sightedness and greed.

we are destroying the country from the inside.

[Selatius]

4. I disagree

Most people simply want to find happiness in life: A steady job, a happy family, a quiet and peaceful life, things of that sort. These are not hard to understand. If anybody is destroying this country, it is that small minority found in every population who only finds happiness through inflicting misery on others or gaining power over others at the expense of the victims. Those who are governed by greed and the lust for power are destroying this country. They owe allegiance to no people except their own pursuit of wealth and power.

"Our incompetence" my ass. It's their incompetence, not ours, but such a realization was probably cold comfort to the average Roman citizen after he realized his nation was beyond the point of saving.