{"id":3820,"date":"2015-03-11T03:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T07:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=3820"},"modified":"2015-06-09T08:34:50","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T12:34:50","slug":"looking-east-and-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2015\/03\/looking-east-and-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking East and West"},"content":{"rendered":"
As China soars to become the world\u2019s second largest economy and becomes a major player in the international scene, we marvel at her economic accomplishments in the last 35 years. What would happen in the next 35 years? Would that meteoric economic rise continue, perhaps at a slower rate? Or would China experience many serious consequences that could cripple the country in many important facets? These include social, environmental, political (both internal and external), military, moral, and economical. While we are addressing that question, because people would often just point to Western countries, especially the U.S., as a model for China to copy, it is important to provide an objective assessment of how Western countries like the U.S. have behaved. Then we may be able to find a solution for China’s problems. However, we also know that during these 35 years, many problems have emerged or significantly intensified. These problems include:<\/p>\n Each one of these problems is extremely serious. This collection of such problems can cripple the country and cause the country to disintegrate, either from within or from without. So how can China solve these problems?<\/p>\n LOOKING WEST<\/span>:<\/strong> A simple and often given response is for China to copy the American system of freedom and democracy, because many people think that the U.S. is a beacon of hope and salvation for the world. The U.S. is a knight in shiny armour who comes to the rescue with a helping hand. I wish it were as simple as that. Let\u2019s examine the U.S. more carefully, first her foreign policies, then her domestic policies, and finally the American Dream.<\/p>\n U.S. Foreign Policies:<\/strong> American politicians and mass media always advertise the U.S. as a country who is willing to offer a helping hand to other countries. However, if you examine it more carefully, the helping hand is really not a helping hand, but a hand involved in extracting benefits for the U.S. or a hand in exploiting that other country. In the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, the U.S. was just like the other foreign powers who carried a big stick and extracted all kinds of benefits for the U.S. at the expense of the Chinese people. In 1949 after the Chinese Communists won the civil war in China, the U.S. kept Taiwan from being united with the rest of China, and is still keeping it so after more than 65 years. For 22 years from 1949 to1971, the U.S. kept the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) from taking its lawful place in the U.N. And on December 25, 1953, the U.S. unilaterally included the Diaoyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands by Japan) within the map of Okinawa whose administrative rights were handed over by the U.S. to Japan in 1972, thus helping to establish the territorial dispute between China and Japan over these islands.<\/p>\n Instead of helping to unify a country like Korea and Germany, the U.S. worked hand-in-hand with the Soviet Union to partition Korea into a North Korea and a South Korea and partition Germany into an East Germany and a West Germany. After Vietnam drove out the colonial France, the U.S. tried to replace colonial France that resulted in a deadly 20-year war with a huge loss of Vietnamese lives (as well as American lives) and a vast destruction of the Vietnamese country.<\/p>\n The U.S. always presents herself as a great advocate of human rights. Since the end of WWII, Japan has been a close ally of the U.S. and the U.S. has had exceedingly strong influence over Japan, including overseeing the reconstruction of Japan. During WWII Japan committed probably the most massive unimaginably inhumane and ruthless atrocities in the history of mankind, and yet even after 70 years she is still trying to whitewash that part of history. If the U.S. is truly an advocate of human rights, why hasn\u2019t the U.S. applied more pressure on Japan to face up and acknowledge, apologize, and compensate for the victims from that part of history?<\/p>\n The U.S. played a most critical role in unrests and changes of governments in countries like Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and possibly Syria. Are these countries in better shape than before? Hardly. Would these countries\u2019 people be better off without the interference of the U.S.? In Ukraine all we hear from American politicians and mass media is how ruthless and aggressive is President Putin of Russia, but what about the role the U.S. played in overthrowing the legally elected former President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him with the current pro-West President Petro Poroshenko?<\/p>\n U.S. Domestic Policies:\u00a0<\/strong> Even from the very beginning of the establishment of the U.S. of America, there were some serious problems. Although the U.S. Constitution does have a lot of important features that other countries could learn and copy, it also had some serious shortcomings. It did not recognize Black people as equal human beings. It allowed slavery, and in terms of headcount, a black slave was counted as only 3\/5 of a white person.<\/p>\n After slavery was abolished with the 13th Amendment in 1865, it still took about another 100 years before Black people started to get equal rights. And this development occurred only after massive civil rights marches and demonstrations that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. In other words, that struggle for equal rights did not come from the conscience and good hearts of the American political leaders, but was forced upon them by the decade-long protests and demonstrations. Furthermore, that struggle for equality continues to today, another 50-plus years later.<\/p>\n The Constitution was 133 years old before the 19th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote. Another almost 100 years later, women still do not have complete equal rights. We recognize that the lack of equal rights for women is almost a universal phenomenon all over the world.<\/p>\n The Native Americans who were the original owners of the land in this country had most of their land stolen, and a large percentage of them were slaughtered, and were discriminated in other ways.<\/p>\n The U.S also advertises and emphasizes her free press. However, the overwhelming majority of opinions and messages conveyed in the major American press is just a reflection of the American government\u2019s (and business\u2019s) policies. If there is any doubt, just look at all the distortions and critical attacks of almost everything that is happening in China. Look at the almost complete rejection of letters to the editors of the major American newspapers expressing opinions that are different from the official government opinions.<\/p>\n American Dream:<\/strong>\u00a0 One may argue that the American society may not be perfect, but look how successful the U.S. has been during her almost 240 years of history so that people from all over the world come to the U.S. seeking the American Dream of a better life as long as you are willing to work for it. Yes, it is true that the U.S. has made tremendous progress during this period, and that millions of people from all over the world have come to this country, especially since 1950, seeking the American Dream. However, if one studies more carefully all the unique favorable external factors that the U.S. enjoyed during her initial 200 years of history, one may come to the conclusion that her success may be due more to certain unique and favorable external factors, and not necessarily due to her intrinsic system. These unique favorable external factors include:<\/p>\n With these unique favorable external factors, the U.S. was able to live relatively peacefully without worrying too much about the threat of foreign invasion until World War II. These favorable external factors allowed the U.S. to focus her resources and energy internally to develop the country. Furthermore, they also gave the U.S. room to expand and enough resources to share, instead of being a zero-sum situation where one could gain only at the expense of someone else.<\/p>\n With all the above advantages, the U.S. was able to develop into a rich and powerful country. Furthermore, compared with most other countries, she suffered from WWII relatively minor damages to her infrastructure. This enabled her to develop into the richest and most powerful country in the world after WWII. Then for another 30-50 years before many other countries (e.g., first Germany and Japan, and then Korea, India and China) developed into credible economic competitors, the U.S. was able to reap great economic advantages all over the world. The country actually welcomed more new comers to help develop the vast land. As a matter of fact, it was partially due to immigration to the U.S. of so many of the best and brightest from other countries that propelled the U.S. economic engine to become the richest and most powerful in the world. It is important to recognize that this lack of a zero-sum situation (i.e., there was always room to expand and enough resources to share) for the first 200 years of the U.S.\u2019 existence softened or hid the shortcomings of an intrinsic self-centric and greedy American system.<\/p>\n This is not to deny that other factors (e.g., its democratic system of government, the American entrepreneur spirit) were also contributors to the success of the U.S. during the first two hundred years of its existence. The point we want to make is that there was almost an ideal geographical or natural environment for the U.S. during most of its existence that greatly helped it to develop into the richest and most powerful country in the world and created the base for the American Dream.<\/p>\n However, in the last 20-30 years, the U.S. has essentially fully expanded, so its economy has transformed from a continuing expanding economy into a zero-sum economy. In a zero-sum economy, the benefit of the larger entity must be taken into account. Adopting a greedy and self-centric approach may benefit one part of the society in the short term, but not the whole, and not even that part in the long term. Therefore, if the U.S. continues to conduct its affairs with business as usual, it will not be able to continue to offer the American Dream.<\/p>\n Note that we are not necessarily saying that the U.S. is more greedy and more self-centric than other countries, but we are saying that the U.S. is not a knight in shiny armour who always offers a helping hand to the needy, and the U.S. is not necessarily a beacon of hope and salvation for the rest of the world. [For a more detailed discussion of the topic \u201cCan the American Dream Be Continued?\u201d please see the article of that title at: http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2010\/01\/can-the-american-dream-be-continued\/.] This of course is an extremely complex question, and I do not claim to know the solution. But I like to offer several suggestions that should be considered:<\/p>\n SUMMARY:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 While making astonishing economic achievements during the last 35 years, China is also experiencing many serious problems. These problems collectively can cripple the country and cause the country to disintegrate, either from within or from without. How can China solve these problems? Although many people will point China in the direction of copying the American system, we argue that the U.S. is not a knight in shiny armour that can come to rescue those in need. As a matter of fact, it is the U.S. who has contributed to many of the problems of the world. The solution is very complex, and we do not claim that we have the solution. However, we do offer several suggestions that should be considered. Many of the suggestions focus on increasing China\u2019s soft power to win the minds and hearts of the Chinese people as well as other people of the world.<\/p>\n ____________________<\/p>\n
\n
\nLOOKING EAST<\/span>:<\/strong>\u00a0 From various economic indicators, we know that during the last 35 years China has experienced impressive economic growths, as illustrated by the following sample quotes:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nSO WHAT CAN CHINA DO?<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 How can China get rid of or at least reduce significantly the many serious problems mentioned earlier? We already argued that China should not just copy the U.S. system, but she could utilize some facets of that system when they can be usefully applied to the Chinese situation. China must examine carefully her society, custom, and tradition, and then formulate a solution that may be different from any of the existent solutions.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n