What About China?

Let us add some air to all things Chinese, geopolitically that is.

First, Xi has made himself Chairman for life or nearly so; time will tell if this title sticks.

Second, China’s military has been very busy:

·         Building defensible ‘islands’ in the South China Sea. You see, China has had limited access to seaports throughout its history and feels it necessary to extend its ‘borders of influence’ to defend itself. Thus the ‘islands’ built in international waters. They are not supportable by international law, and China knows this. But, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And Xi intends to gain.

·         Expanding missile sites in hundreds of locations throughout the nation. Again, this is a defense thing, but it is so large as to suggest offensive positions should they wish to attack the world, or at least ransom the global village. Think about it.

Third, China has acquired massive manufacturing capacity using their enormous manpower pool. They now control the largest portion of manufacturing in the world. Trouble is that the only way they could do that was steal intellectual property from nations with open universities and corporations for sale. They stole the ideas on the one hand and bought the companies with the other hand. The problem, however, is that this is not self-sustaining behavior. At some point they need to invent and innovate on their own intellectual capability. We know they can do that, but first they acquired the capacity for economic reasons. Meanwhile American and European corporations are welcomed to build plants in China. There is a catch; those plants and companies while operating in China must conform to standards of speech, thought and behavior. None of those is consistent with the corporations’ home nations culture, so what awaits a Chinese site in the future? Takeover? Nationalization?

Fourth, China long ago began an internationalization process for their own business leaders and welcomed foreign business leaders to the same process. That helped lure American innovation and invention into China. It was reciprocal but mostly in selling American businesses to China and educating their students inside American research universities. This process has been going on for many years now, decades really.

Those four topics miss several things that Xi should be thinking about. They are:

·         What happens after he is gone? He will eventually step down from his high office or die. What is the plan for after?

·         What of people from both countries understanding each other? What is the plan to help each other share cultures, history and intellectual competence? Without that sharing the peoples remain apart and objects, not human beings.

·         The problem with helping people know, accept, understand, and interact positively with each other is that they do not wish violence or war among themselves. Such behavior brings peace. That would be a strange outcome given the military stance and rhetoric of the supreme leader.

Perhaps Xi is thinking about all of these things? If so, he has a strange way of showing it.

I have long stated that peace within the global village is the only way forward for the common good of all. It is also economical to pursue that. Peace is much cheaper than war. Outcomes are so much more pleasant as well.

Xi, please listen to many voices before choosing a fateful, ill-conceived path. America is not the aggressor nor is it the dreamer of world domination. Its people are peaceful and creative. As are yours.

Please keep it that way.

July 14, 2021