Globalization

[Airbornelawyer]

Originally Posted by ghuinness

Globalisation yes, but for what purpose? I don't agree with you that the underlying motive is purely economic. China is helping China in order to encircle the USA. I don't trust them and I wish people would wake up and see the game China is playing. That will never happen as long the focus is the P&L statement.

my .02

The underlying motive is security, of which economic security is just one component.

Others more knowledgeable on Chinese affairs than I have argued that China does not seek to isolate or encircle the US, but to ensure that China cannot be isolated and encircled. They argue that China seeks the same sort of hegemony in East Asia that it views the United States as enjoying in the Western Hemisphere since the advent of the Monroe Doctrine.

There is some argument as to how much hemispheric security we actually enjoy, given Cuba, narcotrafficking and transnational terrorism, but for most of our existence we have been relatively unthreatened in our hemisphere. None of the major nations of the hemisphere - Brazil, Mexico, Canada - or the second-tier - Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela - are serious threats to the US (though Venezuela may become a thorn in our sides), and all but Cuba are formally our allies. The Monroe Doctrine is not as absolute as it was a century ago, but non-American powers generally defer to the US in the region. German attempts to fill a power vacuum created by Spain's defeat in 1898 were soundly rebuffed in Venezuela and Mexico, as were Soviet attempts in Central America.

From China's perspective, it is the one that is encircled. China's only reliable allies in East Asia are relatively inconsequential states - Burma, Laos and North Korea - and the last of these is proving a troublesome ally. Meanwhile, China borders or faces Russia, India, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, all major states or economic powerhouses (compared to China, Vietnam is small, but it is the 13th largest country in the world) and all threats in various ways to Chinese hegemonic ambitions. Furthermore, while China's only close ally in the Western Hemisphere is Cuba, the United States has allies throughout East and Southeast Asia, the most important being South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand, but Australia could also be added to the list. And to the extent the US improves its relationships with other countries of the region - Russia, India, Mongolia, Indonesia, even Vietnam - it fuels the Chinese perception of encirclement.

Economic measures address this fear in part two ways: one, securing access to natural resources and high-technology improves China's overall power. Second, enmeshing the US, EU Japan and other powers in a web of economic interests leads us to deter ourselves from acting against China's interests, since there are more and more non-Chinese whose own economic interests are tied to China's.