Matt Frei's diary: Obama visits America's banker By Matt Frei BBC News, Washington http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8365563.stm It should not come as a surprise that President Obama has been dancing delicately and deftly around the issues of Tibet and human rights while on his visit to China. Who after all would kick sand in their banker's face? China now holds reserves of $2.3 trillion. It owns more US debt than anyone else. China's savings sustain the US economy for better or worse. It is the financial equivalent of assured mutual destruction. The lingering existence of Guantanamo Bay and memories of Abu Ghraib have eroded the moral high ground like a swarm of termites, however insistently Obama has banned the use of torture. But something else has changed in the chemistry of the world's most important bilateral relationship. America is now more in awe of China than vice versa. Afghanistan and Iraq have shown the limits of US military power. We are no longer impressed, as we once were, by million-dollar smart bombs if crude but deadly IEDs planted in drinks cans can kill or injure American soldiers on a daily basis. The stonewalling, sandbagging and petty in-fighting on Capitol Hill have shown the limits of democracy in the world's greatest democracy. And the Great Recession has shown the limits of America's economic clout. We are limping towards a jobless recovery. A year ago, China saw millions of people laid off from the factories of Guandong and Fujian. Now they are posting more than 8% growth, reaping the benefits of a whopping stimulus package that even dwarfs America's, while taking dramatic steps to encourage their own citizens to consume. According to the New York Times, an astonishing 86% of the population believe the country is heading in the right direction. In the US, that figure languishes at 37%. In Europe and America, we are managing decay. In China, they are managing expansion. Oh and did I mention the number of billionaires? China now boasts 130, still behind America's 349 but multiplying at a much faster rate. On the whole, Chinese people are prepared to make enormous personal sacrifices in order to see the next generation flourish. I remember meeting an engineer at the tip of southern China who had left his family in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia 1,500 miles (2,400km) away to make a living. He was desperately homesick. He returned home once a year, but it did not even occur to him to ditch the job. What you see in China today is a curious combination of breathless expansion and boundless optimism, wrapped in national pride, combined with the patience produced by 5,000 years of continuous history. America at its best has the energy and the optimism. It does not lack in patriotism. But it also labours under the need for instant gratification.
"According to the New York Times, an astonishing 86% of the population believe the country is heading in the right direction. In the US, that figure languishes at 37%" it seems the author does not know china either politics. In a country where media is controlled and no other voice except party propaganda, i am curious the number does not reach 99%. In china congress, few laws are passed with less than 95% support. when the optimism stays around 86%, it means quite negative in general.
This is what the first immigrants from 1880's to 1920's. They live poor and took dirty jobs so there children could become Doctors and lawyers. Now we are two generations past this sacrifice. Whats next? Do we need to repeat the cycle?
The working and middle classes are sacrificing, ( are being sacrificed would be a better way to put it), and have been for decades. The transfer of wealth from the middle up has caused the elites to flourish. Keep up the good work.
Of course the Chinese are hungrier for success , the u.s. not so much , but thats becuase the U.S. is already far richer , they arn't so hungry becuase they are already there , already rich , when china becomes as rich as the states they will lose thier hunger and motivation in similer amounts to which the states has . The Chinese simply need it more , when you havn't eaten in a while your hungrier than if you just left McDonalds , it isn't a superior philosophy , just circumstance .
The chinese have sacrificed one human being per family so that next generation flourish. Chinese have one-child policy.
Works like this... 1st generation: goes without so their kids can be successful 2nd generation: Is successful and makes lots of money. 3rd Generation: Lazy. Just lives off rich mommy & daddy. Why work? Their parents are rich so the kids have no drive, especially if they are handed everything on a silver platter all their lives. 4th Generation: Has nothing. Goes without so kids can be successfull.
That's old info, that policy is history. It's like saying that the Berlin Wall still separates the West from the Soviet Union.
We start from a higher level than immigrants of a hundred years ago.... the version of sacrifice we make is not work two jobs on farms and scrubbing toilets, it's taking a second on the rental property...
This is exactly what I wanted to post and then I saw your post. The speed with which the Chinese are growing is amazing though. Most of this growth is coming from the transfer of technology from the west. This has never happened in the past that so many countries have just given another country for free, something they developed over decades and centuries and spent trillions of dollars doing that.