"This Is China's Plan To Be The Sole World Superpower..." Topic

… By 2019.

"A new book claims to shed light on a strategy that would make China the sole superpower by 2049.

We are entering the season of presidential primary politics, and many of the candidates—or at least their advisors—might benefit from a fresh look at the current crop of foreign policy books. China should be at or near the top of every candidate's bedside reading list. With that in mind, I have begun to make my way through the mounting pile of new books and reports on U.S.-China relations that has accumulated over the past few months and thought I might offer a few reflections on what is novel and most useful—or not—from each. For those of you who have already read one of books, I welcome your thoughts…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I think the "sit back and watch us wreck ourselves" plan is a pretty good one.

Darth,

You're right. What's that saying that is along the lines of "when your enemy is self-destructing just stay out of the way"? Obviously I'm paraphrasing badly but you get the idea.

Yeah. We prefer to hear more about American Idol, what the Karsashians look like these days, the birth of another spoiled Blue-blood, which players got picked for what team in some sort of draft, and the national elections that are still 19 months away.

The Baltimore drama was an interesting distraction that succeeded in getting most to continue ignoring the real world events.

"Bread and games". Which translates to government social programs and latest entertainment and gossip. That's all that matters to most people these days, it seems.

Dan

The fact that Bruce Jenner is the only Khardashian Woman I have any respect for says a lot…

Reminds me of the Jim Gaffigan aside on one of his jokes: "This guy's going to Hell in two religions. He's practically sprinting there."

That is the West. Sprinting to Hell, unable to take our eyes off of the inner train wreck we've become.

Your opinion may vary. :-)

Just hearing all of this makes me realize how much I have been cheated and deprived in life !!!! Now if I could just get inside myself, discover who I really am and just let myself be released???
Regards
Russ Dunaway

Sounds like an interesting read. I recall reading other such works in the 80s, some talking as if the Soviet threat, and while others spoke of Japan, or even Brazil(!) would be the instrument of destruction. The next super power.

Others pistillated that the instrument of our destruction would, ultimately be ourselves. Our inability to work together.

Does it still hold true that destruction will come at our own hands? That we will sow the seeds of our inevitable destruction? This is not meant to be a conservative or liberal talking point, but rather the idea that it is our own polarization – our inability to recognize that the other side, whatever that means, has a legitimate point of view. Will that be the nail in the coffin of liberty of the people, by the people and for the people? Or will our "destruction", whatever that' means will come at the hands of a foreign power?

Maybe both. Isn't one of the most time-honored and surefire ways of diverting people's attention from internal problems to start a war with another country? Conflicts aren't that hard to create.

No empire lasts forever, but I think that the US still has some juice in her tank.

Thanks my good friend… but in the other one… you would have very few threads… in a month! (smile)

I consider that "Modern…" it's more for you. No "politics" threads there.

Ultramodern is most "hot" with things that happen today.

Amicalement
Armand

I think the "sit back and watch us wreck ourselves" plan is a pretty good one.

With secret money flooding our campaigns we have no idea if the plan is "sit back and watch us wreck ourselves" or active engagement through a political/economic fifth column.

We're in a post-nation state period in which corporations wield more power than nation states in that they control the nation state's political machinery. This includes everything from which laws and treaties are implemented to our elections (you can get a receipt for a Coke at a gas station and it will show up on your debit card record but you can't prove how you voted on a Die Bold voting machine and ever since they first started being used pre-election and exit polls suddenly veered away from election results).

Good thoughts, Visceral! Apt and perceptive.

If successful, Pillsbury argues that China will reshape the world into one that will "nurture autocracies," "rewrit[e] history to defam[e] the West and prais[e] China," sell its own highly polluting development model to other countries, and constrain the political space for international organizations (195).

Based on that quote from the link I'd say they're clearly winning.

Our own political and economic elites are falling all over themselves to embrace the Trans Pacific Trade Pact which includes the following gem: counterfieting a product like a purse or shoes is a violation of the agreement. Killing a labor or democracy organizer is not a violation of the greement.

When the political and economic elite talk about the freedom of degregulation and embrace economies like that of communist China you know what they really mean: freedom to impose their ruthless, socially Darwinian policies on Americans in a race to the bottom of autocratic rule.

Here in Georgia workers supposedly voted for an amendment to the state constitution allowing draconian non-compete agreements at the lowest rungs of the labor pool (e.g. not allowing sandwich shop workers to work at competing shops in a huge radius).

We haven't exported our democratic principles to China. We've imported their autocratic crony capitalism and oligarchy.