Afghanistan, climate change crucial for Sino-US trust
- Source: Global Times
- [23:29 December 10 2009]
- Comments
Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with visiting US President Barack Obama after they meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 17, 2009. (Xinhua Photo)
By Liu Yawei
In 1989, the Soviet bloc disintegrated, and US political theorist Francis Fukuyama wrote an essay entitled "The end of history ?" declaring that Western liberal democracy had finally trounced the Communist system.
According to his projections, the world would be eventually united under capitalism in economic development and democracy in political institutions. The horrendous terrorist attacks against the US on September 11, 2001 punctured the myth of the omnipotence of Western liberal democracy.
China's miraculous economic growth since Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992 has challenged Western domination from a different direction.
US's failure to root out terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world, combined with China's rise, has upset many Americans, who see both as unprecedented obstacles that the US has to overcome. Otherwise, it will confront an inevitable decline and eventual depletion.
At the same time, there are a growing number of elites in China who see a nervous and scheming US trying to do everything to subvert, if not to stop, the rise of China.
They claim that in addition to using American-supported NGOs to infiltrate China, the two epic efforts by Washington against China are finding permanent military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to complete the strategic encirclement of China, and using carbon emission reduction to freeze and even shrink China's economic growth.
If this is really the Washington's master plan to weaken China, has the US done a good job to achieve these goals? Obviously not. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have wasted enormous amount of money that has deepened the US deficit and slowed its economic recovery.
The war in Iraq damaged former US President Bush and the Republican Party, and the war in Afghanistan is about to do the same to US President Obama and the Democratic Party.
The wars have alienated Muslims around the world and terrorist networks seem to be expanding unstoppably.
Although Obama cannot end the wars for political reasons at this time, he has announced ironclad dates for American troop's withdrawals from both Iraq and Afghanistan.
