Still way too soon to gamble on the potential US decline
- Source: Global Times
- [22:13 March 31 2010]
- Comments
By Liu Yawei
2010 is the Year of the Tiger, and China is growling and behaving like a crouching tiger, ready to jump at any perceived or real enemy. Most recently, the enemy is the US. A recent news commentary in The Global Times has warned the US government not to try to break up China's rice bowl by forcing it to float the yuan.
Minister of Commerce Chen Deming told The Washington Post that China was not afraid of a trade war with the US and cited quotations from Mao Zedong implying that any attempt by Washington to pressure China will end in vain.
China has long defied the US, but her recent attitude toward the US is buttressed by a growing belief that the US is in decline.
Has the US really declined? Any superpower's decline is a slow and even imperceptible process.
Yes, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has repeatedly praised the effec-tiveness of the Chinese government in doing things that Washington has not been able to accomplish in months or even years.
Yes, the Republican Party's remarkable decision to not cooperate with Obama and the Democratic Party has led the US into a political wilderness of gridlock and confrontation. Nevertheless, the US is still the undisputed and uncontested superpower in the world in terms of might, money and mind.
The US faces the legacy of two aggressive and unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the continued havoc caused by the financial meltdown. Simmering anger about Obama's election, fueled by fantasies of "socialist takeover" and with a distinct racist edge, have created the "Tea Party Movement." US political deadlock is such that a good bill on healthcare reform was locked in hate and resentment for a year.
However, none of these aforementioned difficulties confronting the US is serious enough to alter the fundamental elements of political stability and economic development, to erode US social harmony and trigger a political crisis, or to lead nations worldwide to form an anti-US coalition. The US is not on a slippery road or sliding into second-class power status.
Since entering the White House in January 2009, President Obama has had many foreign policy successes. He neutralized global resentment against US unilateralism, made arrangements to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and finalized a historic deal with Moscow to reduce nuclear stockpiles.
Although the US domestic decision-making and legislative processes appear to be chaotic and inefficient, strong democratic institutions will prevent large-scale corruption, incompetence, and monopoly from emerging.
Since China's reform and opening-up 30 years ago, the world has witnessed unprece-dented changes in China in the areas of miraculous economic growth, tremendous expansion of individual freedom, impressive political liberalization, and a more assertive role in the international arena.
But China's march toward modernization is constrained by indigenous factors, like a huge population, environmental degradation, and uneven economic development. China is also facing a new set of challenges, including unequal distribution of wealth, deepening corruption and the daunting threat of inflation thanks to the recent stimulus package.
It is little wonder that Premier Wen Jiabao made the following remark at his annual NPC press conference, "If inflation is not controlled, income disparity not contained and corruption not uprooted, social instability will take place and the legitimacy of the government will face a serious test."
