Obama is making the Americans work for China!

[TinCow]

China? Are we still really afraid of China? That's so 1990s.

[Louis VI the Fat]

China? Are we still really afraid of China? That's so 1990s.

Are we afraid? Why don't we ask the world's second third largest economy, Japan, which as we speak is forced into kneeling before China.

As China had previously done with smaller Asian neighbours, China moved a ship into disputed waters with Japan. The captain was subsequently arrested by Tokyo.
The Chinese retaliation was swift and brutal.

China has cornered the global rare earth's market. These are needed for pretty much anything high tech, from automobiles to computer chips to weapons systems. China has monopolised the market, it now controls 97%.
Overnight, each and every single Chinese company decided not to supply Japan with rare earths anymore. In an act of breathtaking cynicism, Beijng publicly stated it had nothing to do with it, that there was no official embargo. (In line with China's policy of sticking to the letter of trade agreements, while blatantly disregarding the spirit)

Japan was forced to surrender.
The game China was playing remained unclear: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-c...o-know-2010-10

It has created a lot of unease. As it turns out, the entire global high-tech industry is now reliant on Beijng and it's quota of rare earths. If you behave like a good boy, Beijng will supply you, if not, Beijng will punish you. Beijng can literally pull the plug by stopping rare earth exports.
Time for the world to wake up and understand the games China is playing. Scarce resources, food, mining rights, monopolised science and high tech industry - Beijng is waging agressive war in a bid for supremacy.

[Furunculus]

Japan was forced to surrender.
The game China was playing remained unclear: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-c...o-know-2010-10

best thing china could have done............. from the west's PoV, it has already coralled a load of south east asian nations back into america's embrace, china is containing itself.

[Furunculus]

Japan was forced to surrender.
The game China was playing remained unclear: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-c...o-know-2010-10

best thing china could have done............. from the west's PoV, it has already coralled a load of south east asian nations back into america's embrace, china is containing itself.

in reference to my previous assertion:

http://blogs.the-american-interest.c...power-in-asia/

[Louis VI the Fat]

in reference to my previous assertion:

http://blogs.the-american-interest.c...power-in-asia/

Yes, yes, yes and yes

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yes, yes, yes and yes

Meh. True in the short term the USA benefits from these small scale diplomatic disputes. In the long term that's an empty package though, because the other Asian powers will sooner or later realise that unless the USA radically alters its politics it will ultimately have to default on the alliance when a true dispute with its allies and China pops up. If the USA isn't going to risk a long term souring of relations with a non-power such as Argentina over a pair of sheep; why should they feel confident that the USA would risk long term tensions with one of its prime suppliers over the Senkaku islands or the South Chinese Sea?

Some commenter to that article posted a link to another article which contains slightly more substance: http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010...ing-weltmacht/
I kind of liked this comment (its tangential but the mindset it describes is reminiscent of what is espoused in that blog post referred to by furunculus):

Let me see if I get the big picture.
We get to position ABM sites in places like Poland and the Czech Republic and expect Moscow to snooze on down military road despite those little so 20th century problems it had with Germany that resulted in the country getting turned inside out.
Our Navy gets to ply its assets above, on, and below the South China Sea while we expect Beijing to smile despite those little so 20th century problems it had with, well, everybody. Surprise! the result was that the country got turned inside out.
Nice delusion if you can keep it.
P.S. When the Soviets tried to install some of those nasty missile thingies in our back yard, we about jumped through our you know whats.
File this one under ‘you couldn’t make it up except in Washington.’

[Louis VI the Fat]

I kind of liked this comment (its tangential but the mindset it describes is reminiscent of what is espoused in that blog post referred to by furunculus):

Let me see if I get the big picture.
We get to position ABM sites in places like Poland and the Czech Republic and expect Moscow to snooze on down military road despite those little so 20th century problems it had with Germany that resulted in the country getting turned inside out.
Our Navy gets to ply its assets above, on, and below the South China Sea while we expect Beijing to smile despite those little so 20th century problems it had with, well, everybody. Surprise! the result was that the country got turned inside out.
Nice delusion if you can keep it.
P.S. When the Soviets tried to install some of those nasty missile thingies in our back yard, we about jumped through our you know whats.
File this one under ‘you couldn’t make it up except in Washington.’

Yes, there is a train of thought that thinks western democracies 'surrounded and kept down' Germany before 1914, and again from 1919 to 1939, that western democracies surrounded and kept down the Soviet Union, and that western democracy is surrounding and keeping down China now.

You go right ahead and apologise to all of them if you must, but as for me, I'm going to channel my inner Dave and say they can all kiss my hairy *beep*

[gaelic cowboy]

I read a book lately which had a lot of rubbish in it on the future developments in Asia but the one thing I took from it was China is so big that dominating other countries would be a distraction.

The potential to cause major trouble in the rural regions as the urban ones get richer due to economic integration is a big worry in Beijing. Hence we keep reading in the Economist or see it on telly about how they keep trying to foster development in the interior to head off unrest.

I suspect it will fail no matter who you are the center will always draw your money and workers the best and brighest and the not so bright towards it.

It will take a while but I suspect that China will have to stop spending money on buying influence and instead spend it on it's own people in an attempt to shut them up. Once the people and the government start down that road the limits of Chinese power will be as apparent as the limits of US power.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yes, there is a train of thought that thinks western democracies 'surrounded and kept down' Germany before 1914, and again from 1919 to 1939, that western democracies surrounded and kept down the Soviet Union, and that western democracy is surrounding and keeping down China now.

You go right ahead and apologise to all of them if you must, but as for me, I'm going to channel my inner Dave and say they can all kiss my hairy *beep*

Ehrm no? Just that it neatly paints a mindset wherein the USA (or really, leader of the world-order of today) is certainly fallible but somehow, supposedly, nobody really mind the mistakes it makes.
It might've passed under your radar but the blog article referred to by furunculus seems to be convinced that growing powers are going to just take the USA for what it is from some sort of belief that the only alternative is China. It seems to be convinced that somehow whatever USA's faults might be those countries are willing to overlook them when China does something minor. It is almost like the writer assumes blind fear on the part of countries like Australia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Singapore or even India instead of a more cold and dispassionate appraisal of their true options.

I don't buy that. I think that aligning yourself more closely with the USA is a simple way for those countries to assert their independence, and it will last only until eventual round of reconciliation, or until they find their own forums/platforms. (As increasingly India and -unrelated- Brazil seem to have done.)

[rory_20_uk]

in reference to my previous assertion:

http://blogs.the-american-interest.c...power-in-asia/

What I find the most amazing is how with only a slight difference in emphasis they'd mostly be in China's embrace:

South Korea should love them for helping with north Korea
Trade between India and China is growing at a phenominal pace and has greater energy needs than Pakistan (and as an ally is far more useful)

China appears to have looked at their succesful approach to Africa and is doing the same thing closer to home, but forgot that this can upset countries who are less phased about dealings on another continent.