China Watching on Veterans Day
China Watching on Veterans Day
'Common Prosperity' a good idea, in China and here in the U.S.
It’s Veterans Day.
They used to call it Armistice Day, marking the end of what was called “the war to end all wars” on this day in 1918. WWI was basically a fight among competing powers for the re-division of the globe and its wealth, using armies of poor peasants and working-class soldiers as cannon fodder. The war left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
Today the drums of war are beating once more. Let’s not do that again.
Quote of the day
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan: “But presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”
China watching
In a speech delivered to Australia's Lowy Institute, Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admitted that the U.S. had quit Afghanistan in order to shift its military focus away from the Middle East and towards China. But he insisted that the shift was only meant to “minimize the potential for conflict.”
Yes, you heard Jake correctly. He’s saying that making China a military target will minimize conflict. To me, that sounds like Kyle Rittenhouse claiming he came to Kenosha armed with a military assault weapon in order to “give first aid and help extinguish fires.”
Who’s buying it?
‘Common Prosperity’
The sixth plenum of the Communist Paty of China’s Central Committee winds up today in Bejing. Western media, U.S. China watchers, and cold-warriors are all abuzz about the new “major policy shifts” under President Xi Jinping.
It looks to me like there has been a shift in policy with China’s leadership now pushing for greater redistribution of that country’s newly-amassed wealth, even if it means tamping down on economic expansion.
The country, which was known as the “Sick Man of Asia” before its revolution in 1949, has experienced unparalleled economic growth helping to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty in just the past few decades. China is now set to surpass the U.S. and become the world’s largest economy in the next 10 years.
In 1990 there were more than 750 million people in China living below the international poverty line - about two-thirds of the population.
By 2012, that had fallen to fewer than 90 million, and by 2016 - the most recent year for which World Bank figures are available - it had fallen to 7.2 million people (0.5% of the population). — Source: The World Bank
But China’s progress, which serves as an example for other former colonial and emergent nations, has only been greeted with growing hostility, aggression, and new war threats, primarily from the U.S. — first from Trump and now from Biden.
China’s badly needed, rapid economic growth serves not only as a counter to external threats but also creates many internal challenges like rising corruption, a lagging public education system, and social inequality, all exacerbated by the pandemic and global warming. China still relies heavily on coal and fossil fuels to power its growth, and even as a socialist country, its economy is largely dependent on global capitalist market forces with no immunity from the social ills that come with them
But as China watcher Andrew Polk, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, points out:
In recent months, Xi has eschewed the growth-at-all-costs doctrine of his predecessors and instead focused on the slogan of “common prosperity” — going after China’s tech giants and superrich with the promise of greater income distribution.
This “isn’t about Xi Jinping being a bleeding heart” liberal, Polk added. “His thinking is that a strong country doesn’t have a huge amount of economic inequality, because that leads to divisions in the populace.”
Now there’s a thought. Sounds a little like Build Back Better.
A bit of good news came yesterday from the COP26 meeting in Glasgow. With only 2 days left in the negotiations aimed at averting a climate catastrophe, there are reports that…
China and the U.S. vowed to work together to slow global warming, issuing a surprise joint statement Wednesday that injects new momentum into the last days of global climate negotiations. The deal also marks a rare moment of cooperation between superpowers locked in geopolitical rivalry and who seemed at odds for most of the two-week talks in Glasgow, Scotland. — Bloomberg
Even as Mr. Biden earlier in the summit publicly scolded President Xi Jinping for not attending in person, setting off a round of sniping from Beijing in return, Mr. Xie and Mr. Kerry continued to quietly meet to discuss whether China could increase its ambition on climate. — New York Times
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