For years we have been speculating that the USA and China would enter into serious competition for world dominance in the twenty first century. There is no longer speculation or doubt that the race is on.
It may be fair to say that many of us in the USA in our smugness and good fortune operate under the assurance that we are the greatest country on earth and are so strong and powerful that no nation could ever win in a challenge. This mindset has led us to concentrate on armed might, neglect of our manufacturing sector, and an outsourcing of whatever we can get cheaper from other countries.
China was best equipped to fill the need. So we created the tools and manufacturing equipment and moved our production of consumer goods to China. As time progressed we expanded the model and allowed China to produce the preponderant amount of Chips that go into our products, from toasters to washing machines, to cell phones, vehicles, factory equipment, aircraft, military hardware, and much more.
The entire western world followed the US model, and China built up piles of US dollars. Much of this money is invested in US Government Bonds and Treasury Bills, and much of it in the US Commercial Market, from debt instruments to commercial Real Estate, to agriculture, food and meat production.
In spite of the above, China still had enough money to build up its Armed Forces, to accommodate significant urbanization of its population, to be an arguable equal match for the USA in every military phase, and in the exploration of Outer Space. A nation doesn’t need an extraordinary number of warheads, or nuclear bombs to annihilate another nation, which poses the question as to why they all spend so much money on such large arsenals.
Concurrent with the above, and openly, China has been lending money for infrastructural development, and building goodwill in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. It would not be a stretch to say that China’s prestige in these areas is at least equal to that of the US. China just might outrank the USA in Africa. China has been cultivating African nations for years while we in the USA have been tarred with the suspicions reserved for the British and French in particular, not to forget the Belgians and Portuguese for their rape of Africa.
The war in the Ukraine has fast forwarded international developments. We now see two powerful alignments. On one hand China and Russia are coming together and attracting India, North Korea, Iran, Syria, maybe the Philippines, and maybe Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Lebanon. Pakistan will probably lean Westward, and Afghanistan will play both sides, not being able to be in bed with Russia, or the USA, and sitting between Iran and Pakistan.
The USA leads the West in the other group consisting of Canada, Mexico, Western Europe (all NATO Countries), Great Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, Israel, Japan, South Korea and a few South American nations, some Central American Countries, and the Caribbean. Egypt and North Africa would be in the questionable column. China recently made a very strategic powerplay in the Middle East by bringing Iran and Saudi Arabia together indicating not love of these two nations for each other, but their common hatred of Israel, not to mention the economic and strategic strength of China.
Oil and Arms have a lot to do with the Russia, China, India, Iran, Saudi understanding, but I wonder if Russia and China can truly live together in the same house. Mao Zedong felt that China would be the dominant Communist Power, and this is now true. We must now ask ourselves if Russia can live with a dominant China. We can also ask ourselves if the USA can live with a dominant China.
Mr. Putin stirred up a real hornet’s nest when he jumped on Ukraine.