I hate to admit it but I’m starting to understand that
I belong to a different era and I’m kind of old. As much as I push myself to
keep my physical levels of growth hormone at functional levels, the truth of
the matter is that the way people looked at the world is completely different
from the time when I was a kid.
In a way, it was a “dangerous” time back then. I lived
in Spain, Germany and the UK when the Cold War was going on. Germany was a particularly
interesting case because there was West and East Germany and I was constantly
reminded that we lived, “Thankfully” in West Germany. This was an era where
there two superpowers, namely the USA and USSR. Both these nations offered
competing visions for the world and it was clear that those in the USA’s camp
were living a decent enough life when compared to anyone living in the camp of
the USSR (let’s remember the Berlin Wall was the first wall ever to be built to
keep people in).
America was the country that ensured peace and
prosperity. Everyone wanted to go to America because, well, everything was simply
better. The US constitution, the world’s oldest, states that this was a nation founded
on the inalienable right of the individual to pursue happiness by contrast the
USSR to an extent the People’s Republic of China, were pretty miserable and
poor places. These Chinese even went as far as proving this idea right back in
1989 when they proceeded to gun down a group of peaceful protestors. The
bullies back then were the USSR and China whereas the USA was the school
prefect who kept everything in order for the betterment of everyone else.
Unfortunately, things seem to be changing, thanks to
current occupant in the White House. For anyone who remembers the USA as the
power that fought with nice guys against bad guys, it was a shock to the system
when the occupant proceeded to start picking fights with Mexico and Canada, a
place known for being nice and inoffensive, all within a few days of taking power.
While people like me were wringing their hands about
what the USA had turned into, the people in the Chinese communist party have
been grinning uncontrollably. The more the USA goes out of its way to try and
brown beat its allies, the more China has become a “reasonable” partner who
doesn’t try and do awful things.
OK, to be fair to China, a lot of its growth is earned.
China has avoided getting into global conflicts and as American comedian Bill
Mahar says “We binge watch and they binge build.” While America has been going
through a series of internal culture wars, China has been building its
infrastructure for the next century. One only needs to look at the comparison
in high-speed rail network between China and the USA:
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/railway-map.htm
Not all of it is the fault of the current occupant of
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. China had been building up quietly since the 1970s, whilst
avoiding major geopolitical conflicts, which cost treasure. An inward nation
under Mao, went out of its way to send students to learn from the world once
Mao left the stage. By the time Mr. Trump entered the political stage, China
was already the world’s second largest economy.
Where Mr. Trump fails America is to understand the situation
is that he’s approaching it like a school bully who thinks his size gives him
an automatic advantage in a fight. Listen to the Trump administration talk
about world problems and you can paraphrase everything as “You’ve been screwing
us, now we screw you.” One only has to think of the swagger displayed by Fox
News host, Jessie Watter’s telling people in Chinatown that Donald Trump was “Beating
up on China.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlht9VxMR2s
Let’s start with the question of alliances. In the Western
world, the USA underpinned NATO and other alliances of Western nations. Thanks
to Trump starting trade wars with traditional allies like Canada and Europe, nations
that traditionally looked to the USA for leadership are looking for
alternatives. Enter China, which is smiling and looking reasonable by contrast.
China’s new found besties have advanced technologies that China needs.
Then, there’s the question of what’s the key
difference in a fight. The answer, is inevitably, the one that best prepares
for it. As former world heavy weight champion Mike Tyson states in his book “Undisputed
Truth,” he lost the legendary fight against Buster Douglas in 1991 because he
was partying the night before whilst Douglas, a 42-1 underdog was busy training
(Douglas would subsequently lose his title to Evander Holyfield for the same
reason – he got busy enjoying his title, he forgot to put in the work.)
The Trump administration is working hard to party.
America is pulling out of treaties and becoming more isolationist. It’s pulled
out of the Paris Climate accords and regulations that put a hold on regulations
of fossil fuel use (which in turned spurred research into green technologies)
in the name of allowing the party to continue for old industries.
By contrast, China is “training hard” to get ready for
the next century. China has moved from being the world’s largest polluter and emitter
of greenhouse gases into a world leader in new technologies like solar panels
and electronic vehicles. Whilst American pile on more debt with credit card
use, China is experimenting and leading the world with digital payments. America
under Trump looks set to become what can only be called “Silly.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DH4v6FnbvM
This is not to say that China is utopia. America still sets the standards in much of what gets done. However, if you look at many of the assumptions that America is making about its automatic superiority and its attempts to browbeat allies, you’ll find that its developing the mindset that ironically China had back in 1500 when it assumed it was the centre of the world and stopped moving forward. By contrast, China is showing that it has learnt the lessons of history and that its humiliation was a result of self-isolating from the rest of the world due to a sense of misplaced superiority.
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