First let me say that I have studied Chinese Medicine, diet, philosophy, and T’ai Chi martial arts. Because of this I have a good amount of appreciation for certain aspects of Chinese society. China has a rich culture with amazing talent and industriousness and has much to offer the world. Their health care system, for one, is a great example of the integration of both wholistic and western medicine that we could learn from.
That being said, along with China’s disregard for intellectual property rights and the rights of their own citizens, nearly all of the solutions to the world’s problems rely on some degree cooperation from China but no one will really talk about them. Who is going to challenge them on global warming, for example? The truth is, America could follow an aggressive carbon reduction program and all the factories in China will continue to burn huge quantities of dirty coal. Many Chinese factories have a coal factory built right next to them that runs only the one factory. There’s no way that China is going to change their power infrastructure any time soon.
Global warming, genocide, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and providing weapons for terrorists are all areas that need to be addressed with China to be solved or at least prevented from getting worse. Then there’s the big one, the enormous debt that is owed to China, not just by the U.S., but by other countries too.
What options do we really have with them? The political climate there isn’t exactly open to change or even criticism. One option is to put economic pressure on China as much as possible, perhaps in the form of boycotting Chinese goods. A total boycott is not a possibility and even a partial one is a risky idea because the intense pressure within China to build the economy. Besides, how many people would even go along with something like that? Perhaps there is a way to convince them they can build their economy and benefit everyone at the same time. I have no ideas how to do that and I’m afraid the chances of convincing them as such are slim. Also, putting economic pressure on China could cause suffering to the Chinese people, which would not necessarily translate into pressure on the government.
04 June 2009
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