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No, they aren't. That is why their middle class is growing so fast, they want to have cars and flat screen TVs etc. just like Westerners.
Tata is rolling out 1000$ cars soon. It's still highly faulty. That's the kind of cars Asia wants.
You think the Chinese want to buy 80 grand porsches on bank credit, which the government can issue outside as bonds?? That's not China.
Aspiring for the niceties in life is not the same as aspiring to become a superpower.
Have you actually been in China? When you drive a few miles from the seat of the communist party and Chinese power, you run into the Chinese citizen still aspiring to emigrate to America, educating his kids to do well in GRE and TOEFL, to get school admission in North America etc., an agrarian society centering around the paddy fields and heavy labour.
They "do not" see themselves as the superpower. China is too complex to interpret based on the paranoia of the American media.
It's more like they are buying bonds and treasuries, so they own us. Nope.
Have you actually been in China? When you drive a few miles from the seat of the communist party and Chinese power, you run into the Chinese citizen still aspiring to emigrate to America,.
Drive a few miles further (like, 1,000 miles---it's a big country), and you'll run into Chinese who have never even heard of America. They like China just fine, and they are pleased to see steady improvement in their lives.
And I have to mention something. Chinese are the only kind of people in whom I have "never" seen arrogance of any form. Everybody is composed, it's part of their culture.
Bizarrely, the first Chinese people I saw arrogance in happened to live here in America and they consider themselves Chinese Americans. A majority of these don't even want to be associated with anything Chinese.
This whole thread is a mere projection of what people here think of the Chinese.
And I have to mention something. Chinese are the only kind of people in whom I have "never" seen arrogance of any form. Everybody is composed, it's part of their culture.
You're right. The whole time I was in China, there was never a moment in which I felt that I was "lost". I knew little of the language, could read no signs, spent the entire time traveling alone in the back country of Guangxi and Guizhou, and people would drop what they were doing, in order to see that I was provided with whatever I needed. Not kowtowing, just ordinary gestures of being helpful and accommodating for the needs of a stranger. They treated each other the same way, and I never saw anyone 'behaving badly' toward anyone else.
"How is a country with a lower per capita income than Mexico hailed by so many as the next global superpower? "
Can Mexico build 12 lines of high speed (180mph+) rail in a span of 10 years?
Can Mexico launch a nuclear warhead at any country in the world?
Does Mexico have 30,000 miles of divided (central median), 4+ lane expressways?
Does Mexico have 700 million cell phone subscribers?
Mexico can't even get its drug war under control, it's one step away from being Columbia.
Shanghai, eastern China
Shanghai
Beijing, northern China
Subway in Guangzhou, southern China
Beach in Dalian in Manchuria, northeastern China
Windfarms in Inner Mongolia, northwestern China
Urumqi, western China boonies, bordering Afghanistan
Of course there's still a crapload of poverty in China, but comparing China with Mexico is missing the geopolitical realities of the two countries. It's also being blind to the trajectory that China is on and the one Mexico is partaking. Remember, 50 years ago China was poorer than Zimbabwe and had a life expectancy of 38 years old and a literacy rate of 30%. Mexico was a wealthy Westernized country compared to China back then.
Can you give me one example from the past decade that would show that the US is moving toward socialism? Please don't insult our intelligence by suggesting health care, when a bill has just been passed that will force tens of millions of people to buy health insurance from the private sector. Hardly a move toward socialism. There were more Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan employed by private contractors, than by the government. You call that socialism? An increasing number of incarcerated Americans are being held in prisons owned by the private sector. Socialism? Public schools losing enrollments to charter schools. Socialism? Almost no publicly-owned hospitals at all any more, nearly all private corporations. Socialism? State and national park amenities now run by private concessionaires. Socialism? Voting machines leased from private corporations, ticket-issuing traffic-cams run by private corporations, Socialism?
One example...there are many to choose from...okay I'll give you one example...
1. Redistribution of Wealth - We are seeing this in politics all the time, especially now.
The health care bill is an example! Sen. Max Barcus said, "The last couple three years the mal-distribution of income in America is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy, and the middle income class is left behind. Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America." It's putting the burden on businesses and the wealthy to pay for the uninsured.
You can also see the president's public announcement on the war against Wall Street and big corporations. The push to increase taxes for the wealthy. The push to increase corporate income tax. The push to increase capital gains tax.
Aspiring for the niceties in life is not the same as aspiring to become a superpower.
Have you actually been in China? When you drive a few miles from the seat of the communist party and Chinese power, you run into the Chinese citizen still aspiring to emigrate to America, educating his kids to do well in GRE and TOEFL, to get school admission in North America etc., an agrarian society centering around the paddy fields and heavy labour.
I agree, but someone claimed they are content with some simple life eating fried rice and I submit that is naive.
Yes I've been to China, I'm part Chinese and I speak Chinese, I've traveled all over China. It cracks me up when people try to paint them with some different picture of wants, sure they have different things that are important but bottom line people are people and Chinese want to be upwardly mobile as much as anyone else in the world.
Drive a few miles further (like, 1,000 miles---it's a big country), and you'll run into Chinese who have never even heard of America.
This sounds like complete bull****. Just like driving into rural West Virginia, you might find people who couldn't find China on a map but they've heard of the word and will tell you it is a country in Asia.
And I have to mention something. Chinese are the only kind of people in whom I have "never" seen arrogance of any form.
Look at a communist party official who finds there is no place to park. He will arrogantly park on the street. Look at the local party officials in any xiao nong cun and tell me there is no arrogance in how they deal with others.
Look closer man, Chinese have arrogance too. Be connected to the party or have wealth, instant arrogance.
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That's not China.
