Word: china
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...China's Triumph I enjoyed reading your cover story on "China's Moment" [Sept. 28]. It's easy to conclude that, in China, free-market principles have proved once again their superiority by looking at the speed and scale of the country's development once liberalizing reforms were made. It's also worth asking how much China's unique authoritarian politics contribute to its impressive and highly competitive economic efficiency. Could this growth model continue for the next 60 years? Timothy Yin, Shanghai...
...honest about this: China's long overdue development, whilst in many ways impressive, has primarily been underwritten by profit-driven Western corporations. Corporations have moved to manufacture in China en masse because of very cheap labour, minimal regulation and the ability to externalize other costs, namely the environmental impact. This has then indirectly improved China's lot. How has China otherwise added value or changed the world for the better in modern times? Innovations? Improvements to the human condition? Global benevolence? Becoming the world's temporary sweatshop and biggest copycat does not place one in the league of great nations...
...Than Shwe as the deluded head of a hermit regime is a mistake. The junta has shrewdly adapted to 20 years of breakneck growth in Asia, first drawing investment from Southeast Asian neighbors - until a new regional giant emerged. "In 1988, nobody in the Burmese military knew how quickly China would grow economically," says Seekins. "But as this was happening [the regime] took advantage of that situation to promote close ties to China." Burma joined ASEAN in 1997, gaining further allies against Western criticism and more trade opportunities (Thailand gets most of its natural gas from Burma), and is improving...
...naval taskforce off Burma's coast and later lumped the country with Iran and North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny." Whether real or perceived, Western hostility has prompted the junta to take two concrete actions: building one of Asia's largest standing armies, and seeking closer links with China and Russia, both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council...
...says Seekins. So will a fresh diplomatic onslaught work? The new U.S. approach on Burma is the product of a White House that stresses diplomacy over confrontation. "It's more a change in tactics than overall strategy," says Fink. Also driving the policy review are Washington's concerns over China's influence over Burma and Than Shwe's apparent nuclear ambitions. Seekins believes Washington risks overestimating the junta's willingness to open up. "The U.S. government may find itself in the same position as the Japanese government during the 1990s, when Tokyo believed it could get the [regime] to mend...