The Obama Administration takes office on the promise of change and one of the most critical changes he can make is to reboot our relations with China based on mutual respect and shared interests. A strong and positive alliance with China is more important now than ever.
By treating China as an equal partner, the Obama Administration would not only recognize the reality of China’s position in the new world order but would gain an ally that could reduce America’s military expenditures, provide diplomatic cover in certain parts of the world essential to world stability and help rescue America’s foundering economy.
Pentagon and the military industrial complex love to position China as the next evil empire in order to justify annual defense budgets north of $500 billion. Not much of the allocation is for anti-terror activity. Most of the spending is for advanced weaponry development allegedly in anticipation of a rising China.
However, China is neither the belligerent state nor has the military might to compete with the U.S. China’s defense posture has been that of a porcupine rather than a pit bull.
They willingly revealed their nuclear weapon development to visiting American scientists. Their submarine surfaced in midst of the Kitty Hawk flotilla, just to show that they can. They shot down their own satellite to help Americans update their benchmark of the Chinese capability.
Their motivation seems nothing more than making sure that the U.S. will not miscalculate China’s ability for retaliation.
Unlike the former Soviet Union, China has not shown any inclination to compete for world dominance or join in an arms race. By seeing and understanding the real China, hundreds of billions can be saved by not having to spend it for advance military systems.
Ironically, if we were to spend those billions, we would have to borrow from China.
Read entire 5 part article on Asia Times.
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