Should the international community fear the rise of China?

war, resources, communist attack? what does the west have to fear? maybe it doesnt?

Should the international community fear the rise of China?
China is not interested in war or trying to convert the world to communism. In actual fact China hasn't practiced true communism in years. With the "open door policy" China is now concentrating on it's economy. It also has class differentiation which true communism shuns. The old Chinese cadres are dying off like flies and the new generation understand the benefits of a rich and well educated society. Yes, it has many human rights issues and it controls it's country with an iron fist, but it's by far better then other communist countries like North Korea and Cuba. Communism is dying out fast and these countries have no choice but to follow or lose out. As for being fearful of China, nah, it might have the largest army on earth but it lacks in American technology and in air and sea power, but give China a few more years (like 30) and it will without doubt be more powerful then America, then we'll answer this question again.





Regarding the subject of China polluting the world.


Perhaps you should read this.





E-Wasting Away in China


The highway of poisoned products that runs from China to the United States is not a one-way street. America ships China up to 80 percent of U.S. electronic waste—discarded computers, cell phones, TVs, etc. Last year alone, the United States exported enough e-waste to cover a football field and rise a mile into the sky.





So while the media ride their new lead-painted hobbyhorse—the danger of Chinese wares—spare a thought for Chinese workers dying to dispose of millions of tons of our toxic crap.





Most of the junk ends up in the small port city of Guiyu, a one-industry town four hours from Hong Kong that reeks of acid fumes and burning plastic. Its narrow streets are lined with 5,500 small-scale scavenger enterprises euphemistically called “recyclers.” They employ 80 percent of the town’s families—more than 30,000 people—who recover copper, gold and other valuable materials from 15 million tons of e-waste.





Unmasked and ungloved, Guiyu’s workers dip motherboards into acid baths, shred and grind plastic casings from monitors, and grill components over open coal fires. They expose themselves to brain-damaging, lung-burning, carcinogenic, birth-defect- inducing toxins such as lead, mercury, cadmium and bromated flame retardants (the subject of last month’s column), as well as to dioxin at levels up to 56 times World Health Organization standards. Some 82 percent of children under 6 around Guiyu have lead poisoning.





While workers reap $1 to $3 a day and an early death, the “recycling” industry—in both the United States and China—harvests substantial profits. U.S. exporters not only avoid the cost of environmentally sound disposal at home, but they also turn a buck from selling the waste abroad. After disassembly, one ton of computer scrap yields more gold than 17 tons of gold ore, and circuit boards can be 40 times richer in copper than copper ore. In Guiyu alone, workers extract 5 tons of gold, 1 ton of silver and an estimated $150 million a year.





Many U.S. exporters pose as recyclers rather than dumpers. But a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that “it is difficult to verify that exported used electronics are actually destined for reuse, or that they are ultimately managed responsibly once they leave U.S. shores.”





This dumping of toxic waste by developed countries onto developing ones is illegal under the Basel Convention, a 1992 international treaty that was ratified by every industrialized nation—except the United States.





Unhindered by international law and unmonitored by Washington, U.S. brokers simply label e-waste “recyclable” and ship it somewhere with lax environmental laws, corrupt officials and desperately poor workers. China has all three. And a packing case with a 100-dollar bill taped to it slips as easily as an eel through Guiyu’s ports.





E-waste fills a neat niche in the U.S.-China trade. America’s insatiable appetite for cheap Chinese goods has created a trade deficit that topped $233 billion last year. While e-waste does little to redress the financial disparity, it helps ensure that the container vessels carrying merchandise to Wal-Mart’s shelves do not return empty to China.





In the 19th century, England faced a similarly massive deficit with China until a different kind of junk—opium—allowed it to complete the lucrative England-India-China trade triangle.





Britain, after destroying India’s indigenous textile industry and impoverishing local weavers, flooded its colony with English textiles carried on English ships. The British East India Company fleet then traveled to China to buy tea, silk and other commodities to sate Europe’s appetites for “exotic” luxuries. But since there was little the Chinese wanted from either India or Europe, the ships traveled light and profitless on the India-China side of the triangle. That is, until England forced Indian peasants to grow opium and, in the process, precipitate mass starvation by diverting cultivable land.





The trade fleet then filled up with opium and pushed it to China through the port of Canton. Since opium was illegal in China, Britain started a war in 1839 to force Peking to accept the drug. By 1905, more than a quarter of China’s male population was addicted.





Now it is Americans who are addicted to Chinese junk. And our own government policies and corporations are the ones stoking the jones. Slick marketing and consumer fetishism push Americans to buy the latest, lightest, biggest, smallest, fastest, trendiest items. And even if you are not hooked on the latest gadgets, repairs or upgrades are impractical. The half billion computers we trashed in the last decade have to go somewhere, and shipping them to China and other poor nations is a win-win solution for Chinese and U.S. industry.





As for the populations of both countries, we can feast on the irony that the same ships that carry toxic toys and food ingredients to Americans return bearing deadly e-waste for the Chinese.
Reply:I agree with Steven





The danger is coming from the west, especially from those countries who claim "fighting terrorism"
Reply:The world should fear the US more than anything. China doesn't attack others like we do in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc, etc. China may take our money slowly and pollute the earth faster, (like the 1st mentioned), but that's in time. Communism... We shall laugh a siege to scorn. ;)
Reply:Absolutely!, they're utterly unconcerned about what they're doing to the environment, and for that matter their own people who are suffering disease and death because of it and the longer it continues the more the rest of the world will feel it, not to mention the resource depletion that also goes with that. Also everyone should be asking themselves what they're going to do with their massive military buildup, ( remember Tiannamen Square! ), because it seems all most people are concerned with is having a "counterbalance" to the US, well I say be careful what you wish for because you may, and in all likelyhood will, get it. They will almost certainly go after Taiwan and who knows where from there.
Reply:Nothing. The Chinese have money rolling into the country. They would be foolish to give it up.
Reply:Pollution, everything runs on coal there, if they start consumming as much as we do, we're doomed
Reply:Any fascist regime with a powerful military and nukes should be feared.
Reply:Yes the fear as a matter of fact started when the British promoted the consumption of opium in China in order to get rid of them, but as you may see, it didn't work, they only got more sperm looks like, because they multiply like the ants or roaches, or rats, and yes we should fear the cockroach infection over the planet we should call Truly Nolen ASAP!
Reply:In the entire recorded history of china they have done nothing but fight between themselves for control of their own country. If they get to the point (which they will) where they are a major financial and physical international force, what makes you think they'll want to fight with the rest of the world? It's not like it's in their nature or anything.
Reply:We have everything to fear, bit it is relatively few politicians who are aware.





Jim Inhofe R Oklahoma gets it but few others do, China is a very serious threat.
Reply:China is trying give themselves a new look since they have been doing well, they are still a enemy to the US who knows what is going to happend over that
Reply:YES, the sleeping giant could awaken any time now.
Reply:China's cool, for now.
Reply:this COMMUNIST country is Americas FAVORITE trading pardner ! Our government and Wal Mart shoved those trade deals down our throat . these trade deals need to be abolished and rewritten with a emphases on the environment , product safety ( lead in toys ) and a hole bunch of other stuff ! Until then lets buy AMERICAN THIS CHRISTMAS .. ...and YES we all should fear CHINA
Reply:Not as much as the mad dog Muslims and Islamic Fascists Hell-bent on destroying the world as we know it.





China is emerging as a true economic Behemoth and the days of The Little Red Book and Mao are O-V-E-R.





The West fuels their growth and the only "Holy War" they will wage will be for even bigger Market Shares!!!