The Rising Dragon

Fire of Liberty

While people in the media are carrying on about the possible dangers that President Bush has sparked within Russia with his promotion of freedom in the Baltic states and in the former Soviet republics, few have overlooked a more dangerous problem which is China. According to this column in The Christian Science Monitor by John Hughes, the Asian dragon is becoming a major player in the region with its growing economy and military. When your economy is steadily chugging along at such a large pace and you have a 12.6 percent increase in your defense budget, you generally attract the eyes of your neighbors as well as the US. While we are a long way from a confrontation (hopefully we never will) with China, Hughes believes we still have a great interest in this emerging giant. Just read a few paragraphs from Hughes great piece on what the US should do in order to deal with China:

In recent days, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan have felt the verbal wrath of this new and self-confident China. India, no slouch itself in economic growth, is watching anxiously a Chinese economy that has come to dominate low-cost manufacturing and has made extraordinary inroads into the US market.

While the US is not, geographically, an Asian power, it has long been, and should remain, a key player in that region. It should be cautious about helping China's military buildup (European Union please note). It should press for human rights improvement in China, while engaging China as an ally in efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear-weapons development. It should spur America's competitive capacity with better education, particularly graduating more homegrown engineers and scientists. A friend tells me that when his daughter graduated from Columbia recently she was the only American in her group of 20 PhDs.

It is wise to keep an eye on the Russian bear, but as important to be vigilant with the Chinese dragon.

I can assure you that the Pentagon has reams of data on China and are constantly updating their strategic strategy in case of a showdown.