Comments on: Kissinger: Containment Won’t Work for China

By: sai

sai — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 23:37:42 +0000

Well , first of all china is not a threat in today's world. Look all around in the world in every region there is only us/europe involved in every one of them. How can you can call china antagonistic when the so called average person's country is in every conflict in the world. Now, as china's clout grows economically and militarily, is she going to flex her muscles in the future? well which superpower wouldn't. Why will you blame china alone when america and every other super power before did. well, in the future IF india becomes a superpower i expect her to do the same. why does west have the right in this world that the east doesn't seem to have. Why isit bad if anyone from anywhere other than the west becomes powerful. Afterall, the east has a much longer heritage and prudence than the west. I am not sure but Mr.Kissinger's comments (when he was National Security Advisor )during the Indo / Pak war of 1971 was just declassified and in that he used profanities against india and openly supported a dictatorship in pakistan and urged china to threaten india by moving its military forces against india. China with all its superior prudence decided against it. Now we are questioning china on why they are building their military ? Try to see our actions from an outsider's perspective and guess what the next superpower will do ?

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:56:08 +0000

The CCPâs political ideology is inimical to what its own economic reality is.

You know that, and I know that -- and we both have our ideas how that would best be reconciled, which despite our political differences have much more in common with each other than with what the CCP's ideas probably are.

As for antagonism, China is by no means innocent for its own part on that score.

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:26:13 +0000

McGehee,

The CCP's political ideology is inimical to what its own economic reality is. I'm not saying don't focus on China. We must of course plan for any eventuality, but my point is that there are people pushing for an active US policy of antagonism towards China that is what Kissinger is inferring in his piece.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:10:17 +0000

I'd be more worried if we didn't have people apparently "hyping" the potential threat posed to this nation by a country that outnumbers us by a billion people and has, at least nominally, a political ideology inimical to what our nation stands for. Add to that the cultural barriers freedebate mentions, and it would be suicidal not to have somebody focusing on China.

By: Freedebate

Freedebate — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:01:58 +0000

DC Loser:

"Hyping" the China threat? China's methods and intentions can be debated but to ignore a 1.3 billion person country that is steadily growing in both economic and military clout seems more in the area of wishful thinking. As Kissinger indicates, the Chinese are rational but that does not mean that they weigh or perceive things the same as the average person who has lived in the US or Europe most of their lives. I worked in China for many years and maintain many contacts (both Chinese and foreigner) who are still resident in the country and it is quite obvious that trying to predict the actions of China is very difficult for a variety of reasons (educational nationalism, perceived place in the world - the Middle Kingdom concept, fairly authoritarian government, disjointed control between the national and provincial governments, etc.). As an example, the standard printed map in China has their national boundary running along the coast of Vietnam to just above Borneo and the west of the Philippines - most of the South China Sea is definitely stated as within their national boundary (no debate) - I believe they are currently in boundary disputes with every neighboring country. In many cases, one would be wrong in thinking what I would do in a specific case and transposing that on the Chinese leadership or many of their citizens. Given this situation, it is better to proceed with our eyes open and prepare for a worst case scenario while hoping for the best.

By: Swanky Conservative » Blog Archive » Kissinger on China

Swanky Conservative » Blog Archive » Kissinger on China — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:35:34 +0000

[...] « Happy Flag Day Kissinger on China James Joyner has a post up about Henry Kissingers views on China’s growing presence on the [...]

By: LJD

LJD — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:33:01 +0000

There is no security threat in the world. The U.S. is just hell-bent on expanding the Empire and plundering the world's resources. It's all part of the Neo-Con master plan....
Poor Communists, they just want to live in peace. Why do we have to bother them with threats and labels, we all know who the REAL opressors are!

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:04:09 +0000

There's certainly an influential element withint the US government, and the policy circle that are hyping the China threat. What is their motivation? Are they looking to use the Taiwan and trade issues to do something with China? Just look at that big ad on the left for Bill Gertz's book. Now there's a man with a fixation on China, since most of his career's been built on leaks about the Chinese threat and hyping it up for what purpose I'm not sure.

By: Jon Henke

Jon Henke — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:52:02 +0000

I blogged about that Kissinger article a couple days ago, noting that "China is building economic hegemony, not a military empire". Our task is to support their trend towards global economic competitiveness -- which, hopefully, will lead them to social and economic liberalization -- while dissuading them from more isolationist/mercantilist economic policies. And we have to do that without being antagonistic. It's a tough nut to crack.