Thursday, July 2, 2009

Chimerican Relations

David Brooks reports on a debate over the relationship between China and America. Niall Ferguson takes a hawkish view about the ambitions of a power-hungry China. James Fallows argues that China's interests are oriented towards internal stability and integration with the global economy -- not world domination.

I agree strongly with Fallows, and the psychology argument that Brooks highlights is the key. China doesn't want to rule the world. It does want respect and security... and it wants to be very, very successful. But given those things, Chinese psychology doesn't call for it to dominate other nations the way German or Japanese psychology did in the 20th century.

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