The Chinese hold our debt and buy our real estate and in return we buy their manufactured goods. Perhaps we could bring some Chinese wisdom and savvy over too, just to balance the beam.
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There's a lot of talk about China lately, but where in the recent past the subtopic might have been human rights, the Beijing Olympics, the high performance of Chinese students or the potential military threat of a strengthening nation, the East/West balance sheet seems to be the focus of the day. A recent two-part National Public Radio story explored the international risks of the recession, with the second part of the story focusing on the possibility of financial warfare.

In the case of Chinese/American financial relations this translates to the possibility of what the article terms a "Pearl Harbor" attack on the dollar. Never mind that Pearl Harbor was Japan not China, the idea is that China owns a trillion dollars of U.S. debt, including treasuries and securities, and could cause the dollar to "tank" by selling those holdings. The article goes on to speculate that this could part of a strategy to conquer the United States, or simply make financial sense and be in China's economic interest. The piece makes the point that Chinese economists, many of them trained here to the highest standards, understand the delicate balance between the two countries better than anyone.

NPR followed this story with another one on the Chinese dimension of our government's stimulus package, namely wealthy Chinese coming to these shores in specially organized travel groups for the purpose of buying property, for cash, in the biggest "bottom-feeding" frenzy in years. Some buyers may be looking for office space for international concerns, others for future homes for the day their children attend US universities, or simply for a good investment.

While some folks react fearfully to the idea of foreign investment in American shores, others see it as a sign we are entering the international economy in a more realistic and egalitarian way and are happy to see the return to these shores of some of the money that has been flowing east for years.

What is most interesting about these pieces -- and numerous others like them in other media and publications -- is the increasingly respectful tone in which China is portrayed. Derogation and a generally eastward-leaning sneer have given way to a frank portrayal of the ingenuity and capability of the Chinese people. Seeing the positive, of course, in no way precludes noting and criticizing poor and dangerous manufacturing processes, environmental catastrophe, or political repression.

Perhaps the shift is the final nail in the coffin of the "sick men of Asia" era, though, a period that began in the middle of the nineteenth century with a dynasty fearful of Western influence and foreign "contamination" and morphed into a sort of national inferiority complex during the ghastly excesses, horrors and travesties of the Mao Zedong regime. The fact is that while totalitarianism in China goes back thousands of years to its founding Qin dynasty and is unlikely to end anytime soon, other measures (art, science, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and more) show Chinese culture to be among mankind's finest achievements.

Unabashed Sinophile that I am (my kung fu noir novels reach deep into Chinese history, see them here) I can't help thinking that the ignominy of the last 150 years will, in the view of future historians, be little more than a blip in China's spectacular run. America's history may be short and intense -- a sort of New World bouillon cube -- but China's is long and intense. Indeed the length of our respective runs, part of the contrast between East and West is mirrored in our strategies and plans, and in our national behavior. The Chinese have endured periods in their history (floods, cataclysms, genocide, war, starvation) that make the Great Depression look like time spent smelling a wilting rose in a garden slightly dry and past its prime. The Chinese leadership has much to learn from ours regarding domestic rights, capitalism, entrepreneurship, the rule of law, (if not the strength of character) and freedoms and the importance of questioning authority; we, in turn, have much to learn from the Chinese people about patience, perseverance, and taking the long view. In terms of policy and strategy, they focus on the distant horizon while we look a few feet ahead of us and have come, especially with the economic successes of the last twenty years, to expect immediate gratification.

I hope our foreign policy makers and intelligence analysts are up to the task of analyzing Chinese strategy and moves. In the meantime it wouldn't hurt to learn more about the folks who hold all our dollars and who will soon be living in our high-end foreclosed homes. Studying Chinese history and philosophy might be time well spent, and Mandarin lessons for the kids -- already a popular practice in big city private schools -- might be a pretty good idea too. The Chinese hold our debt and buy our real estate and in return we buy their manufactured goods. Perhaps we could bring some ancient Chinese wisdom and savvy over too, just to balance the beam.

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