CHINESE HEGEMONY A GROWING PROBLEM

From the CSM:

Last year, China stymied US efforts to levy sanctions on Sudan, which supplies nearly 5 percent of China's oil and where the US says genocide has occurred in its Darfur region. And as Zimbabwe becomes more isolated from the West, China has sent crates of T-shirts for ruling-party supporters who will vote in Thursday's parliamentary elections. [...] China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign. [...] China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign. [...] Reporters Without Borders, a group dedicated to freedom of the press, based in Paris, had this to say about the jamming: "Thanks to support from China, which exports its repressive expertise, Robert Mugabe's government has yet again just proved itself to be one of the most active predators of press freedom."

There's not much we can do about China right now. China has us over a barrel: we need their cheap goods and their confidence in the dollar. So, they seem to have carte blanche to oppress their people even as they are becoming a greater and greater competitor of ours for natural resources all over the world. This in turn increases the price of commodities and this in turn increases inflationary pressures in the US, and puts increasing pressures on the FED to keep raising interest rates - which is very bad for the real estate leveraged consumer-driven US economy.

It is NOT in China's interest for the USA to go into a recession, so they are motivated to moderate their growth. BUT still, I think we must find a way to put more pressure on China - to be a better world citizen and to treat their own people better, too.

I think we must do more than vociferously oppose what they're doing in Zimbabwe and the Sudan. I think we must overtly pressure them to do more for us regarding North Korea. We should make them MUCH more responsible for that nuclear-armed Marxist basketcase, and make our treatment of them CONDITIONAL on how helpful they are to us and South Korea and Japan on this front.