That's what a Chinese "recession" looks like. The rest of the world looks on in envy...
Events of the past few days have showed just how much China is enjoying its new status as world economic powerhouse.
I was watching an interview the other day with a guy known as the BBC’s China Editor. I’m not sure what that job involves, but either way, he seemed to know what he was talking about. He told the interviewer that the Chinese have an extraordinarily long memory regarding the British, and our legendary imperalism in the Far East.
One of the things they enjoy sticking to us the most is the ancient Opium Wars from the late 19th Century. That’s quite a grudge, one has to say, but it’s a free world.
And memories of the British continually smuggling opium into China in spite of it being illegal there are what lingered in the mind, according to this guy, when the Chinese decided to execute Akmal Shaikh for a similar crime.
To me, it just goes to show the futility of awarding the Olympic Games to China. Their human rights record was and continues to be a disgrace. Why should they have been awarded the Games in the hope that it would give them the impetus to sign up to our version of human rights? That’s a mad equation.
And yes, I appreciate I probably sit here in Chinese-made clothes, typing on a computer made of Chinese components, but that is the hypocrisy of Western existence, alas.
Either way, I get a sense that they really enjoyed our predicament. Fancy the old Imperial enemy coming to you and begging you to show leniency. Over a matter of life and death, which inexorably will end with you showing your brutal strength and killing them anyway. And, even better, you get to sit atop the high horse and enjoy a feeling of superiority.
It shows two things: the weakness of Britain on our own against the Chinese (yet another argument for being part of the EU) and the fact that we are now totally dependent on the power of China.
It’s going to lead to a very different world in the future, but the effects can already be seen now. The global economy is entirely centred on the ability of China to produce goods extremely cheaply. The American economy is utterly dependent on it.
The key problem above all else, though, is that it’s not in Britain’s interests to pursue this any further. There have been the usual diplomatic manoeuvres, summoning the Chinese ambassador, etc… but will we really hear any more about it after today?
Of course not. Realpolitik is the name of the game on the international stage. There is too much at stake to jeopardise our relationship with China.
Perhaps the days of appeasement are on the way back…
The Futility Monster 