China's Emergence as a World Power Moves in China's Inscrutability

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Nov 23, 2009 at 18:48

Of all the current international relationships held by the United States with powers of a different sort, the one held with China has the portent of being among the most elusive, going in concert with the ages old adage of the 'inscrutability' of the Chinese person/people. Even as there were attempts in the historical record of 'missionizing', going way back to the earliest attempts of the first Europeans to the more recent in the pre-Maoist empire, the west was never fully able to dig deep enough into the oriental mindset to get an appreciable hold on what made a person of Chinese extraction function, unless that Chinese person was able to come part way to understand the Western (occidental) mindset. Much advancement of trying to gain that understanding was lost when China was absorbed into the realm of the Marxist thinking that undergirds that nation today.

There may also be something in the Chinese intellect that embraced the communist way of life that was not fully understood by the Western approach to communism, and therein lies a mystery that can be seen in China's ability to function as a socialist entity while engaging in business with a capitalist West. What the former Soviet Union thought it could achieve in advancing its Marxist agenda is in practice in China today. The Chinese government was able to introduce itself in the capitalist realm after the lessons learned that the Maoist sensibilities would not work, and necessity of reinvention was the order of the realm if it was to assume the strong position that it has with nations in commerce today. Further, America's brushes with Chinese 'inscrutability' has been a series of lessons learned as to incomplete diplomacy with little to truly show for it, going all the way back to the current impasse regarding the Koreas. Being able to speak Chinese without being Chinese did not help then, nor does it appear to be any better now.

The inference of being involved with China as a mistress is characterized by the relationship as being reduced to a fiduciary one, as one might have with another without there being the intimacy. In this we see that as long as the money flows, the relationship continues until there is the loss of funding. Then the dynamics change, and the power has transferred. This is the lesson that seems to be lost on the political power struggle the United States American Administration seems to be engaged in. The idea that the United States can be bled dry monetarily by convincing the American Administration to adopt socialist monetary policies and taking bond paper to keep that action going is one the Soviets never thought of, but the Chinese have. And there is nothing but an imaginary line between the Chinese and their national cousins North Korea as to the differences there when ramping up the military challenges.

So, no, being involved in a 'post-New World Order' is not one relished by this reader either, but only in the understanding of the true events that China will eventually find itself involved in as it allows itself to become enticed in the events of the Middle East (its relationship with Iran practically guarantees that) will bring all things into sharp perspective, and they find out that like everyone else that tried to meddle there, even as 'inscrutable as the Chinese are/were, even they could not figure out how Israel will survive the pressure of the entire world in its search for peace at Israel's expense and Israel still comes out on top.

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