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Q: Did the 'west' open up too much to China?
I remember, as a kid, China as this country that was closed off, paranoid, self-serving and self-interested... but sold a lot of cheap clothes (and occasionally other things). In general, the clothes were of ok quality - but you'd never buy your best stuff Chinese made. Then, slowly, other things came out of China - electronics for example.
But one thing that was always a sticking point was the politics, and one thing that always hampered greater connections with China was human rights abuses - imprisoning and torturing their own people, jailing or deporting journalists, unequal trade practices, the corruption.
But, the change came - but it appeared that the human rights abuses didn't, the transparency in government didn't, the trade laws still favour Chinese partners.
And now, we've made China the largest economy on earth - because of all the investment poured in, and all the cheap products pouring out... to such an extent, that most countries won't even say 'boo' to China when it does something bad. (well, ok, saying something is vastly different to actually doing something).
Did we open up our trade, and give too much power and freedom to China?
I know that China is happy with the deal - are we?
It was the buy-off - getting Chinese to forget about all the crap if , in return, they could become rich. Lots of documentaries available online that explain this.
It was the buy-off - getting Chinese to forget about all the crap if , in return, they could become rich. Lots of documentaries available online that explain this.
fair ponit but ok think about this then.
1955-1985 western world is more or less fully developed after two world wars and most of Europe was in debt or broken.
1985-2015 China is still nowhere near being developed despite access to better communications, technology and engineering than was available to the west of the world in the aforementioned period.
so China may have gained wealth but becoming rich is a bit of an overstatement. A lot of the western and northern regions are still peasant like.
Shining_brow:
"...becoming rich is a bit of an overstatement. "
Actually, it wasn't stated at all....!
aston.villa.f.c:
i do not care whether the notion was stated it for the record or not. It was implied and in the person's mind the idea was being then being stated / justified for readers to view by giving people advice they do not need about looking for un-named documentaries that may or may not back up the point in question.
I just read an article on the BBC about China and the USA. A huge amount of comments were along the lines that we (Britain) should distance ourselves from America and get closer to China. I find that unbelievably worrying. These people know nothing about China except what they read in the media, and the main media outlets are terrified to report anything negative about China as they don't want to get blocked here. I know this is a controversial point, but I really believe Chinese censorship does effect what western media reports. Being reliant on the U.S. does have it's drawbacks (particularly if the religious fanatics get in in 2016), but compared to the issues that being reliant on China would bring, I'd take the U.S. any day.
So to answer your question, yes, we have opened up to much to them, without fully understanding their true nature and mindset. In Britain we have agreed to let them build a nuclear power station!!!!! and are trying to get them to build our new train line as well. All done in the name of short term financial gain. It's going to end badly for us, but most of the world is still oblivious to what China really wants, and continues to hope that they are a good alternative to the U.S. This will not change until some international event happens that causes them to show their true colours.
