Friday, September 24, 2010

China vs Japan - A war only in commerce

I have been following the issues between Japan and China and I have found the Chinese approach to be very interesting. China wanted its fishing boat captain back from an incident in disputed waters. They did not threaten war. They stated their position. When Japan did not yeild the captain from the incident in the disputed waters, China thought through their position and decided to prohibit the exportation of crucial minerals to Japan for key industries. When there was still no response, China arrested 4 Japanese citizens for spying on their military facilities (when the Japanese claim they were legally there to work on the disposal of WW2 weapons). Japan has now released the Chinese captain.

I am obviously not privy to anything but news accounts of the goings on from half a world away and yet I am kind of thrilled at what I did not hear. There was no posturing about war. There was no world wide disruption. There was only a series of chess moves designed to accomplish and end goal. The only country that I am more proud of is my own for its stance of surrendering the Arctic territorial dispute with Russia to the UN to adjudicate.

China is certainly a country to watch. Where American businesses have always gone abroad and established businesses where they paid workers far less than the American workers were paid, China goes abroad and pays the workers in foreign countries what they would pay at home. In Africa where they have been very successful in moving in when the Americans fled, they come in, get the mines and industries moving without dictating anything about governmental forms and they pay the local workers what they pay at home. In addition, they train the locals and leave them in charge taking their workers back home.

I would never wish to be an advocate for a country when I have so little access to first hand information but I have to say that China's approach to many things in their economic climb is impressive and often balanced. If I have this impression from this side of the world when I probably have to wade through progaganda against China, I am hopeful that China may be a country that will lead the world well in the coming era.

No comments:

Post a Comment