{"id":17576,"date":"2012-02-21T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=17576"},"modified":"2012-02-21T11:52:10","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T11:52:10","slug":"ten-questions-for-coming-leaders-china-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/02\/ten-questions-for-coming-leaders-china-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Questions for Coming Leaders China-USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Kyoto, Japan<\/em><\/p>\n

Japanese media make it look as if China attacked Japan in the 1930s-1940s, massacred a major city, with a concentration camp beating Auschwitz in cruelty.\u00a0 And, Japan fears a repetition.\u00a0 Well, Japan fears something, probably what Western aggressors fear too: Of course<\/em>, we never did anything wrong, but one day they may come and treat us the way we treated them.<\/p>\n

In 2012 the power will\/may change in both superpowers, and we have a right to know how the power-wielders look at some basic issues. David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, put “Ten Questions for China’s heir presumptive (International Herald Tribune<\/em> 11-12 Feb 2012), ahead of the coming president Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.\u00a0 Nothing wrong in doing that, the questions are all relevant, designed to find out whether Xi “embraces and shapes positive changes for China at home and abroad or is he another risk-adverse apparatchik”.\u00a0 Let us design similar questions to US presidential candidates about US problems.\u00a0 A little economic background: in 1980 China was the world No. 11 in GDP, in 1986 No. 8, in 2002 No. 6, in 2010 No. 2.\u00a0 In 2012?<\/p>\n

Question No. 1: Will Xi<\/em> return to a politically reformist path for the Chinese Communist Party?\u00a0 Can Xi<\/em> stand up to the state security apparatus, the military, the party propaganda system and large state-owned enterprises-or be beholden to them?\u00a0 Can Obama-Romney<\/em> stand up to their agencies and military, to US mainstream media propaganda and to corporate enterprises, like those running the US Federal Reserve bank?\u00a0 To Goldman-Sachs?<\/p>\n

No. 2: Can Xi<\/em> turn the rhetoric of economic ‘rebalancing’ into reality?\u00a0 Away from exports from coastal areas to domestic consumption and to the interior? (Many will say this is not only rhetoric, though).\u00a0 Will Obama-Romney<\/em> turn the rhetoric of job-creation into reality, or be beholden to the finance economy?<\/p>\n

No. 3: Will Xi<\/em> be able to devise a more humane policy toward Tibet and Xinjiang?\u00a0 Will Obama-Romney<\/em> devise a humane policy toward Hawaiians yearning for sovereignty in their lands annexed in 1898, and toward the First Nations yearning for dignity in lands conquered from 1607 in Virginia and 1620 in Massachusetts?<\/p>\n

No. 4: Can Xi<\/em> and the party apparatus reign in the nationalism that is pushing the government to take extreme positions on territorial disputes with China’s neighbors, to “stand up” to the United States and behave aggressively internationally?\u00a0 True, China’s views clashes with neighbors’ over some islands\/islets, but major issues with Russia have been settled, as opposed to the rather major USA-Mexico issue over the 1846-48 war; they are probably not even conscious of it.\u00a0 Will Obama-Romney<\/em> reign in the planned deployment of much of the 300-ship strong US Navy to the Pacific to “stand up” to China, or will they prefer to invite a similar Chinese deployment off the US West Coast for balance?\u00a0 And, will they stop aggressive behavior internationally, not only major wars with invasion and occupation, but also drones and special ops in many countries, unknown even to their own governments, with extra-judicial killings?<\/p>\n

No. 5: Will Xi<\/em> be sufficiently confident to call the relaxation of tightened control of mainstream media, social media, the Internet, and educational institutions?<\/p>\n

Will Obama-Romney<\/em> be sufficiently confident to prohibit three major arms industry corporations to exercise control of the three major mainstream TV channels, CNN-ABC-NBC?\u00a0 Forbid CIA-FBI and credit card companies from spying-controlling social media?\u00a0 To withdraw FBI agents deployed to US university campuses?<\/p>\n

No. 6: Can Xi<\/em> reign in the military, which has demonstrated a worrisome tendency in recent years to undertake actions that provoke China’s neighbors–independently of civilian control?\u00a0 Can Obama-Romney <\/em>stop the US military, not from provoking, but from killing millions all over the world, overtly under the Pentagon and covertly under the CIA and other agencies?\u00a0 Partly independently of any civilian control under the War Powers Act, partly with Congress support–except for one honorable lady representative?<\/p>\n

No. 7: Will Xi<\/em> authorize a foreign policy that is more substance than rhetoric?\u00a0 Will Obama-Romney<\/em> authorize a foreign policy that is more rhetoric than substance?\u00a0 The world has had enough US foreign policy substance; rhetoric does not kill.<\/p>\n

No. 8: How will Xi<\/em> handle the growing discontent across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America over China’s rapacious and mercantilist energy, aid and trade policies?\u00a0 How will Obama-Romney<\/em> handle it?\u00a0 If not, they will suffer the consequences.<\/p>\n

No. 9:\u00a0 Will Xi<\/em> take a more active, supportive, less obstructionist role in global governance?\u00a0 Will Obama-Romney<\/em> stop crippling the UN, using the Security Council for US purposes, being sensitive to needs and voices from other regions?<\/p>\n

No. 10:\u00a0 Will Xi<\/em> have the strategic foresight to invest in the advancement of the relationship with the United States?\u00a0 Whereas China learns much from the US, will Obama-Romney h<\/em>ave the strategic foresight to learn how to lift the bottom up, economic distribution, and green technology from China, thereby advancing the relation?<\/p>\n

Questions should not be asked of Chinese leaders without having similar questions answered about the USA first, and vice versa. China has as a principle not to confront the USA, and has attacked neither Japan nor the US; the latter are the ones that attacked China. Hence, a little et tu Brute<\/em>, watch yourself, may be useful in identifying key world problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, Japan fears something, probably what Western aggressors fear too: Of course, we never did anything wrong, but one day they may come and treat us the way we treated them. China has as a principle not to confront the USA, and has attacked neither Japan nor the US; the latter are the ones that attacked China. Hence, a little et tu Brute, watch yourself, may be useful in identifying key world problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}