By Neenah Payne
China is all set to conquer the world points out:
“China’s rise has been so rapid yet gentle in tone that it’s easy to miss how fast Beijing has expanded its ability to project power. The mesmerising go-slow style of the pre-Xi years, summarised in the Chinese slogan “hide and bide”, has been replaced by what US analysts now see as an open power play.”
US presidents serve for four to eight years. Each succeeding president may have different domestic and foreign policies. During his first term, the president must spend time campaigning to get re-elected. Since 2008, America has had four presidents (Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden) — swinging each time from one party the other. For this reason, the American system doesn’t allow for much long-range planning domestically or internationally. For example, President Carter launched a solar-energy campaign. However, that initiative was dropped when he left office.
The exception to policy changes seems to be the 20-year “War on Terror” launched by Bush which Obama, Trump, and now Biden have continued. That policy is alienating the world and killing off/crippling many young Americans. War has taken money from much-needed infrastructure while China is forging ahead with several impressive domestic and international initiatives.
America used to lead the world in technology. Now, the US is increasingly looking second-rate, relying on foreign technology just to keep up. The video Fastest Train Being Built in America! – NYC to DC in 60 Minutes says the Northeast Maglev Project, the biggest public works project in the US, will use Japanese technology. The first leg from Washington to Baltimore is expected to be available in 2028 — 20 years after China’s rollout of a national network of high-speed bullet trains that it will show off to the world at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
China’s National Network Of High-Speed Bullet Trains
China’s President Xi Jinping was Vice President from 2008-2013 when he became President. Xi is considered the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong. Since the National People’s Congress removed term limits for the presidency in 2018, Xi may be President for the rest of his life. This means he can articulate a consistent vision and have the time to implement his domestic and foreign policies over many years — possibly decades.
At the beginning of the 21st century China had no high-speed railways. Under Xi, China has built a network of bullet trains and continues to expand it. Why China Is So Good at Building Railways says that in 2008, China began investing in its High-Speed Railroad network. By 2018, China had more high-speed trains than the rest of the world combined. A former trip of 44 hours over a distance equivalent to Washington, DC to Dallas takes about nine hours now. China is the poorest country in the world to have high-speed rail.
China’s new high-speed train will ‘float’ over tracks to hit 370 miles an hour says that’s more than 150 mph faster than the world’s fastest passenger trains now in regular intercity service which touch 217 mph on runs between Beijing and Shanghai. The driverless train went into service this year and is designed to float above the track using a technology known as magnetic levitation, or maglev. A trip by train could be even faster than traveling by air under certain circumstances.
The fastest passenger train in intercity service in the United States is Amtrak’s Acela Express which runs between Boston and Washington, D.C. It reaches a top speed of 150 mph — but only for 34 miles of the 450-mile route. Train tickets on the Acela Express from New York to Washington, DC, frequently go for more than $200. Train tickets for the bullet trains cost about $100.
China’s ‘bullet train’ network is the largest in the world — and it’s about to get even bigger. In 2018, China’s “bullet train” network was already the largest in the world at 15,500 miles compared to the second biggest high-speed rail network in Spain which is just 1,926 miles. It adds that by 2020, China plans to expand its high-speed rail network to around 18,600 miles, linking most of the nation’s big cities.
Over 2,800 pairs of bullet trains run daily connecting over 550 cities in China and cover 33 of the country’s 34 provinces.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/images/map/railway.jpg
The New Silk Road: Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
The New Silk Roads: The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order by Peter Frankopan says: “All roads used to lead to Rome. Today they lead to Beijing.”
China Railway Express: From Silk Road to Silk Railroad Two says that a thousand years ago, commodities could take a year to get from China to Europe over the old Silk Road. Marco Polo’s reports of China inspired Europeans to travel to China and eventually led to the trip by Christopher Columbus in pursuit of a westward path to the wealth of the Indies. There was also a Maritime Silk Road of ports in a vast network of international commerce that connected East and West.
This Silk Road spirit was one of peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefits. In his 1938 book, The Silk Road, Swedish Explorer Sven Hadin wrote,
“It can be said without exaggeration that this traffic artery through the whole of the old world is the longest, and from a cultural-historical standpoint, the most significant connecting link between peoples and continents that has ever existed on Earth.”
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World shows that understanding the old Silk Road provides a deeper understanding of China’s role in history – and how China is changing the world today.
One Belt One Road Documentary Episode One: Common Fate reports that President Xi said in his speech proposing the new Silk Road that the starting point of the old Silk Road was in Shaanxi, the province where he grew up. The old Silk Road was the center of trade, knowledge, and civilization. China introduced not only silk to Europe, but paper and printing, spices, and medicines. Constantinople (Istanbul), Venice, and other cities sprang up on the Silk Road and prospered.
When China was smelting iron, Europe lagged far behind. China’s capital city was the world’s largest, seven times bigger than Constantinople. By the 11th century, China had 11 cities with a population of 100,000 while the largest city in Europe had yet to reach 20,000. Chinese innovations like the magnetic compass were reaching the West via the Silk Road and were changing the world.
The Chinese Silk Road – Episode 1 – The Journey Begins suggests that Italian pasta came from China!
China: Time of Xi (Episode #3) All Aboard says that when China hosted the G20 meeting in 2016 for the first time, President Xi articulated a new mindset. It is a global vision based on collaboration in the recognition of a shared destiny. The rise of China is setting a new bar in many fields. China is leading the world in the recovery of deserts. China is the biggest contributor to the UN Peace Keeping Operations with 35,000 Chinese serving as UN Blue Helmets. China launched the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2015 to help empower other countries. It now has billion dollars from 100 countries and serves as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund which has caused so many problems.
When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order: Second Edition is by Dr. Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Modern International Relations, Tsinghua University and at the China Institute, Fudan University. Dr. Jacques is also a Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Fudan University, Shanghai, as well as the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. Dr. Jacques predicts that China’s economic power is likely to be much greater than any we have ever seen.
Dr. Jacques points out that the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) represents a globalization model built in the developing world rather that the Western model based in the developed world. He predicts that Eurasia will strongly turn toward China as a role model for development and culture – just as countries used to look to America. China is going to become much more important than it is now. The BRI is one of the most important ways of thinking worldwide since World War II. He says that it is making sure that the world sees China as a partner rather than as a threat because it is apparently promoting collaboration.
- Countries In China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- The American response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Louis-Vincent Gave is co-author of Clash of Empires: Currencies and Power in a Multipolar World and author of two other books. He founded Gavekal, a financial research company. In China Myths, Propaganda, Realities, Gave says China has experienced an economic miracle — the biggest in history. The Chinese were starving 30 years ago. China brought a billion people out of poverty.
China’s unprecedented economic transformation was produced by the state’s extremely large-scale investment in infrastructure. In a highly-deflationary world, China has been running the biggest trade surpluses in history. In a world with very little growth, China is sucking $600 billion dollars of growth from the rest of the world. China has the second biggest internet in the world – second only to the US.
In the early 1990s, China was graduating 300,000 university students each year. In 2016, China graduated seven million university students. That’s an improvement in human capital such as the world has never seen. The new Long March — Xi’s 15-year battle plan with the US says Xi has invoked the historic struggle to unite his party in its long-term battle with the U.S. Xi has adopted a ‘talk and strike’ strategy until China eventually wins in 2035.
What is America’s 15-year plan? What do we plan to accomplish by 2035 – and in 50 years? China is out thinking and out planning America now. We can compete only if we understand that and find a way to remedy that both domestically and internationally.
BRICS Nations
President Xi may be unique in history because his vision in not just for China – but for f the world. Xi’s plans extend around the globe in multiple ways.
China’s participation in the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) provides a countermeasure to Western dominance. With the rise of the BRIC nations, there is an increasing realization that the balance of power has changed in a way the West is not dealing with effectively.
China’s Multi-Faceted Investment Across Africa
China’s investment in the infrastructure of many of the 55 African nations is reviving that continent and winning friends for China. China is gaining access to the mineral resources it needs for industrialization while building roads, highways, schools, universities, hospitals, airports, wells, and manufacturing centers for Africa. The West has much to learn from China’s way of dealing with Africa.
The video China’s Footprint in Africa shows the deep investment China has been making in multiple sectors in a variety of African countries for several years.
The Heat: US Competes with China in Africa discusses the challenges the US faces in matching China’s successful investment strategy in Africa. The video explains that there was a time when the “Washington Consensus”, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank dictated the political economy in Africa. The US provides loans mainly to deal with Ebola and AIDS.
Now African countries are facing east and the US is playing catch-up to the massive investment China is making in Africa partnering with African nations. Africa is looking for win-win relationships. China has responded in ways that are transforming Africa and its relationship to China. The West has a lot to learn.
US Competes Poorly With China in Africa
Zambian economist Dr. Dambisa Moyo, author of How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – and the Stark Choices Ahead, explains in her TED Talk Is China the new idol for emerging economies? that for the first time, there is a challenge to the Western model of politics and economics. She warns that the West is now out of step with the aspirations of the developing world – a world being inspired now by China. Dr. Moyo presents a radical blueprint for change to galvanize growth and ensure the survival of democracy in the 21st century.
Dr. Moyo is also the author of:
- Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way For Africa
- Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World
- Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth-and How to Fix It
The charts below summarize the Western and Chinese models.
Dr. Moyo says the West has two choices: compete or cooperate. She says the West should invest in the developing world. The question is how to create prosperity for all. See TEDx Brussels 2010 – Dambisa Moyo – How the West was Lost for Dr. Moyo’s analysis of what has gone wrong in the US and Europe — and how to fix it.
Why Is Canada Training Chinese Troops?
Canada is apparently now part of China’s global network — posing an immediate threat on America’s northern border. China Launched World War III With COVID discusses China’s growing multifaceted threats to America now on our borders with Mexico and Canada.
C16 FIGHTER JET SHOT DOWN BY CHINESE TROOPS IN CANADA THE US BOMBS CHINESE DUMB NEAR MAINE reports a Chinese military incursion in Wisconsin from Canada in December. An F-16 fighter jet intercepted, but was shot down and the pilot is still missing. The next day, a bomb reportedly detonated a base in Maine where 50,000 Chinese troops had assembled after coming from Canada by boat.
Ezra Levant of Canada’s Rebel Media is the author of China Virus: How Justin Trudeau’s Pro Communist Ideology Is Putting Canadians In Danger. His articles and Trudeau invited Chinese troops to train at Canadian military bases shows that China has won over Canada!
It reports “Justin Trudeau invited China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to send its troops for cold weather training…The China Files show that Trudeau’s submissive approach to China is the official policy of his government.” Levant made the files available at The China Files.
While America’s economy was wrecked by its response to COVID, China’s economy bounced back.
China’s Vision of Victory
Jonathan Ward’s China’s Vision of Victory shows the Statue of Liberty drowning!
General David Petraeus says:
“The extraordinary rise of China is unprecedented in world history and the biggest geopolitical development of the first two decades of the 21st Century”.
Neenah Payne writes for Activist Post and Natural Blaze
Top image credit: GulfNews.com
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