Many people have seen news about what China is doing. There have been talks about Chinese products, Chinese services, Chinese purchases, Chinese political manoeuvring and so on. But what is the overall Chinese strategy? What it is that they are attempting to accomplish?
They are attempting to accomplish what every other rising power has ever attempted throughout the history of humanity: to control the world.
Yes, we know. This sounds megalomaniac and ridiculous but it is not. Just like any other culture and any other political system, the Chinese system is the "correct" one. Or at least they are convinced of it and this is enough. Are the Chinese going to invade everybody else? No, but not for lack of wanting. Are the Chinese going to subvert everybody else? No, again, not for lack of wanting. Are the Chinese going to attempt a softer approach of spheres of influence backed by economic and military power on their way to total domination? Absolutely.
The Chinese plan have several phases, many of which overlap considerably:
Phase 1 was to switch to directed capitalism (or communism light). This meant to open their borders a little in order to get investments and know-how and at the same time to "stimulate" the rapid industrialization of China. Through this process China accomplished the elevation of its standards of living while at the same time collecting vast amounts of "hard" currencies for the next phase. This was accomplished.
Phase 2 is to internationalize China. This means to go out there on a shopping spree and purchase raw materials and energetics along with all kinds of other assets such as industries, lands and buildings. They are in the process of so doing. Most of the time they are successful but sometimes they are not. Examples:
- Businessweek - US: "China Buys Foreign Companies at a Record Pace"
- Financial Post: "Why China's mood is souring on Canada's oil Patch"
- Global Times: "China will become the biggest buyer of Russian gas beyond European purchases"
- The Wall Street Journal: "Chinese Overseas Buying Increasingly Shifts to Private From State"
Phase 3 was to strengthen and build up the Chinese military. Its primary purpose is to stop other people from interfering with Chinese plans through the use of military threats (see The Great Chinese Threat). Examples of Chines weapons (copies or genuine developments deployed and for sale) include: Fighters, Attack Vessels, Submarines, Light Armament, Tanks, Cannons, Missiles and Ordinance (conventional and nuclear). And if this is not enough, would you like to purchase some Direct Energy weapons? Perhaps some space-bound devices still on the planning stage? Coming soon to a Chinese market near you.
Phase 4 is the extension of Chinese spheres of influence. They are doing so primarily through economic means at this time (see for example The Economic Side Of TEOTWAWKI and The USD Is Heading Into The Intensive Care Unit) and they don't really care where their influence lies as long as there is an influence.
Phase 5 is to make China the centre of the world (economically, militarily and politically) and hence to make the entire world dependent from China.
Phase 6 is unknown as probably still in the early planning stages. Total domination perhaps?
ANALYSIS
The Plan
It is a well-known fact that Chinese people think in terms of hundreds of years and not in terms of the next election cycle (just a few years) as everybody else in the world seem to do. The Chinese leadership had to come up with a plan that addressed several issues:
- The endemic economic disaster produced by decades of communism
- The third-rate capabilities of their military
- The internal Chinese differences (ethnic, cultural and economic)
- The Chinese isolation in the world
Until those issues were resolved, it would not be possible to spring for world domination.
The pieces of the puzzle
The key element in this plan is the first one. Without massive economic means nothing else is possible. Hence, the Chinese party decided that directed capitalism was the new philosophy to be adopted. The plan was simple; to exploit the only large advantage China had at that time: cheap labour. By somewhat opening the borders to foreign investment they allowed sorely needed capital to get in, in exchange for cheap labour. In time this produced two effects: companies made profits which increased the standards of living of their employees but at the same time there was a huge export boost since there was no internal Chinese market. At the same time China induced massive internal capital spending through the policies of their Central Bank, supported by massive printing. This created an avalanche of smaller genuinely Chinese companies who also had to go out and export. But this massive industrialization also created a side effect: labour became increasingly scarce. Which meant that salaries began to go up and with them the purchasing power of average people and with it their standards of living. This helped, in part, to defuse internal differences.
This export boost provided massive amounts of "hard" currency to China. Some of this newly acquired capital was used to further increase the standards of living of the Chinese population not yet affected by the industrialization boom hence defusing the internal Chinese differences. At the same time, this money allowed for the Chinese military to get up to world-standards in terms of equipment and training. Having its internal issues more or less settled (for now) and a sufficiently large and efficient military and mountains of hard currency, the Chinese began to break their isolation with the world. They did so first by going on a shopping spree and later on through broad economic agreements with other countries that were in the US or EU spheres of influence. In so doing, they were strengthening their economic success, creating economic dependency and undermining the US and EU power base of so-called "aligned" countries.
Here we are
And here we stand today. China is going on with further expanding its economic and financial influence backed by a strong military which is used as an effective deterrent. As with any human endeavour Chinese tactical and strategic moves are not always successful but we must always remember the massive economic power that China yields. They are catching-up to US and have overtaken every other country in the world long time ago. This is no small feat and there are no signs that this process will stop. They will, however, experience massive economic quakes and crisis due to the Monetarist (i.e. fiat money) philosophy they embraced. But this is not going to stop them. Are we doomed then?
The future
Is this the beginning of a new Chinese era of domination? Yes and no. Will China be the only superpower in this era? No. There will be many spheres of overlapping influences. US will be one of them, EU (to a lesser degree), Turkey, China, Brazil, India and Russia among others. Will China have a supremacy on them? No. Will this make China behave better than it would otherwise? Yes. Will we be happier? We don't know, you will have to ask your cat that one (yes, cats are the most intelligent race on earth).
But all this is academic and obvious. What is neither academic nor obvious is what happens afterwards. Where do we go from here. We already gave you several previews, for example a generic one in The Law of Political Systems Direction and a specific one in Shanghai Free Trade Area Be Careful What You Wish For.
Eventually, we know that countries will disappear (see When Countries Dissolve). However, the transition period from current "modern democracies" to Libertarian systems will be driven by the most powerful engine on earth: economics. And this tiny factor is the biggest blunder and miscalculation that all Chinese plans and phases have. They believe that they can contain the effects of capitalism. They believe that they can maintain control over progressively rich people. It is their delusion that nationalism or allegiance to a political system will win over everything else. They are clearly high on their current success. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there is stuffing it back. Once people (and we mean the majority of the population) taste higher standards of living, there is no going back. At some point in the future these standards of living will be massively limited by Chinese planning apparatchiks. This is already occurring today with super-rich Chinese people bribing their way to even more riches or exporting their profits from China into more liberal countries. People only do this as a last resort and when they have hit the bureaucratic wall. Eventually, this will happen to everybody in China. They will ask the following question:
If it is my money, why is that I can't purchase that?
And the answer will be:
Because we say so. According to the classic and false "Principle of Authority" (see State Terrorism)
At that point, they will begin to realize that the Chinese government is in their way and that the Chinese government needs them far more than they need the Chinese government. And they will begin to change into the only system that gives them what they want: Libertarianism.
This process is embedded in any and all capitalist systems. It is basic to any capitalist system because everything is based on greed and greed is a biological imperative. As such it cannot be turned off, dealt with, re-programmed or otherwise re-directed. As soon as there is a critical mass of Chinese people with sufficient wealth, their greed will do the rest.
And so the answer is that yes, we will live under some sort of Chinese domination or influence (at the least) but this will not be the end. We will evolve out of it, or more precisely, the Chinese people will evolve everybody out of it.
CONCLUSION
The Chinese master plan is ongoing and so far it has been wildly successful but this is not to say that they will succeed in their ultimate goal of world domination. They will fail because the very seeds of failure are at the core of their plans and this is a good thing. Evolution is always a good thing, because political evolution increases our safety, freedom and standards of living.
Unless you are a Chinese citizen who believes in the glorious leadership of the party who will create a shining future for all Chinese people. Fair enough. Just one thing. This same party bunch have been having master plans go nowhere since 1949. Now, they have taken other-people's-ideas (capitalism) and hijacked them for their own purposes. Beyond the fact that capitalism works, why do you think that their plans will succeed if so far they have failed miserably?
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
