James O'Neill
an interesting defence of the article but doesn't absolve the author from writing what is essentially a silly, shallow piece. We are culturally orientated to the Europe-US and no amount of huffing and puffing by Little will change that. Sure we don't know much about China, but then we collectively don't know much about any country outside Britain and the US, and we don't known much about them either.

China may be large but is there any particular reason we should start learning about them as opposed to, say, learning about Malaysia or Thailand? What about Belgium or Switzerland? Sure china's important but why should importance, as such, dictate our interest or focus? Why can't we go where we are interested? Modern communications and travel have put the whole world in our reach, if we chose to grab a part of it. But then why not learn about Sydney or Melbourne where most of us live? And what about that strange island off the south coast.. Tas something.. I'm told there are people there..

Reg, what are you doing? How dare you write an article that questions the imagined perfection of the West? How dare you point out that the West is being left behind by 'Asians' of all races!

The white men have looked down on colored people for centuries. How dare they rise up and beat us at our own game.

Unfortunately, one Australian in a hundred is capable of seeing the changes that are happening around us. The other 99 reckon 'She'll be right, Mate!' They think that following in America's footsteps will save us. How dumb can they be?

America is already a second-rate power which has lost the plot. It is run by psychopaths who think that endless war is the answer.

Eventually, China will sweep the U.S. under the carpet. The Chinese are much smarter than Westerners, not so full of hot air and Hollywood fantasies.

How long has China been around? Says something, doesn't it!

But why must it be China or the USA?

If both are wrong and corrupt, then we should have none to do with either.

Perhaps indeed China IS becoming the world's dominant economic power, but does it justify this cowardly article that suggests that we should sell our values for a lentil stew*?

Are we going to support the occupation of Tibet, the threat on Taiwan and the vast violations of the individual freedoms of the Chinese people? Are we going to admire the culture which does all that?

We must not allow ourselves to be guided in life by economic considerations. Let us do what is good and just, then let economics fall where they may. We already have a good country with sufficient food, water, minerals and energy, so we should prepare to go it alone.

* [Genesis 25, 29-34]

The last time I took a realist view of China, it was based on a book by James Clavell (sic).

China has a new (long-term) political face.

China is determined to build its internal economy, one that will be predominantly external of international influence, i.e. a consumer society that does not need to feed off the recent BRIC and other national mining economies of the world.

The US, most of Europe, Australia and its broader markets are technically bankrupt, China has long seen this coming, and Chinese growth will not come from Globalisation.

China is now completely focussed on building an internal consumer based economy. If the US and Europe and the broader 'first-world' won't buy their good, their growing internal markets will be forced to.

Australia has missed the boat completely, we are now on the down-side of a mining boom that our current government has squandered, incompetence at the greatest level, as was forecast by so many of us years ago.

We have not yet realised that we are in a deflationary spiral that is out of our control and any rational human being should have realised the good old days of 'growth' are over.

It's just such a pity our politicians, economists and the MSM have failed to realise the world has changed and we are, like the US and Europe, heading toward third world status, no matter the policies or programs we put in place.

As the old adage goes, you can solve a problem, you can't solve a predicament. Unfortunately we have a predicament and out so-called leaders have completely failed to realise this reality.

Cheers

Geoff

My apologies to James O'Neill, the 400 million is a projection for 2030. Still time for Beijing to set up a decent social security system if it stops spending billions on a military to bully its neighbours.

You seem rather confused, Grahame.

China is spending money on its military because it is being contained and bullied by the U.S., the world's largest imperial nation.

Again, it's a question of balance which seems to evade you!