The Rise Of China. The Decline Of The West

Paramilitary policemen stand guard in front of the late
Chairman Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

China's Rise Erodes Western Bargaining Power: Observers -- AFP

BEIJING — Surging economic and diplomatic clout has given China the confidence to ignore old world powers like Britain, which failed to halt its first execution of a European since the 1950s, experts say.

In recent weeks, Beijing has jailed a prominent dissident for 11 years for subversion despite a Western outcry, taken a firm line that led to a tepid global climate change pact and refused to budge on the value of the yuan.

"We've entered a new phase, a phase in which there is less leverage for foreign governments to exert on China in the area of human rights," Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based manager of rights group Dui Hua, told AFP.

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My Comment: And I have been lucky to see it all. When I first visited China in 1988, I lived in Fujian province (it is the province across from Taiwan) for the summer. Repeated trips .... back and forth .... I have been a witness who has seen China change to what it is today. A country and people that believe all is possible .... with a determination and desire unmatched by anyone else in the world today .... the U.S. included.

But China is still dependent on the West. For markets, technology, information, raw resources .... everything and anything that a modern society needs and wants. There will be differences .... human rights being the main one .... but our commonality of interests supersedes our differences, and it is in this environment that China and the West will probably function for the rest of this century.

And that is a good thing.