Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Latin leaders recognize China as a market economy and lavished praise on Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The U.S. foreign policy establishment is increasingly adopting a ‘Strong China’ paradigm. It will do well to remember that China is simultaneously weak – internal fissures like inequality, lack of social institutions for redress, social unrest, corruption and environmental destruction could create havoc in the country and the world.
Fifteen years ago, it would have been impossible to identify a uniquely East Asian identity. But new generations and more interdependence seems to be developing a common culture and greater cooperation. This may finally halt long-held animosities.
Sensitivities and suspicions between Washington and Beijing have heightened as China’s global power and influence have grown. Arguably, this new international order could increase the chances of a political-military crisis—or perhaps outright conflict—between the two powers.
Even as the oil giants show off their green stripes, they have quietly pursued a strategy that works against the environmental tide: buying up rights to explore Arctic and sub-Arctic lands soon-to-be exposed as global warming melts the polar ice. Such territories likely hold vast new stocks of oil, gas, and minerals.