Brain Fertilizer

An article I could have written, but didn't.

Yes, yes, it's Derb. Don't let that faze you, nary a mention of math puzzles or homosexuality to be found. I respect the man, and for reasons like this article.

I've expressed many of the ideas before that he brings up; naturally, I think he's pretty much 100% correct on his assumptions. He has more experience in China and in life than me, and the depth of his knowledge and understanding shows in some things I probably would not have picked up on without this article.

Anyone wishing to have an intelligent discussion about China should be reading what Derb has to say about it. No one is 100% correct on anything, but he's got good reasons for the things he says.

Another frequent question, one much easier to answer, is: What does China want? The ordinary people of China of course want what ordinary people everywhere want: peace and prosperity. If that were all we had to consider, though, history would present a much more pleasant spectacle. What does the Chinese leadership want?

That, as I said, is easy. What they want is regional hegemony. They want to be in East Asia — perhaps in all of Eurasia — what the U.S.A. has been in the Americas this past couple of hundred years. In their dreams, Russia will be their Canada: huge, underpopulated, cold, and not very consequential. India will be their Brazil.** Laos (say) will be their Guatemala (say). There are some holes in the analogy. The U.S.A. never had to contend with an offshore nation a tenth as populous yet ten times wealthier than itself, as China has to keep Japan in mind. Nor do the Indians look to be slipping quietly into their assigned role as providers of coffee, nuts, and salacious dances to the new superpower. Still, it is plain from their visible diplomatic strategy that the Chinese think they can pull it off.