Opinion | China and the US are moving away from cooperation and towards more denunciations of capitalism and socialism
- Tom Plate says Beijing’s tighter control and scepticism of Western ideas – like capitalism – have sadly coincided with a new US anti-socialism which seems opposed to government itself
Two guys walk into a bar. It’s only 3pm and they’re glowering at each other. The bartender asks, “What’ll you have?” The Chinese guy says a Maotai, make it a double. The American says an Americano, light on the vermouth. “So early in the day?” quips the barman. The men respond that they’re furious. “With what?” he asks. The men point and jab at each other. “If you’re that angry”, he says, “why are you two drinking together?” Shrugging, they say, as one: “Because no one else wants to drink with us!”
It is more worrisome than ever when our political pachyderms are going through a neurotic development. As Free University of Berlin professor Klaus Muhlhahn puts it in his book Making China Modern: “All its attainment of wealth and power notwithstanding, China faces an increasingly uncertain future – and a future that all humanity will confront together”.
No country, whether in Latin America or East Asia, will be immune to collateral damage if China keels over from debt overweight or, alternatively, skips happily into the future without a care for anyone else.
