Posted 10:08 AM by Gene

Jim MURROW!!!!! Fallows says China is not an economic superpower:

Almost no one in the United States is a peasant farmer. Most people in China are. Nearly everyone in America has indoor plumbing. Most people in China don't. Japan has one-tenth as many people as China, yet its economy is larger -- the second largest in the world. America's is of course largest of all, three times larger than Japan's and about four times larger than China's. Name 20 large American corporations that do business worldwide. Without trying, you can probably name 50. Try to name even 10 from China. Name the most recent winner of a Nobel prize in science from a Chinese university or research institution. (Hint: this is a trick question.)

All right, Jim, we concede your main point: People show ignorance in saying China's the world's leading economic power. But riddle me this: How does a country with so many people without indoor plumbing manage a stranglehold on our economy? How is so much of what we buy from clothes to electronics made there? How can China afford all those fancy-dancy-we've-won-an-award buildings like CCTV Center and the Bird's Nest? How does China manage to have us over a barrel by owning so much of our debt? Yes, I probably can't name two Chinese companies, but one is Haier, which came close to buying GE BANCORP's white-goods business, and there will be more.

There is no reason an economic superpower cant have gross inequalities. We already know there is no reason a totalitarian state can't be an economic superpower. And there is no evidence China is standing still in seeking world domination.

(Entered as draft on 12/10; posted 12/17 after reading this)