China will overtake US supremacy.

China will eventually overtake US supremacy.

Reading Chinese may be easier than reading US foreign policy toward China. Fred Stakelbeck Jr. makes some good points in his Washington Times op-ed June 2, 2006 titled “Inconsistent U.S. policy: Military, Space and Economic overtures are pro-China.”

He points out that the Bush Administration’s recent “pro-engagement” efforts in “military cooperation, space exploration and economic policy” to bring us closer to China is a complete reversal from “previous statements made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the past year concerning Beijing’s global intentions.” And, “The Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review recently described China as a potential military threat” after asking China to “explain the purpose of its accelerated military buildup.”

China is on the rise and we are…well…not doing so hot.

But Stakelbeck is clearly wrong when he says “Almost everything Beijing has done over the past two decades, from Westernizing its economy to modernizing and streamlining its military to updating its infrastructure, has been undertaken to challenge America’s world Authority.” China is just like every other nation including the US. It just wants to make progress.

The bad news is that we aren’t. China’s progress will eventually overtake our progress given its shear force of numbers. And a few other factors. Like:
1. US debt in every arena, DTFM
2. US commitment to an endless war on terrorism. DTFM
3. Our failure to invest quickly and wisely in energy independence from an increasingly troubled region of the world. DTFM
4. Our failure to make adequate investments in obvious things like;
a. Levies for hurricane protection.
b. Public health and health providers for pandemic prevention or improved response.
c. Science education to boost our nations numbers of techies coming out of our High Schools and Colleges to boost our R&D for defense, produce high tech trinkets to stimulate our economy or sophisticated technologies to effectively manage our government. DTFM

About the only advantage we have over China is an immigration policy that provides us with economic advantages like cheap hard workers, entrepreneurial spirit, and cultural and language assets that dramatically boost our nations economic, science and intelligence gathering capacity. But that policy appears to be in trouble now too.

What can our nation do?

Stakelbecks suggestion to “promote core Western values and fair market competition” will only accelerate China’s advances.

What is really called for is noble US leadership in establishing a fair global system of laws and standards while we now have the power to do so. “Preserving America’s national security interests” without doing the same for other nations and people’s security interests is a path to oblivion. Virtually unrestricted global commerce of technology, goods and services ensures that US power will slowly wane as other nations might rapidly progress. China and India will likely be two of those nations. We must act now…before it’s too late. Do the freakin math.