the opinionist

There is rarely a day that China is not mentioned by the mainstream media, online media portals or the blogosphere and for damn good reason! This century is rapidly transforming into the Chinese Century, the rise of globalization and the demise of slow sunset of the U.S.’s hyper-power status, at least economically, if not politically and perhaps even militarily?

In an effort to understand the true impact of this major geopolitical shift East, … I trawled an incredible array of data sources and I never thought I’d say it but hurrah for big government!. The sheer dept of information, reports, analysis and down-and-dirty data put into the public domain by the U.S. Government civil servants is staggering and ready to be plundered by any Jack or Jill pseudo-journalist / wannabe-writer like me!

When you think of China you must surely think of the political hot potato that is the U.S. national debt! Standing at $4.9 trillion at the end of 2006 – it dwarfs the combined debt of every other nation on the planet, yet – as if to emphasize the sheer size of the U.S. economy – at 65% of the U.S. GDP it is positions the U.S. as having only the 34th largest national debt as a proportion to its economy. Wow! Talk about the glass is half full!.

I’d be terribly cheeky when I say it (but statistically correct) when I say that China is to blame! Actually multiple U.S. administrations pushing globalization and open trade policies are to blame but we’re pretending we’re the hurt party in this particular article.

China has become the great industrial engine of the United States, and indeed the world and yet few folks bother to consider the other side of the coin! What does China import from the United States and is it bloody enormous also? The answer is no, but it could be and that is why we need to be concerned about those naughty Chinese spies!

In 1990 the Chinese market place was only the 18th largest market in the world for U.S. products and services, behind Switzerland! As of 2006 China’s appetite for U.S. exports has grown 1,049% and is the fourth largest export market behind Mexico, Canada and Japan.
In 2007 China will shoot past Japan to become the U.S.’s third largest export market – with over $60 billion in purchased goods and services from U.S. corporations and interests. (see exports.gov)

Now granted, Canada and Mexico’s consumption of U.S. exports dwarf a third place China but China’s demand for U.S. exports is growing exponentially and it is not impossible to see a Chinese market at number one in the foreseeable future! 1049% since 1990! Wow.

Posted on March 12th, 2007 under China, DSS, Espionage, FBI, MI5, Redberry, USCII, the Great Firewall •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback