NYT: China Economy Rising at Pace to Rival U.S.

[DeepModem Mom]

China Economy Rising at Pace to Rival U.S.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 28, 2005


GUANGZHOU, China, June 26 - A line of Chinese-made cars began rolling onto a ship here Friday, bound for Europe. The cars, made at a gleaming new Honda factory on the outskirts of this sprawling city near Hong Kong, signal the latest move by China to follow Japan and South Korea in building itself into a global competitor in one of the cornerstones of the industrial economy.

China's debut as an auto exporter, small as it may be for now, foretells a broader challenge to a half-century of American economic and political ascendance. The nation's manufacturing companies are building wealth at a remarkable rate, using some of that money to buy assets abroad. And China has been scouring the world to acquire energy resources, with the bid to buy an American oil company only the latest overture.

Indeed, fierce domestic competition and a faster accumulation of financial assets are laying the groundwork for the arc of China's rise to be far greater than Japan's.

"It's going to be like the Arabs in the 70's and the Japanese in the 80's - we were worried they'd buy everything," said William Belchere, the chief Asia economist for Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong. But unlike those previous challenges, which soon faded, "longer term," he added, China will "be a much bigger force."

China's economy has risen rapidly with foreign expertise and investment....The resulting bilateral corporate tango - in contrast to the confrontations reminiscent of the 1980's and early 1990's when Japanese capital poured into the United States - means that China has many American corporate comrades, who have a stake in helping generate its growth....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28yuan.html?hp&ex=1119931200&en=96ab167aad203034&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[caledesi]

1. According to Randi Rhodes (AAR), China is the new superpower..

read 'em and weep.

edit: usual stuff

[burrowowl]

2. China, Japan

and the UK almost own us!

See debt!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. I seem to recall that our Cold Warriors made the same sort of claims...

...about the Soviet Union to get Congress to cough more funds for the Defense Budget.

Hmmmm.

[Wright Patman]

5. I don't think we can

increase military spending much above half a trillion a year, which is where it is now.

China has 'asymmetrically' kicked our asses into theThird World.

Sure we could start a war withem, I suppose, but half the U.S. corporate chieftains would immediately switch sides.

They have never had a labor force quite this 'accommodating' in the U.S. Plus, they have overall higher IQs.

[teryang]

4. So called American growth is fueled by debt

...It isn't growth at all because only a tiny percentage of the capital borrowed is spent on business investment and the country has virtually no savings rate. The natural result will be a severe economic downturn at some point, when people wake up and the retrenchment begins.

The only thing that prevents a severe recession or "hard landing" at this point is the phony notion that we have healthy economic growth. We don't. The lion's share of the capital expenditure is in the housing area and depends upon the greater fool theory. It is a bubble which dwarfs the stock market bubble of 2000.