I think the biggest beef with China is that they manipulate their currency unfairly, and they enable both North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs. I can't beef about China's currency policy since the US is the biggest, most irresponsible debtor nation of all time. But I do have a bone to pick with China over North Korea and Iran.
The US stopped Taiwan from developing nuclear weapons after China conducted its first nuclear weapons test in the 60s (see:
Taiwan's Nuclear Weapons Program), but the PRC, with arguably more leverage over North Korea than the US had over Taiwan allowed them to develop nuclear weapons. And now, they're one of the few hold outs preventing meaningful sanctions from being imposed against Iran. Why? I think it is because they seek to weaken the US by keeping us engaged against those countries. This is short sighted, because if the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) fails, it will be China that is most likely to find itself surrounded by emergent nuclear weapons states (South Korean, Japan, and Taiwan).
China is a rising power, that much is true. But it takes more than power to be a great nation. What type of leadership will China bring with it's power. That is the question I'd like to know the answer to.
Very well said..But here is The World's Stupidest legislation H.R. 2378 and S. 3134. yes it's ours...
Whoever dreamed this up has a severe mental issue. Oh... libs and a rino... see I was right. The bill is the Yuan pressure bill in which the USA claims the authority to adjust another countries currency to establish trade prices they think are fair.
The notion of this is absurd on ever level but it is truly dangerous especially when drafted by the largest debtor nation and the nation with the most manipulated value in history. This was not the original intent of Breton Woods which established the dollar as the peg currency. And in a separate accord since abuse was possible, the USA agreed to back the dollar with gold at 35 dollars an ounce. So currencies were stable from the 1940s until 1971 when a couple of small countries sensing that America did not actually have enough gold to back up their printing presses during Vietnam, decided to turn their dollars in for Gold. Nixon, "I am not a crook" , promptly defaulted and removed the USA from the gold standard and said, "Today we are all Keynesians. It has been a global currency floating krap game ever since.
The new legislation further removes the importance of global exchanges by creating a system by which the US Congress can decide what something is worth. This is price fixing and virtually an act of economic warfare if not just suicidal.
There is no yield here. The Yuan is not why we have an economy dying on the vine. It is gov spending and inflation. It is the US that can't be trusted and this is an abuse of the reserve currency that in my mind will mark the end of the dollar as a reserve currency.
The USA suffers from the same disease as Great Britain when it was the largest economy in the world. They spent too much money and other countries including the United States did not want England dictating their economy. The USA is in that situation now. Of all the countries on the globe only one has opposed fiscal responsibility, the United States and they hold the reserve currency. We now export very little and we have used our reserve currency to flood emerging markets and traders with our dollars. A cheap dollar is supposed to help the balance of trade, but it helps only to the extent of a single water drop in a five gallon bucket of water. But what it does do is make citizens poor, reduces wages and buying power. It lowers our standard of living. We are following in the footsteps of decline.
This bill accelerates our demise. What if every country did this? The USA would export very little and very selectively. The results on imports would be shortages, especially oil. It may even cost the US its reserve currency and oil currency status and in fairness it should.
This is definitely not the time to start a trade war with China or other countries that are enjoying the weakening of the US economy. It won't bring back TV manufacturers in the USA or Textiles.
The US problem is gov overspending and gov bloat. We no longer collect enough Tax revenues to cover the cost of Gov. All we do is print money. It is not foreign money that is at issue; It is the dollar which may as well be monopoly money. Our Gov. is a flimflam. Nobody can trust them, not a citizen, not another country. Our Gov has become the Aunt Zituni of the world, a good for nothing freeloader, felon with a big mouth and a centrocentric view of the world that is sickening. If you want a real recession... start a trade war while you are holding a wad of monopoly money and trying to buy food with it.
