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Globe and Mail, Oct. 23rd: China Rising
Did anyone get a chance to look at the Globe and Mail this Saturday? The staff at the Globe went out on a artistic limb by making every headline in the issue about the rising economic, cultural and militaristic influence of China. The front page held large Chinese characters (unreadable to ignorant Whiteys like me), ticker-tape China facts on every page of the the paper, comparisons of Canada and China - our relationships and conficts, a section entitled "A user guide to China", details about the capitalistic revolution explosion in this formerly socialist state. Everywhere in the issue, indeed by the very layout of the paper itself, we get the message that China is poised to kick global economic ass. The Globe captured this.
There are also ominous warnings of a global power shift, a reversion back to poor working conditions in the west, and China's ability to compete with the US military in all global theaters. I read fear in a lot of those articles. Do we need to worry about China? Napoleon wrote centuries ago "Let China sleep, for when she awakes she will shake the world". We are witnessing the birth of a superpower, and many are uncomfortable with passing over the reins of power.
As British Columbians, perhaps less so as Canadians, I think we can be thankful for our strong relationships with China. Between Candu reactors and "Team Canada" trade missions, we stand only to gain from China's boom. As Vancouverites, we are also in a unique position to act as a gateway for Canada's involvement with China and provide the world (esp. the US) a model for Chinese/Western cooperation. I don't think anyone should fear China's so-called "awakening" - in fact we should welcome it - in many ways, we already have.
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Oct 25, 04
