By Larry Greenfield
Last week’s visit to the United States by a delegation of Chinese officials, led by President Hu Jintao, invites frank admission that we are of two minds about the rise of China.
On the one hand, Americans are hopeful about positive relations with China, wish to explore Chinese history, tradition, and heritage, and desire engagement on a range of issues for the betterment of regional security & stability, bi-lateral trade and tourism, and global technological & environmental progress.
U.S. tourists and students abroad report positively on their experiences on the Chinese mainland.
And American citizens respect their hardworking Asian-Americans neighbors here, and like Chinese food and culture.
We are increasingly aware of the economic power and diversity of Asian nations, and are rapidly investing in their emerging markets. We also want to sell China lots of our own goods and services and we want export to their huge markets.
On the other hand, conservatives and liberals alike find many reasons to oppose China’s human rights record, internet censorship, currency manipulation, non-protection of intellectual property, and aggression towards Tibet and Taiwan, and towards domestic Chinese ethnic and religious minorities.
Finally, China repeatedly fails to assist U.S.- led international efforts to confront rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran. If they are working quietly behind the scenes, the progress is not publicly apparent.
The rise of China is probably the major international factor of the early 21st century.
China’s military development includes stealth aircraft, a large standing army, powerful naval assets, and a serious effort at controlling regional sea lanes. China is a producer and exporter of weapons systems, and is cutting into the U.S. lead in aerospace technologies.
Chinese business expansion is remarkable. China organizes very effective government-sponsored efforts to lock up energy resources around the world, and encourages small business entrepreneurs to joint venture from Africa to South America.
Not only is China not going away, it even offers a competing narrative for American parents. A Chinese- American Yale professor mother argues that “Tiger Moms” care so deeply about their children, and so trust their strength and capacity, that they focus intently on parental discipline, while American parents are lax and fearful of pushing young Johnny too hard in his schoolwork.
And so, we are of 2 minds.
The President fetes China with a formal state dinner (just the third for Mr. Obama after hosting India and Mexico) . Yet, several Congressional leaders decline to attend and instead sharply rebuke Chinese economic, trade, foreign policy and human rights policies.
Interestingly, Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama hosts and toasts his guests, yet China recently barred 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo from traveling to Norway in December to receive the award. Liu is in jail under accusation of plotting to subvert China’s Communist Party.
This all presents a challenge to the American people. We want to get along with China, and yet we want much better behavior from them. China thinks only economically, not morally, about alliances with despots around the world.
What is our leverage ? It’s our pocketbook. We know China has the right to sell us cheap products, and we like buying them (although enforcing trade rules would help American workers compete and grant some relief to poor Chinese labor). One suggestion: we have the right to say, we prefer to buy American instead. Or is “buy American” passe?
The world changes rather quickly: U.S. share of global GDP is sliding, and U.S. students now compare quite poorly in math to Asian 4th and 8th graders.
China (and India) produce many more engineers than do the failed public schools of the United States.
Our K-12 urban classrooms are monopolies of the state, and our higher education liberal arts institutions offer lots of socializing, sports, and 60’s era socialist professors. Should one major in drinking, dribbling, or drivel? Ok, ok. We do still have top-notch university science departments.
So, another idea. How can we encourage more legal Asian student immigration to the United States, but then require some payback from these brilliant foreigners who study here.
Can we incentivize innovation, re-industrialization, and job growth here in the United States by asking these graduates to start up their businesses and hire workers here?
In the Middle Kingdom, Chinese leaders seek to keep the lid on rebellion, while moving hundreds of millions from farms to factories. State industry builds and builds, importing an exceptional amount of resources and producing massive amounts of pollution.
Undemocratic and unfree, but disciplined, ambitious, and focused, China is thriving economically. China is a despotism, threat, competitor, partner, and exotic giant Panda Bear all in one.
Anybody remember when your mom would say, “finish your plate of supper; there are starving Chinamen who would love to have your meal.”
Today’s China is starting to eat our lunch.
Larry Greenfield writes and lectures on American politics, culture, and national security. He is fellow in American studies at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship & Political Philosophy. Larry hails from Southern California and earned his BA in political science at UC Berkeley, and his JD from the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D.C. He served in the Armed Forces of the United States in Naval Intelligence Reserves. Mr. Greenfield is active in GOP politics, serving on the Executive Committee of the California Republican Party and as founding Executive Director of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. His articles have appeared in many publications, including bighollywood.com and AmericanThinker.com. 
