Professor Kenneth Lieberthal Lecture - Chicago Council

Professor Kenneth Lieberthal, Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and senior fellow in foreign policy and the global economy at the Brookings Institute, gave an excellent overview on the current status of U.S.-China relations...
Professor Lieberthal mentioned that there are (3) issues that the U.S. and China are working together upon: 1) the global economic situation 2) global climate change 3) nuclear proliferation
He menitoned that to predict the nature of future relations is nearly impossible due to numerous reasons: 1) U.S. domestic politics - 2010 Mid-Term Elections 2) Protectionist feelings are growing in both countries 3) The issue of how to handle the Iran situation
Professor Lieberthal mentioned at the end the most dangerous issues right now for both, America and China, are related to economic and trade issues...High U.S. unemployment is causing political instability, a slowly recovering economy has caused a diminished capacity for the U.S. to deal with international issues...
Our economic model has suffered greatly in the eyes of the world...Regaining our reputation is going to take some time...China's growing presence globally is only hampered due to their lack of experience in being a global heavyweight...But, how long will this be the situation in the 21st century?...My guess...Not very long...In short, we are witnessing an ongoing transformation of global power...The endgame, at this point, is anyone's guess...

New China, Old China in the 21st Century

There are recent stories coming out of China about how during the good ol' days when American and other foreign businesses and companies, who outsourced production jobs and research facilities to China, and benefited greatly (read: financially), are now unhappy about recent declarations by the Chinese central government...
Well, it appears the early days (1980s and the 1990s) of China's development and its government's enthusiasm for foreign economic intervention into their domestic economy is now fading...
The Chinese central government has recently declared that companies doing business on Chinese soil - specifically research and the creation of new technologies - will be expected to share these new technological discoveries with their Chinese competitors...
If this new initiative, declared by the Chinese national government, becomes the standard operation procedure in China for foreign companies...How soon will these foreign companies become non-competitive because the local companies will have access to same technologies that they have developed, and were used to guarantee these foreign companies a competitive foothold in China's growing marketplace?....
It appears that China is not going to allow itself to be shamefully exploited as it was in the early 19th century - which led to the Opium Wars and foreign intervention on an unpredendented scale...It may be the case that China is making sure that history does not repeat itself in the 21st century...
Question: If the Chinese central government insists that foreign companies who create new technologies - in China - must hand it over to Chinese companies...What then?...How long will those (current) big profits last for foreign companies when they no longer have a clear competitive edge over its Chinese competitors?...When Chinese consumers begin buying more and more products from Chinese companies - will globalization appear as wonderful to foreign investors as it did just a few years ago?...I doubt it...
Why?...Because there is a war for wealth occurring between the emerging economies in the world (China, Brazil, India and Russia), and the West (U.S., EU, Japan, including Australia and Canada)...
In short, nationalism always trumps economics; All politics is local...Tip O'Neill had it right so many years ago...His observation about American politics is now quite relevant for international politics as well...Buckle your seatbelts, America, it's going to be a bumpy ride!!!...

New China Emerging

The Chinese government is in the process of increasing its restrictions concerning foreign businesses starting up in the country...In short, the government is not as open to foreign businesses as in the past three decades...A new climate is evolving...I will srite more on this subject later on...