I think they do-here is why.
The US complains endlessly about the enormous trade deficit-yet continues to ship jobs to China. We also send our advanced technology, which will be used to compete with us.
WE have entered into two disastrous wars. In one (Iraq) we have opened up the Iraqi oil-driling market to Chinese companuies-then we complain when they underbid our own firms-why?
In Africa, Chinese firms are busy signing contracts and building mines and factories-these are giving jobs to Africans, and making the Chinese rich-we give huge sums of money (foreign aid) to corrupt governments-and wind up getting nothing.
In short, the Chinese are persuing a very pragmatic foreign policy-one in which wealth and raw materials flow to China, and manufactured good flow back-exactly what is wrong with this? We seem to have some idiotic notion that the Chinese should 'play fair"-why would they give up any advantage over us? I would not, if I were in their shoes.
We continue our endless meddling in other countries, gettting into disputes and wars-while the Chinese are moving ahaed-should they be punished for acting rationally?
Unless we get politicians that actually care about the American people (that the allegedly represent us), we will have the same thing-American bankruptcey and Chinese prospertity.
Or am I wrong?
Dude, I think we are idiots. It’s not just a Chinese thing.
You don’t seem to be complaining about the Chinese reaction to the USA so much as complaining about how the US is playing on a global playing field (and I agree with you). I don’t think the Chinese think the US is idiots; I don’t think they think much about any other country in the world.
Exactly. If the Chinese thought much about Americans, they’d think we were idiots for obsessing over what the Chinese thought of us. Except since they almost never think about Americans, they don’t think we’re idiots for obsessing about what the Chinese think about Americans.
China is a very insular country, and the biggest mistake Americans make about China is forgetting that what happens in China is about internal Chinese events. And it’s easy to overlook the tremendous challenges China is facing. Remember that per capita China is poorer than Mexico. Someday they’ll have a larger economy than the US, but that will be with more than 4 times our population, which will mean they’ll still be four times poorer.
\We don’t worry about our economy being overtaken by Mexico, do we?
We are idiots. I think the Chinese probably realize that, yes, but they aren’t the only ones.
Are we talking about over 1 billion Chinese-speaking individuals, all of who think exactly the same thing about the United States?
May I say, in my humble opinion, your OP demonstrates very sloppy thinking.
As others have said, you have presented a set of arguments about why we might be idiots, and nothing at all about what “the Chinese” (whatever that phrase represents) may think about us.
The Chinese government (if that is what you are talking about) used to be very dogmatic about everything, including foreign policy, as a result of which millions died. Some time after Mao, they turned towards pragmatism while still being dogmatic about staying in power. Now China has rather a lot of corruption and injustice, and very limited personal freedom, but a lot fewer people die due to their policies. I think this is an improvement, and I, for one, am glad that the Chinese government does not pursue an adventurous foreign policy such as we do.
Roddy
I don’t agree. I think the Chinese really want to be seen as a major player on the world stage. That’s why they spent as much as $40 billion on the 2008 Summer Olympics, $45 billion on the World Expo this year in Shanghai, and aggressively pursued gold medals at the Olympics and is also aggressively working to win Nobel Prizes.
Whaddya expect? We have the finest congress that money can buy.
Exactly-the Chinese follow a perfectly rational foreign policy-and we don’t. They make money, we spend money.
I think they are amused by our behavior, our politicians (who deliver endless speeches and say nothing).
I guess the fact that our actions benefit their economy must puzzle them no end-like why we maintain a huge naval presence in Asia-and borrow money from them to pay for it.
I think China’s relationship with the US now is a lot like Germany’s with Great Britain a hundred years ago. Admiring and eager for acceptance as an equal, but at the same time neurotically angry and critical that it isn’t accepted as such. It’s a volatile combination.
In my opinion, China as an international entity is almost obsessive about what other people think of them. They are desperate to be seen as one of the “big boys,” and this often comes out in adolescent posturing, sulking, showing-off and “you can’t tell me what to do” defensiveness. The metaphor that always came to my mind was of an adolescent- eager to be taken seriously, but not quite realizing that quietly taking responsibility would lead to that so much faster than showboating or whining.
On a popular level, most Chinese people I knew had mixed feelings about America. They admired our wealth, power and even our freedom. They like American cultural products and have are fascinated by us as a people. At the same time, there seems to be a lot of resentment. They don’t see why a young and relatively barbaric country like ours should be more important than what many Chinese see as the oldest and most refined culture on the planet. I think that many Chinese people feel like China was robbed of it’s rightful place as a world leader, and are desperate to get that back.
Unfortunately, this leads to a very personal take on international politics. Basically, every move that America makes that is less than favorable to China is interpreted as “Americans just want to keep us down.” While some people will come up with phrases like “America is aggressive,” few could truly back that up. I think mostly it is the same old resentment.
Anyway, no, they don’t think we are dumb.
Yes…the Chinese think we’re idiots and they would be correct. We basically have done things and signed ridiculous trade agreements that have put us in dire straits worldwide. We now are even dabblling with overt socialism which has failed all over the world and which even the Europeans or now trying to dismantle. We seemingly are making sure our own people have no jobs, no future, and no chance.
Are you aware that China is (at least in name) a communist country? I doubt they’d find us too socialist for their tastes.
You can’t think of any examples why people in other countries might perceive America as being aggressive?
If this is the sort of reasoning the average American engages in regarding foreign policy, they ought to think we’re idiots.
We give “huge sums of money” to foreign governments in absolute terms. We give foreign governments rather small sums of money relative to the size of our population or economy. Two thirds the amount Japan gives, or one ninth of Norway’s giving, for example. Anyway, believe it or not, some people might argue that the point of foreign aid isn’t “what we get back”.
As far as sending them jobs, that’s a necessary consequence of the global economy. They build things more cheaply than we do. Guess what? In the 1950s, we built things more cheaply than everyone else. Did you think some inherent property of The American Worker was going to keep us on top of the manufacturing world for ever?
The point is not to whine about the jobs which are leaving. It’s to figure out how to create jobs to replace them. After the Industrial Revolution, factory workers replaced agricultural workers. After the internet revolution… well, we’ll see.
The Chinese meddle in foreign wars and governments too. The only reason they don’t get involved in foreign wars is because they don’t have the capability to fight wars thousands of miles away.
Maybe I said that poorly. There are plenty of reasonable arguments that America is aggressive, but those are not what I was hearing. I got a lot of quick’n’easy stock phrases without a deeper understanding of the issues to back them up. In general, I found people’s criticism of America to be rather inarticulate.
Personally, I found the sanctimonious “China has never invaded another country, not like those aggressive foreigners” thing a bit obnoxious, especially since China has a convenient habit of simply declaring whatever they’d like to invade a part of China.
For example, right now they are heavily spinning the military exercises in South Korea as an example of America aggressively using unilateral power to undermining stability in the region and not respecting China’s place as a world power to manage their own region. However they are conspicuously silent about, you know, North Korea sinking a freaking ship, which to me seems like a pretty solid example of a country taking unilateral aggressive action that undermines stability in the region.
In short, the Chinese think that most of the Western World are round-eye idiots.
I was going to say “We are idiots” but I think that’s unfair.
We’re all idiots, regardless of nationality. A person is smart but people are dumb.
So your complaint is that the average Chinese on the street isn’t able to carry on a detailed debate with you on the merits of the Iraq Invasion? Those poor simpletons. I bet you really showed them, Ms. Coulter.