It seems that as soon as the USSR went under, a certain segment of folks in the US started looking around, almost desperately, for a new “enemy.” We seem to have settled on China. I see all sorts of articles (and threads on this board, for that matter) devoted to the supposed “threat” posed by China.
Why? What is this strange psychological need to have an opponent? Please don’t tell me it’s about communism. I see that as almost more of an excuse than a real reason. I guarantee that if China went to a capitalist/democratic system tomorrow, we would have a new enemy picked out within six months. Someone would be out there writing about the coming threat from Mexico, or India, or some such nation.
Am I the only one noticing this? Am I wrong?
Is China really a threat? If so, why did we only seem to get serious about that supposed “threat” after the USSR went by the boards?
Is anyone out there paranoid enough to envision China launching some sort of war of conquest against the U.S.??? Or (to indulge in paranoid fantasies of my own) is it the “military-industrial complex” out there drumming up business? Threats from abroad do translate into weapons contracts, you know. (Eisenhower tried to warn us about those guys…)
I would think that about a million men and women in the employ of the US Military would be mighty happy to keep an “enemy” in place. Especially if it is an enemy that we’re not going to go to war with.
The US especially. Face it, Americans are a very patriotic bunch - not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, that’s part of what makes the US …ummm, well… the US.
People need a common cause to ralley around. If not, they start to mill around pointlessly and perhaps start thinking introspectively about themselves and their gov’t. Once that happens politicians have a real worry on their hands. Now they’ve actually got to do something constructive to justify their position and salary.
If you think about it, America is all about the rest for the world. It’s all about a good US image abroad. It’s all about democracy. It’s all about US style capitalism and economy. It’s all about popular American influence and US foreign interests. In regards to many western allies, the US is so far up their butts, it’s often hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Look at Canada and the UK. Look at Mexico - it’s practically the 51st state.
An enemy, real or perceived, helps to cement those bonds. If America can march into a country to “liberate” it from an “enemy” then it’s accomplished two things, it’s bolstered it’s good guy image and entrenched itself in the territory. The real American invasion comes not with the military forces but with the economic forces which remain long after the American soldiers have gone.
Let’s see. China has attempted to influence elections in this country and they’ve stolen many military secrets. Yes, I’d certainly say they are a legitimate threat.
Was anyone paranoid enough to think that Germany would wage a war against Russia and England in 1934?
No, we don’t go looking for enemies just so we can have one or even to placate a defense industry. There are real reasons some countries are defined as ‘enemies’. You don’t think Sadam Hussein wouldn’t lob a nuke at the US if he had a chance? I bet he’d do it even if he knew his coutry would be bombed to oblivion just out of spite. When you’re the ‘Big Boy on the Block’ there is always someone below wanting to knock you off and take your place. Whether it’s a school yard, a sports star, a king/president, or a country.
Many countries see the US as an impediment to their goals and the US may really be an impediment. China HATES the power we weild in the far east. Without the US around China could take Taiwan outright, probably nab Mongolia and maybe bits of Siberia and some oil rich regions near Indonesia. China feels this is their backyard and the US has no business there. When the USSR was big and strong China had to defer to them (although not always). Now that the USSR is gone China sees its chance to step onto the world stage in a big way. The US tries to tell them they can only do this if they play by the rules (read the US Rules). Big surprise when China takes exception to some of those rules.
While the world situation today means that China is somewhat held in check don’t think they aren’t working towards goals that aren’t in line with the US. This doesn’t mean the US is always right but it does mean that you have two BIG countries at cross-purposes and that’s a recipe for trouble. Best to stay prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
No, Occam, according to Bob Jones et al, anyone who favors unity is an evil bastard. Indeed, I don’t think we’re being hostile enough to China, but it’s this paranoid “New World Order” crap that we ought to address when it comes to people wanting new enemies.
I’m pretty sure that China isn’t currently an actual threat to the U.S. because it has insufficient shipping to transport an army of conquest to North America, and it has nothing to gain, but everything to lose, in a nuclear exchange with the U.S.
What China is a threat to: U.S. ideology and U.S. interests overseas. China is vehemently anti-democratic, and threatens U.S. interests in maintaining the status quo in Taiwan and is potentially a threat to U.S. allies like South Korea, Japan, and the Phillipines.
I think a lot has been done to vilify China more than necessary, though. We’re not going to change their internal politics by complaining about the antics of their despicable police state, and all the rhetoric about a ‘new Cold War’ does more harm than good. A better course would be to be alert and prepared for hostile moves in the Far East, but not make a lot of noise about how China is the next Evil Empire. Their totalitarian system may be evil, but ultimately it will have to be changed by the Chinese, and not by the U.S.
I’ve always thought our need for enemies reflects our primate origins. Basic survival of a chimpanzee clan depends on accurately identifying the “other” chimp groups, and aggressively defending one’s territory from them (or, indeed, trying to take their territory away).
Humans are basically big extra-smart hairless chimps with (as Douglas Adams put it) highly developed twig technology. We’re hard-wired to seek enemies, partly to define our own group. What else accounts for our identification with sports teams? When someone wins the Super Bowl – say the Broncos, a couple of years ago – Denver residents said, “We won!” No, I say, you didn’t; a bunch of guys whose job it is to play football, and who happen to have the name of your city printed on their jerseys – they won. You just got fleeced out of fifty bucks so you could vicariously identify with the struggle via pay-per-view.
And do I need to mention the irrational hatred of rival teams? Is there any really good reason someone from Boston should loathe the Yankees? A Beantown loyalist would respond, “Yeah, the Yanks suck!” But the thing is, they don’t, as their record attests. “Yeah, well,” says the Bostonian, “I hate them anyway.” My point exactly: Why? The bottom-line answer is, because they’re Them. No other reason. And if you extend this pattern to the international arena, a whole lot of things start to make more sense.
Until humans proceed to the next stage of our evolution, which is unlikely to happen as long as our superficial adaptability continues solving problems for us, we will seek enemies, regardless of how pointless and logically indefensible it might be. It’s in our DNA.
So has Israel. Yet, we would hardly consider Israel an enemy.
Furthermore, the US has engaged in similar activities itself. You don’t think we spy on China? You don’t think we try to influence political decisions there?
If someone has better military technology than the US, would you consider the US to be justified in trying to obtain that technology? Even through the use of espionage? Of course you would. Why demonize China when they do the same damn thing? What do you expect them to do? Of course, we should try to prevent our secrets from being lost, but I don’t think it makes other nations which seek to discover those secrets automatically our “enemies”.
I agree with Cervaise. I think we have some primal instincts at work.
That’s exactly right. China’s ultimate goal is to have hegemony over Northeast Asia in the long term and to eliminate the US from exerting influence there. Their leadership will probably start a war over the Spratly Islands and their oil deposits, and I would not be surprised if we got in a shooting war over Taiwan.
What do you mean by hegemony? Do you mean that you believe China will invade Russia (which currently occupies northeast Asia)? If so, why do you believe that? What is your source? What is your basis for that belief?
No doubt, China would like to eliminate US influence in Asia. Similarly, we seek to eliminate foreign influence in the Americas. (It’s called the Monroe Doctrine.) Does that make us evil?
Except for its Communist ideology, which I do not endorse (just to be clear), I don’t see that China is behaving differently from any other nation. Yet, we seem to be incredibly paranoid about China. I still don’t get it.
What do you mean by hegemony? Do you mean that you believe China will invade Russia (which currently occupies
northeast Asia)? If so, why do you believe that? What is your source? What is your basis for that belief?
I lived in Korea for six years and paid attention to politics while I was there, I’ve spent time in China and Taiwan, and I’m a faithful reader of the Economist and Foreign Affairs, so I’m not just blue-skying here.
It’s a fact that the PLA has spent huge sums of cash improving their military readiness over the past decade. It’s a fact that the Chinese navy has fired on ships in the Spratly Islands. It’s also a fact that China has said it will invade Taiwan if they declare independence.
As far as I can see, China wishes to exert military and economic dominance over the Koreas, the Russian far east,
and, eventually, Japan.(I’m not saying they can, I’m saying it’s a long-term goal). As far as sources, let me scout up the right Web links for you for evidence.
Yeah, they say that every time an election rolls around in Taiwan. They say it to try to influence folks in Taiwan to vote the way the leaders of mainland China want them to vote. It doesn’t seem to work too well.
I thought I saw a headline a couple of days ago indicating that China was seeking a summit with Taiwan on the reunification issue. It sounds like they are fishing around for some sort of peaceful resolution to the problem, a la Korea’s tentative steps toward reunification.
In my view, by demonizing and isolating China, you run the risk of creating a self-fufilling prophesy. Keep making enough noises about war with China, and pretty soon, the Chinese start to take that talk seriously and see us as a threat to them.
I’m still not clear on whether you think China intends to invade Russia (or Korea, or Japan). Why would they even consider something like that? It would make them an instant international pariah, with all of the economic consequences that entails. No newly-gained oil fields could make up for the revenues lost to the economic embargoes which would surely follow.
I agree that China wants to exercise influence in the region, but I believe they are seeking to attain economic power, not military conquest. They do want to merge with Taiwan, but I think they are only using the threat of war to gain bargaining power in any reunification talks.
The funny thing about brinksmanship is this: Very soon, the brink looks like a real option. Even if the brink is outright destruction of the world, as it was in the Cuban Missile Crisis, some people are willing to do it just to ‘win’. A war that turns Taiwan into a glowing parking lot is a very real danger here. Hard-line assholes in the USA and the PRC are willing to take it that far. We must defend against that at the polls and in trade talks. We must use our superior trade clout as a lever to pry the old-guard politicians out of office. We must guard against extremists of any shade coming into office.
What’s that movie about things being too quiet in the foreign relations front, so the president’s advisors cook up a story about Canada being a threat? Tons of Americans buy into it. This was before, way before, South Park came up with the “Blame Canada” thing. Anyway, too bad I can’t remember the title, but it’s a pretty funny movie, funnier still if you live close enough to Canada to get the stereotypes and inside jokes. Plus some big fat grains of truth about Americans and their need for patriotic “causes”
You’re thinking of Canadian Bacon, a comedy film by Michael Moore of Roger And Me and TV Nation fame. Damn, he’s a funny guy, and perhaps the only person in any way involved in politics who still has my respect.