China getting less bitchy

China has been toning down its recent inflammatory rhetoric according to Charles Hutzler of the Journal star. It's about friggen time is all I can say, China's been rebelling against US authority while highlighting all of the reasons why US authority has done so much good for the world for a couple of years now.

I still remember when Hu Jin Tao came to power as a pragmatic reformer. It'd sure be nice to see that guy resurface again because this attitude that the Chinese government has been putting off over the last couple of years has been stoking our own warhawks here in the US, and we don't need to give anti-market ultra nationalist reactionaries any more political ammo.

The big picture is this, Frosty US-Sino relations are bad for all parties involved. They are especially for a China which seems to have forgotten that it has a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go before its its government can be considered even the palest of shadows compared to that of the United states. They'll need to find a way to facilitate a peaceful exchange of power and to facilitate a free civil society before they can stand on even footing with the western liberal democracies. Until they do that the spector of violent revolution will hang over the heads of China's leaders like the proverbial sword of Damocles waiting to strike down all of the progress that's been made in the last 3 decades.

The Chinese have been threatening to kill the American goose that lays all of the golden eggs for a while now. But Americans shouldn't threat about this posturing, Chinese leaders know their country would go through a devastating regression if they disengaged from US partnership, and possibly violent overthrow of the government. But this bleak scenario doesn't seem likely. China has built a lot of momentum in the last three decades, and that's a wonderful thing. If their spoiled and corrupt government officials can pull their heads out of their collective asses for just a few more decades humanity could be in for a new golden age ... or we could all roast in nuclear fire. It all depends on how that country of 1,000,000,000 people chooses to interact with the world.