the arc of China
Posted by Gordon on August 17, 2009
[unfinished post - so be it]
Beginning – business : today in the SMH John Garnaut throws together a few ideas on China, in particular to what extent should Australia be worried that a cashed up China buying ‘Australian’ assets at the bottom of the market will hand increased power over Australia’s future to China. He says:
Australia may be over-reacting to Chinese investment in our mines because we wrongly suspect China is single-minded and uniformly co-ordinated in consistent purpose
A key issue is whether the corporations that are doing the buying eg Chinalco’s bid for Rio Tinto are acting in their own profit maximising commercial interest or partly or mainly an extension of Chinese government foreign policy, especially in relation to resource security. Garnaut cites former Beijing Bureau chief Richard MacGregor and China expert Prof David Goodman in support of the idea that decision making in China is more akin to a complex web of relationship than central direction; to posit a monolithic authoritarian structure is ‘risible’. But he goes on to note
Middle – the (blocked?) path to democracy You’ll recall the theory that the increasing importance of the market economy in China, and the conincident if not resultant propserity of the last 20 years would inevitably lead to a more open society – increased freedom of speech, rule of law, increased democracy in political decision making and ultimately government decided by regular elections.
