America's yen for

America has been the flagship of democracy since it cut apron strings with England in 1776. People still climb walls and brave the stormy, shark-infested Gulf to seek a better life in our country. So what has democracy's flagship been thinking, taking China (poster child of communism and human rights violations) under its wing for more than 30 years? The U.S.-China Business Council, founded in 1973, has been working hard to ensure our business relations with China remain "mutually beneficial." But, we've been exporting all the materials (and friendly international business advice) China needs to succeed, and eventually exceed us in manufacturing power, inevitably military power as well. Our exports to China ($50.9 billion) are dwarfed by our leisure-oriented imports ($268.2 billion). According to the USCBC, "toys and games" are third on the list of our imports from China. Third on China's imports from the U.S. are "air and spacecrafts." One might be reminded of the Native Americans being deceived into trading land for glass beads by their supposed friends the colonists. Maybe the U.S.' tutelage of China is just fulfilling our national karma. Right now, America reminds me of the hare taking his comfy nap, underestimating the ancient tortoise, so slow and steady. Though the financial crisis may already mean it's too late, America, for its own security, needs to drop the arrogant conceit that China could never, or would never, surpass us in business or military power. China is already making use of our international business standards, gathering the causes to produce an effect: leaving us in the dust. They've already extended their potential military influence beyond their borders, not to mention absorbed a shocking percentage of Japan's GDP% which was once comparable to our own. China's closing its economic gap with the U.S. and China's international business grows. We may be bigger than China now, but do we have the causes to sustain? According to a report from the Taiwan Institute of Economy Research, China's economy has remained relatively unaffected by the financial crisis sweeping over the world, and it may have the resources to play a leading role in re-stabilizing the world economy. As most college students know (or will discover), knowledge is power. Self-nurturing is independence, freedom. China sees this too. Our "mutually beneficial" business with China has taught them to raise their standards and develop a strong base and expand, all-the-while importing everything they need to grow. They've taken our advice and are running with it through the Third World nation exit. America must drop its conceit. Can we keep up? Will we? We must re-stabilize the economy, think creatively and stay one step ahead of any Chinese agenda to promote itself (such as instituting an international currency to replace the dollar). Though, for the moment, our "mutually beneficial" relationship may afford us some security, what's to say China will always need us? Then what? It seems like the land of the free has given the key to the world to a government that now saves face by prostituting the heritage it once condemned, masking its human rights violations and exploiting its people. Our biggest debt is to a nation that doesn't even aspire to "liberty and justice for all." America has been like the heart of the world because of its aspiration to all beings' unalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The heart of the Chinese government is a clay soldier.