Next Critical Global Threat -- Chinese-Style Authoritarian Capitalism

Subject: txt sclm bbro intl -

Throughout the history of this country playing the role of a global power, the United States has faced down threats of fascism and communism. The country is now in the throes of a war against terrorism.

However, on ABC's Nov. 22 "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," a panel consisting of Washington Post columnist George Will, Liz Cheney of Keep America Safe, University of California, Berkeley professor Robert Reich and Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of The Aspen Institute, warned the next ideological battle facing the country is that which China practices - an authoritarian market society or authoritarian capitalism.

"For 37 years, every administration has bet, since Nixon went to China, on a theory, and the theory was that capitalism, market economy, which requires a judicial system to enforce promises, which are called contracts, needs a vast dissemination of information and decision-making that capitalism by its mores and working would subvert the regime, that you could not have an authoritarian market society," Will said. "It's the Starbucks fallacy. It turns out to be a fallacy, that if the Chinese have a choice of coffees, they'll want a -- they'll demand a choice of political candidates. We may be wrong. It could be you can have an authoritarian system."

Coming off of President Barack Obama's recent trip to Asia, Cheney insisted that Obama would have to project a stronger, more vocal presence if he wanted to reinforce the idea of "freedom and democracy"...

[That assumes he prefers the American system to that of China's - but his actions to date say otherwise.]

"I am betting on Democratic capitalism," Reich added. "But I think that the -- authoritarian capitalism, we cannot understate the threat to the way we go about our -- our business, the way we think about the world."

[I.e., economics as weapon - easy to do when you've central control. This is also important because it was China's financial success that convinced the old guard within Russia that it could bring back the Soviets with economic impunity, which it did by nationalizing Gazprom and immediately using gas to Europe supplies as a political weapon {as evidenced by Russia's invasion of georgia with nary a peep from Europe}

Recommended > ]

READ MORE