3rd Opium War: How the West was Won!

The Third Opium War: How the West was Won!


Emperor Xiangfeng fled the capitol as leaping flames consumed the Summer Palace and the screams from the Forbidden City -- as it was being looted by British and French troops with the support of the United States -- echoed through his soul to his ancestors. He knelt with great humility asking for the mandate from heaven to be restored; if not to him, then to China. The Emperor knew that only heaven could provide the divine inspiration to cure China’s 40 million opium addicts and restore China to its greatness for the other 340 million Chinese.

Low Cost, High Quality, High Volume Provider to the World

Today, China’s trade with the World is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by the end of 2010 . China is the provider of choice for electrical machinery & equipment, power generation equipment, apparel, iron & steel, optics & medical equipment, furniture, inorganic & organic chemicals, vehicles, toys & games, and mineral fuel and oil. China has wisely provided a global subsidy worth hundreds of billions of dollars to businesses and people worldwide. China is peacefully acting on the world in the same manner as colonial armies brutally did to China -- invading deep into the economies of countries, exporting their most valuable assets back to China and thereby undermining the ability of the host country to function without its China relationship.

China is the destination of choice for the most sophisticated & most successful enterprises, and brightest individuals in the world. China matches the world’s largest market and is the world’s most advanced and prolific manufacturer, it has or will have imminently the brand names, entertainment industry, and technology that sets the world standards.

Money, Ever Cheaper Opiate of the People

If China spent its dollars, it could flood the world market and quickly drive the value of the dollar down. China is not interested in a lower dollar, so it lends them to the USA by buying US Bonds. China is propping up the value of the dollar while allowing American debt to swell overall. Beijing’s heavy buying of US Treasuries serves to push down US interest rates.

China’s currency peg ripples around the world, America does not experience price changes forced by a changing Yuan, but other nations do. As the Euro, GBP, Yen climb against the dollar, Chinese goods become cheaper for Europeans and Japanese. As high Chinese demand pushes up prices of raw materials, Americans buying these raw materials feel the pain just as the Chinese do, but if the GBP, Euro, Yen drop against the dollar-yuan combination, Europeans & Japanese feel the pain. China’s peg touches everything.

This codependency is not sustainable. The West cannot take on even bigger debt and amass huge trade deficits indefinitely. Americans and Europeans’ now pay greater dividends to foreigners than they take in, now live in a world of renters rather than owners. The West squanders its national wealth to finance private consumption and unproductive government spending extracting a permanent price on their economies that has already sent them into a downward spiral that began in 2008. The West is now left with few fiscal tools much the way that the economies of Argentina and Brazil have historically faced economic and social collapse.

All Commodities Lead to Beijing

The historic Silk Road has been reopened connecting Asia to the Middle East and Europe. The economic links extend far beyond the historic trade of exotic goods. Through the new Silk Road now flows the abundant resources of Central Asia, Russia and Iran to Beijing. A series of operational or soon to be operational pipelines predict the magnitude of this flow: 1) Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline, 2) Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, and 3) East Siberian-Pacific oil pipeline. Today, China imports 50% of its daily oil demand; of this 40% comes from the Gulf Cooperation Council Nations and Saudi Arabia’s largest consumer is now China.

Addicts of the West, Demographic Decrepitude

Today 50 tones of cocaine a year worth £1.4 billion pass through West Africa. Inter-pol estimates as much as two-thirds of the cocaine sold in Europe this year will reach the Continent by way of West Africa. The smugglers are using trucks, ships, speed-boats, and planes. There is really no limit to the imagination of traffickers. The cartels work with local criminal gangs and officials. Some consignments are headed for corrupt armies, customs and police forces.

Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States. Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States. The Gulf and Sinaloa cartels reportedly use personal "enforcer gangs" to perpetuate violence and intimidate Mexican citizens and public officials. Mexican President Felipe Calderón has called drug violence a threat to the Mexican State .

Today, 40-60 million people in the West are categorised as addicts . The West suf-fers from an aging population, growing trade deficits, perilously large sovereign debt levels and unemployment ranging from 12-25%.

Battlefield Changes -- Failure of the West to Adapt

Two Wars continue to rage for the West with estimated death toll of 700,000 people killed , total war-related funding reaching $1.08 trillion, including $748 billion for Iraq, and $300 billion for Afghanistan. Two wars that yielded the unintended consequence of having pollarised a planet against the West. Not surprisingly, on 4 March 2010, Beijing announced China's declared defense budget will only increase by 7.5% this year -- the slowest rate in 20 years. Upon reflection are we not witnessing the recognition by Beijing of the terms of engagement for the 21st century battlefield -- cyber attacks that can bring down or penetrate country or corporate networks harvesting data, processes or even altering assembly line algorithms, and vulture funds that are domiciled in remote unrelated havens that ruthlessly attack (i.e., setting fiscal/treasury policies) corporates and sovereigns. In this battlefield; tanks, planes and troops play an ever decreasing role and represent the costly folly of perceived security.
The Sun Rises for the East

A crimson sun peacefully rises for Chairman Hu Jintao each morning while President’s Obama, Sarkozy and PM Brown rest blissfully unaware in the black abyss of night. The words of the Great Leader echo to Chairman Hu, “Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.”

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html