RPCV Bill Turner writes: America Spends; China Is Buying

RPCV Bill Turner writes: America Spends; China Is Buying
About 15 years ago, I hosted a 10-man team from the Chinese Ministry for Non-Ferrous Metals. They were on a quest to purchase copper properties and they were looking at a copper leaching project owned by Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) near Silver City. Then they did not buy it. Today they might. More recently, the Chinese sought to buy oil and gas interests in the United States. China's consumption of raw materials will outstrip that of the United States. Their population already does by a factor of five.

China's acquisition of those raw materials to the detriment of the nations that possess them will be financed by the United States and the other G-8 countries and China's own low labor costs. In a world where "globalization" and "free trade" are modern buzzwords, China is becoming the new global imperialist power, while America will become a Third World Country dependent upon them for products while acting as their global policeman.

Americans gobble up everything from toys to cell phones and computers and everything else that Wal-Mart sells, exporting dollars to China. Meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao is quietly traveling the world signing trade pacts right and left. China is buying up natural resources for its rampant economic growth.

The Bush administration has so damaged America's image around the world and has so driven nations around the world into the Chinese camp that we cannot recover for generations if at all. And, we do not have generations to spend in a world where events can overtake us faster than Hitler's blitzkreig. The conclusion is that while, in time, Iraq and the Middle East may move to democracy, we do not have the time to wait. Though we can produce awe and thunder on the battlefield we are now losing the economic war. China is no longer the sleeping giant of Asia. It is on the march. The Won is up and the Dollar is down. Is anyone out there?  Read more.

About the Author
Bill Turner was a Peace Corps volunteer in the first and only Peace Corps project in Cyprus.  He served as a geologist doing basic water development survey mapping.  He became fluent in Greek and knowledgeable in Turkish.  Opposite of the 60's era BA generalists, he joined with a specific professional skill needed in a project.  The project was suddenly withdrawn in late 1963, because of a developing Civil War. He now lives in New Mexico and is a New Mexico natural resources trustee (1995-2003); trustee of more than five different private companies related to water rights, environmental projects or hydrology (present). Elected to board of directors, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (2005 to present).