[Previous entry: "Black, Dead and Invisible"] [Next entry: "As Catholic as the Pope"]

04/10/2005:

"India and China Are Poised to Share Defining Moment"

NEW DELHI, April 9 - Wen Jiabao, prime minister of China, began a four-day visit to India on Saturday just as the two countries - a third of humanity - are coming into their own at the same moment, with the potential for a dynamic shift in the world's politics and economy.

The impact on the global balance of power, the competition for resources and the health of the planet is causing many analysts and political leaders to sit up and take notice.

"Both countries have waited 3,000 years for this moment," said Gurcharan Das, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble India and now an author.

Onetime rivals who went to war in 1962, India and China today find their economies growing at a remarkable clip. Both have a giant appetite for energy. Both are hungry for new markets. And both, it seems, are now gingerly testing the possibilities of doing business together.

It is not an accident that Mr. Wen began his visit not here in the capital but in Bangalore, the southern high-tech hub whose phenomenal rise China has eyed.

Trade is booming between them, especially as seen from the Indian side: after the United States, China is now its second largest trade partner, and it is growing by a giant 30 percent each year to an estimated $14 billion this year.

For the United States and the rest of the world, the effects of the sudden awakening of the Asian giants could be profound. In the years ahead, it may mean more downward pressure on wages, the outsourcing of more jobs, greater competition for investment and higher prices for scarce resources.
Full Article: nytimes.com

Replies: 2 Comments

Sunday, April 10th, rootsie posted:

All too true.

The other thing I think about is that as long as long as the industrial boom is fueled by fossil fuel and coal burning, we could be looking at a massive die-off within not so many years. And it goes without saying who's going to be doing the dying.

Suffice it to say it won't be Europeans and North Americans.

Sunday, April 10th, warren buffet posted:

"For the United States and the rest of the world, the effects of the sudden awakening of the Asian giants could be profound. In the years ahead, it may mean more downward pressure on wages, the outsourcing of more jobs, greater competition for investment and higher prices for scarce resources."

* this is the key to this story. the ones benefitting from outsourcing and "growing" china and indian economies are the ultra rich elite whose tie is not necessarily to a country, but rather the fraternity of financial interests which, because of the current economic structure, are able to detach themselves from the nation-state when it is necessary - making profits no matter who is "losing" - i.e. American workers, public services, etc.

this financial Uber-class is the real parasite on all of us, until their power is held in check by public accountability, we are all subject to their mercy. as long as governmental officials are involved within private financial speculation and private capitalist investment circles, there will continue to be a conflict of interest between the public interests which governmental bodies are supposed to serve and private $ interests which only serve those in the club.