Texcaster Loc: Queensland

This is a snapshot of China now, poised on dominance. The article paints a picture of China as the savior of post colonial Africa when it is just economic colonialism, locking up resources and trade. Still the largest polluter, China leads in alternative energy technology, production AND consumption. Part of the push to tap into the domestic economy. So while we're distracted with the pettiness of an emotionally unfit POTUS, a******n, public health, gay issues, wars, guns and religion, China is just getting on with it, with or without us.

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/25/china-steps-up-as-global-leader_partner/#comments

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s appearance at last week’s World Economic Forum shows global leadership is shifting, not drifting, toward Beijing. The most vigorous defense of globalization and multilateral cooperation was mounted not by an American statesman, but by the president of the People’s Republic of China.

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Speculation is mounting that the United States, with Donald Trump cast in the role of president, will ignore international challenges, renounce global responsibilities and abandon friends and allies.

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But never before has China so forthrightly stepped up when the United States appears to be stepping away. As scholars of Chinese strategy and the intersection of science and politics, we see how Beijing’s ambitions and interests will affect its engagement on a range of important international issues.

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The case of c*****e c****e

C*****e c****e policy is one good example of this trend. Commentators warn that Trump’s pledge to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement would let China “off the hook” for curbing carbon emissions. In fact, China put itself “on the hook” in Paris for reasons having little to do with the United States.

China’s most urgent atmospheric problem is not carbon dioxide. It’s combustion toxicity from burning coal, oil and biomass. The Chinese these days don’t look through their air; they look at it. And what they see, they breathe.

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China is already the world’s leading producer of renewable energy technologies. More remarkably, it is also the leading consumer. And in January, it announced plans to invest an additional US$360 billion in renewable power between now and 2020. That’s $120 billion a year.

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A savvier and more probable move is for China to assert – for the first time on a major global issue – moral authority. Chinese diplomats are already reassuring the world that China will keep and even expand its climate commitments. This message conveys Beijing’s resolve not to let to let multilateral greenhouse gas mitigation collapse, and show the way out of a crisis whose agreed solution is threatened by others’ malfeasance.

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Likewise, Beijing is asserting greater leadership in other areas once led by Washington. With the demise of the T***s-Pacific Partnership, which Washington negotiated with 11 Asian countries excluding China, Beijing is promoting its own Pacific trade-and-investment framework excluding the United States.

Even more grandly, Xi is articulating an alternative vision for global economic growth. The model focuses on physical investment, especially in t***sportation and IT infrastructure. In this, it is linked to the new Silk Road project, through which China is expanding linkages across Eurasia by integrating railways, ports and information networks into t***snational corridors. The Chinese approach also does not rely on portfolio investment and central banks exertions to drive growth – a sharp contrast to Western policies

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Ceding global moral authority to China would be a high price for America to pay for the pleasures of political posturing. Yet a China leading by example would have a greater stake in its own reputation, and the greater that stake becomes the more engaged China becomes. Such a China, we believe, could profoundly benefit the world.

Jackdoor Loc: Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Seems pretty hard to deny this- quite worrying.

usnpilot Loc: Ft Myers Fl

I tend to agree. They don't have to worry about moral issues since the government dictates them. And it seems their focus is more on improving the world than is ours. We have wasted so many resources in the Middle East and have ignored the rest of the world. And I have yet to hear of any terrorist acts in China. And while their papers and tv are government controlled, with the number of foreigners living and working there if there was a major attack it would have leaked. In my opinion this is not a Republican or a Democrat problem as both have screwed up for the past 16 years, this is an American problem.

soba1 Loc: Somewhere In So Ca

China has been building up Africa for quite some time. All the West has been doing is devaluing their currency as to steal their natural resources.
Will China be an improvement?

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

China will prove to be no friend of Africa, they will exploit their natural resources and then be done with them. This is not new.

soba1 Loc: Somewhere In So Ca

usnpilot Loc: Ft Myers Fl

Is that better than what we have done?

SBW

Might wish to travel China before securing a seat on that bandwagon.

usnpilot Loc: Ft Myers Fl

Never said I wanted to live there, just pointed out some of their positives. Have you lived there? I have spent a lot of time in the Orient, just not China. Love the Oriental cultures.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I am uncertain in what we have done, but the recent history of the US is that ours is a country of the world and we will spend billions upon billions in an attempt to better the conditions in other countries, then we have the c*****e c****e agreements that have us investing in building infrastructure for these third world countries while our infrastructure and our inner cities rot. China's primary concern always has been and will be for the foreseeable future be China. The may have 3 to 4 hundred millions of people living well, similar to the middle class of America, but that leaves a billion living in abject poverty and China will not look too far across its border for humanitarian reasons, but they will for the exploitation of resources to further develop their own economy.

usnpilot Loc: Ft Myers Fl

I'm not denigrating our country, I have, however, tired of all the money our country has spent overseas when our infrastructure is in the toilet and when we are the most in debt country in the world.

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

No one is saying China has benign or altruistic motivation, only that any vacuum beneficial to China will be exploited. I really don't want to see alternative energy technology exported to the US because we put it on the back burner. Alternative is being called the new industrial revolution and we should be leaders. Our aid overseas is to buy friends and influence, usually to the benefit of corporate interests.

Keenan Loc: Central Coast California

I agree. And besides the risk of the US losing out to China and other countries on renewable energy technology and market share, the fact is that shifting back to f****l f**ls will reduce jobs, opposite of what Trump claims. Many more jobs are created with domestically produced renewable energy compared to f****l f**ls.

http://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2012/07/jobs-500x675.jpg

Over 3 Times More Green Jobs Per $1 Invested Than F****l F**l Or Nuclear Jobs
https://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/20/over-3-times-more-green-jobs-per-million-than-fossil-fuel-or-nuclear-jobs/

richosob Loc: Lambertville, MI

You can thank obama for allowing the Chinese to do wh**ever they wanted. He just jumped under his desk quivering in fear.

Rich