PETER KOENIG—China does not coerce cooperation – but offers peaceful cooperation. In 2014, Mr. Xi traveled to Germany to offer Madame Merkel for Germany to become – at that time – the western most link to the BRI, or the New Silk Road. This would have been an opening for all of Europe. However, Madame Merkel, having to follow Washington’s mandates – did not respond positively. President Jinping returned to Beijing, no hard feelings. And China continued her persistent course of connecting the countries of our Mother Earth with transport infrastructure, inter-country industrial ventures, education and research projects, as well as cultural exchanges to enrich the world – all the while respecting individual countries’ monetary and political sovereignty.
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KEN HAMMOND—Decreasing coal usage, investing in the research and development of alternative energy systems, and reforestation all work together. China’s response to environmental challenges demonstrates that the Chinese Communist Party retains some important ability to orient and plan the economy. And that’s the most important thing that we need to understand, because that’s exactly what is going on.
The Chinese socialists that wanted to use market mechanisms to develop the economy understood at the time that there were dangers involved, that there were contradictions involved. Deng Xiaoping famously said that “some people are going to get rich first” and that, “if you open the windows, the flies come in.” They knew that there were going to be problems, they knew that there would be contradictions, that there would be increased inequality, that there would be environmental stresses. But they didn’t abandon ship and turn the country over to the forces of capital.
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STEVEN SAHIOUNIE—As much as the Caribbean is considered an “American lake”, the South China Sea is being configured as a “Chinese lake”. As a matter of national security, the South China Sea is absolutely crucial for the Maritime Silk Road. Moreover, China will never accept being encircled and/or “patrolled” by a foreign power in its maritime borders. The ultimate aim is to expel the US Navy from the South China Sea. The US Navy and the Pentagon know very well, after gaming it extensively, that a military confrontation with China – in the South China Sea or Taiwan – will never be a cakewalk and may result in a serious imperial humiliation. In a nutshell, Cold War 2.0 will remain – in different levels, way more rhetorical and heavy on propaganda than yielding military facts on the ground.
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PEPE ESCOBAR—Xiang reminds us that a market economy – including private ownership, free land transactions, and highly specialized mobile labor – was established in China as early as in 300 B.C. Moreover, “as early as in the Ming dynasty, China had acquired all the major elements that were essential for the British Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.” Which brings us to a persistent historical enigma: why the Industrial Revolution did not start in China? Xiang turns the question upside down: “Why traditional China needed an industrial revolution at all?”
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GODFREE ROBERTS—Why has the Chinese government failed to convince the American public that China is their friend or at least not their enemy? That is a damn good question, with a surprisingly simple answer. At present, 90% of Americans learn about China through Western media, so it’s hard for the Chinese Government to convince Americans of anything.
