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China Threatens US Hegemony

by | 26th, July 2007

WHAT if China becomes the world’s global superpower? And it does not need to change its ways to usurp the West? Should the UK get involved and be for hire or refuse to deal with them? Are there any good guys and bad guys?

Over the past decade, the UK has allowed its capital city to become the home for many of the world’s most cut-throat and dodgy global financiers. Just as we turned a blind eye to Muslim fundamentalists setting up shop here in the 1990s, in the vain hope that they would treat us gently as they sought to undermine governments elsewhere, so we are doing the same now, all in the name of global capitalism.

The danger takes two forms, one quasi-respectable, the other not. The first is the takeover of some of the world’s most prestigious, and often London-based companies. China is raising capital for Barclays Bank in its attempted purchase of the Dutch giant, ABN Amro. The deal is entirely new, giving the Chinese and Singaporean governments a stake in Barclays even if the takeover fails. This is just the latest, but perhaps one of the most vivid, manifestations of the Chinese corporate global takeover, from a 10% stake in the US private equity company Blackstone, to the ownership of MG Rover by Nanjing Automotive, to the Chinese stranglehold on Wal-Mart and its enormous reserves of US dollars.

The second involves a somewhat different form of expansion. Unlike China’s more diversified economy, Russia’s wealth is dependent on oil and gas, whose market price has remained high for several years now. While Gazprom ponders a takeover of Centrica in the UK, it pressurised BP and Shell to sell it controlling stakes in two vast projects back in Russia. There are many further examples of sharp corporate practice.

And not just in Sino-Russian dealings. Should we not deal with them because they are different?



Posted: 26th, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink