Americans See China as No. 1
Which country is the world’s leading economic power?
Almost half of Americans (47%) think it’s China, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, while only 31% think the United States is still out front.
Game over. No wonder China comes out top in a list of countries representing the “greatest danger” to the U.S., just above North Korea — and well above Iran — in the same poll.
In fact, the U.S. economy is about three times the size of China’s in nominal terms, and its GDP per capita is roughly 10 times bigger. However, when it comes to perceptions of China in America, facts apparently don’t matter. Ahead of President Obama’s meeting next week with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, the one statistic everybody is looking at is the alarming unemployment rate, hovering just below 10%. For China, it’s around 4%.
Americans are worried about jobs, and China is widely perceived as stealing them, through mercantilist trade policies, an undervalued currency and other underhanded methods. The same poll finds that 53% of respondents think the U.S. should get tougher with China.
I think that the U.S. needs to step up to the plate and fight harder to stay in the competition rather than to point the finger! Global rivalry is healthy and will force the Country to get stronger. Look at how well IBM and Apple are doing. What is your opinion?
U.S. multinationals and greed.
They have no patriotism
Congressmen who are paid by Lobbyist, who are paid by U S multinationals.
I am happy for China and hope they have better lives. Very nice people, My ire is at the U.S. multinationals. They don’t love China either. They love money
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The new Chinese Capitalism
Josep María Antentas, Viento Sur.” class=”rcol”> Esther Vivas
The recent Olympic Games have been a great showcase for the new ascendant Chinese capitalism. China has today been through a long process of capitalist restoration initiated three decades ago. The reforms began in 1978, and extended and deepened, progressively debilitating the mechanisms of the planned economy and received a decisive push from 1992 onwards.
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1519
China’s Defense Budget
Chinese defense spending has increased by an average of 12.9% annually since 1989 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/budget.htm‘
Although in 1989 only 30% of imports from China competed against goods produced by high-wage industries in the U.S. market, by 1999 that percentage had risen to 50%. [2] To make matters worse, although U.S. workers are five times as productive as their Chinese counterparts, average compensation in the United States is at least 10 and maybe even 20 times larger than that paid by U.S. multinationals to Chinese workers. Thus, U.S. workers will be unable to compete with the much cheaper labor in China despite their higher levels of productivity.
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/briefingpapers_fdi_fdi/
I hope Obama comes back with his shirt still on. Grin!
An Englishman said you Americans don’t understand, when America sneezes, England catches the flue!
We are 3/4 of the worlds economy. Lot of fat.
I guess my Do Not Point The Finger Policy is taking off! It only makes us look like sore loosers and babies at best. Crying over spilled milk is counterproductive. Ask youself, why is someone better than I am? What can I do to improve myself and learn from them? How can I take what they have done and make it better?
Look up to American Companies like IBM and Apple and follow their lead. Find out what they are doing right and attempt to do the same. We have no one to blame but ourselves! Making mistakes is great because we learn from them and improve ourselves. God knows I have! But to make the mistakes and succeed you have to take risks and change the “business as usual” way of doing things. China is leading the way in technology and innovation. Investing in better and more innovative business practices is the wave of the future. You can either ride the wave or go against it and washout. It is entirely up to you.
The article is only about the perception of America compared to China. It doesn’t say anything about the actual ranking of the US. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if China surpasses America. China leads in academics and technology. America has lots of problem, mainly their debt. These problems are sinking them fast, unless they do something about it.
America is broke. The government is supposed to fix it, but they’re not expert in financial management. They’re experts in politics. They use to make decisions that are best for the American people. Now they make decisions for their own gain.
Lawmakers can’t work together. Hate and more hate isn’t helping at all. Instead of doing what’s best for the country, they make decisions to antagonize their opposing party.
I think the media manipulation is one of the biggest culprit in the decline in America. “US has ‘uncensored’ media yet many Americans are still misinformed”—I agree with this sad truth. The media doesn’t care about the plain truth or objectivity. They will publish or air whatever the Americans want to hear. Some of them will appear in the news and they will insult and bash each other. It’s like a political Jerry Springer show. Many Americans are ignorant or don’t care about policies that could affect their lives. They would rather read celebrity gossips.
America is lagging behind academics. Many of them have no critical thinking skills. You tell them a rumor, and they will automatically believe it. They don’t question things. Many have lost their creativity. Just look at the stupid commercials that they play. “Rumors are how dumb people get educated.”
The American media has been telling Americans that they are the “greatest.” As a result, people came to believe that there’s nothing wrong with their culture. But little by little, the American values have started to degrade. Just look at the children talking back to their parents and teachers. Many of them are bullies. They can’t show tolerance and respect. It’s funny the media glamorizes America as a “melting pot” when the truth is this country is still plagued with racism and homophobia. It’s ironic that America asserts it’s feminism, but they call their women hookers or whores. Just look at the recent suicides because of bullying. Phoebe prince is the most know victim. You would think it’s common sense to show respect, but not in America. People harass each other, and they have no shame or guilt about it.
America no longer accepts different points of view. You can’t point out the flaws of America without being called communist or racist. Finally, you can observe the physical transformation of the US. You start to see garbage on the side of the road. You start to see dilapidated buildings. Both America and China have problems to tackle, but it’s how they deal with their problems that’s going to determine who will be the worldpower. Right now, Americans are pretending that everything is OK. Their retirement money is gone, and they still shop at the mall, instead of saving their money.
America is lagging behind academics. Many of them have no critical thinking skills. You tell them a rumor, and they will automatically believe it. They don’t question things. Many have lost their creativity.
They are taking small steps to improve this situation with STEM. Science Technology Engineering and Math Programs in Public Schools.
Also, you have to realize that this article was published by the WSJ in Asia. It is the Asian version of the WSJ and thus the intended audience was primarily Asian.
Why do you think China is spending money on commercials in the US prior to President Jintao’s visit to soften their image here? Because it works.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2011/0114/Hillary-Clinton-Don-t-be-suspicious-of-US-China-relationship