As much of the Western focus is on chaos on Wall Street and in the US government, China made another step towards superpower status with the first Chinese person to walk in space. It is their stated aim to have a space station as well as reaching the moon and mars. Meanwhile NASA faces a financial crisis and has found it self dependent on Russian cooperation. This really could be a very symbolic week that historians look upon as the beginning of the Chinese 21st century.
Maybe if we save money by using toxic (but cheap!) chemicals in all our exports we could give more to NASA...
Before you know it Chinese will be a required second language in all US schools. Let the mass American immigration begin!!!
I hope they are drinking Tang, not Chinese milk on board. Seriously, congratulations to the Chinese and welcome to space.
When I was a kid, a buddy's mom used to make it. I loved it then as it was a treat, pure sugar juice. We never had that stuff in my own house.
Not quite, the recent China scandal on the tainted milk products suggested that the Chinese still have quite a bit to catch up on their quality control and on their government transparency. They are growing rapidly but at the cost of increasing pollution and widening gap between the rich and the poor. They still have a lot of domestic problems to tackle before being considered as a candidate for the next super power. Given their banks opaqueness, we do not yet know their exposure to USA sub prime crisis. Who knows what will happen when they cant cover it anymore.
Could be. China has iron curtains all over, so it's really difficult for anyone to know what is really happening in the country. But I, for one, will accept US dominance over Chinese dominance any day.
That would be Two, I do not wish to Kow Tow to the Chinese any time any day. USA foreign policies may be muddled up but it beats communism anytime anyday.
Very true. China has a lot to learn. As the Chinese try to improve the standards of living of their population, they will consume ever-more resources, oil and energy. In turn, there will be more pollution than ever. These countries, like India and China, have huge population densities, and providing a good standard of living for all of them becomes extremely difficult. Look at the example of USA. Its just 5% of the world's population, but consumes 30% of world's oil. And a hell of a lot of resources. It is unsustainable. And they generate a lot of waste too... China and India are still attempting to provide basic services like food & drinking water to the masses. We have a long way to go. And with these limited resources available there is bound to be problems.
We also account for like 20% of the world's GDP, even though we're only a 5% of the world's population. It takes energy resources to fuel an economy like this. Without energy resources our economy would grind to a halt and we wouldn't be able to help raise millions of people out of poverty in China and India through outsourcing and imports.