The Grand Alliance

Frederick Kempe has an article in the Wall Street Journal Online titled Six Steps for Healing a Codependent U.S., China (subs'n req'd) that addresses the serious threats to the global economy created by the trade imbalance between the US and China. His fifth step is the most important to my mind, however.

Fix the relationship. Too little thought at the highest levels has gone into dealing with the serious mistrust that makes our codependence all the more fragile in what could be the 21st century's most important relationship – that between the world's greatest power and its greatest emerging power.

Many in the U.S. suspect China's ultimate purpose is to reduce American global influence and, through its artificially low exchange rate and military spending, destroy America's competitive position. China suspects that the U.S. wishes to counter its economic rise and is tightening its ties to Japan and India because it doesn't want a competing power.

It's time to quit tinkering here and there with this codependent relationship and instead pursue a comprehensive new strategy. The strategy should recognize each of the codependents' success relies on the health of the other -- as to no small extent does the world economy. Yet America also must escape the [co-dependent] relationship if it wants to regain some high ground in a relationship where China lacks moral compass for global leadership. |WSJ|

It is important for the US and China to work together to develop a nice hegemonic system so that all the people of the world can live lives of mediocre splendor in service to the ruling class.