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Making China Great Again?

by Philip F. Jacobus, CEO | January 03, 2018
I made my first trip to China in 1977 and visited the country on business more than 70 times so I am always interested in what happens there.

Mr. Evan Osnos is a writer with the New Yorker magazine and he has written a piece that you might want to read etitled, Making China Great Again.

He shared some insights you might find interesting.

It seems that the political leaders in China see this time as a time of Strategic Opportunity. As the U.S. wants to take a less active role in the world, China seems to want to take a greater role.

China is investing in business in South America and Africa and Central Asia and the good old USA.

This is a dramatic change because in the past China has followed the strategy of Deng Xiaoping when he said China must hide its strength and bide it's time. It seems that finally China has reached the point where they don't have to bide their time anymore as they feel they are on the way to becoming the dominant world power.

Some other examples:

As the U.S. is stepping back from funding United Nations peacekeeping efforts China is increasing their spend in the UN.

China has embarked on a program in Asia and Africa of building roads and bridges. They're spending seven times more than the U.S. spent on the Marshall Plan.

The Marshall Plan, you might recall, was more than just an effort to rebuild infrastructure in Germany and Japan. It was also an attempt to introduce the values of the U.S. around the world. In the past our government felt that it was important to promote our values around the world. Now it seems that we do not.

One takeaway from the article is that this strategic opportunity will last at least as long as Donald Trump is the U.S. President. I can't help but wonder if all this is good for our country and good for the world.

What do you think?

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About Phil Jacobus

Phil Jacobus has been involved in health care since 1977, when he visited China to sell equipment. He has done business in 35 countries and still travels extensively. Phil is active in charity, helps rural clinics and always tries to help DOTmed users when he can.

Phil is a member of AHRA, HFMA, AAMI and the Cryogenic Society of America. He has contributed to a number of magazines and journals and has addressed trade groups.

Phil's proudest achievement is that he has been happily married to his wife Barbara since 1989, who helped him found DOTmed in 1998.

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Leon Zebrick

China

January 05, 2018 12:25

As one element of the Marshall Plan was a type of values propagation, as you note, we should assume similar motivations for China. Chinese social policy begins with suppression of free speech, the press, all media, and a controlled (site-blocked and limited) Internet. That's only good for assisting despots and their non-democratic ilk to cling to power, a fact which unfortunately in many cases helps doors to swing wide open for China (in just the wrong places). But such imposed values are contrary to the innate nature of people and eventually lead to social unrest and all the nasties that go along with that (look at Iran this week). So, the influence vacuum being created by the US global stand-down will probably come back to bite us one day, in many ways, but the worst could be the sustainment, or even growth, of unstable or totalitarian regimes that pose a threat to the US, either directly, or by harboring terrorist organizations. For such countries, the US is a natural enemy. It's a mistake to willingly give up our global political leadership.

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Philip F. Jacobus

re: China

January 13, 2018 02:57

I could not agree more Leon.

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