The United States needs to keep its eye on China, said Joseph Kahn, deputy foreign editor for The New York Times.
Kahn spoke Thursday at the U Hinckley Institute of Politics about China’s up-and-coming status as a superpower of the world.
“China is a bright spot in the world,” Kahn said. “This could end up being a transformation, a rise of a new superpower.”
Kahn brought with him a knowledge of China’s culture and mindset, both social and economic, from his current post, as well as the time he spent as a Times bureau chief in Shanghai, China.
China, no longer a world recluse, has risen to second in military spending behind the United States, has an export revenue of $2 trillion and could soon surpass the United States in military arsenal, Kahn said.
“They have tended to try to keep a low profile in international affairs,” Kahn said. “They don’t look to make enemies or to pick fights. They have been careful to keep good diplomatic relations.”
China, in sharp contrast to the United States, tends to shy away from international disputes, concerning itself chiefly with economic affairs, Kahn said. Most of the $2 trillion export fund is funneled into foreign economies and bonds, he said. The Chinese government, prior to the collapse of many top financial firms, had invested nearly $400 billion into bonds from firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the situation worsened, Kahn said, China demanded that “the U.S. make good on every penny.”
“The U.S. was alone in power, it had no military peers, but the hangover of the great feelings of the 1990s is two unfinished wars and hundreds of thousands of deployed troops,” Kahn said.
President Barack Obama, who has been in office only 66 days, came into a situation that few would willingly accept. Iran has few plans to overhaul its nuclear programs, Israel recently elected a right-wing government and the drug war in Mexico is raging, leaving many projects for the new administration to face, Kahn said.
“President Obama is looking at an agenda that is pretty unfavorable to the United States,” he said.
With problems multiplying in the United States and the rapid growth in China, many question if the United States would do well to adopt some of China’s practices to aid the economy in coming out of the slump.
“It’s very difficult for the United States to learn from China because we’re so different,” Kahn said. “If we took pages from their books, Washington wouldn’t accept it; China is demonized in Washington. We could learn from their confidence8212;they are very disciplined in their public comments, they never question one another in public. There are some things that we could learn from China, but it would be tough to find someone in Washington that will admit it.”
Kahn remains optimistic about the future of the United States in international relations, but concedes that China is on the heels of the United States.
“I think it’s extremely unlikely that the U.S. will fail to come back from this,” he said. “But with this crisis, China is being called on to be a leader.”
Todd Halvorsen, education manager for Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, Inc., which is responsible for distribution of the Times, said Kahn came to the U through the Collegiate Readership Program, which allows the Times to be offered on campus for free.
“Utah is a unique state in that every university has a Collegiate Readership Program, even (Salt Lake Community College),” Halvorsen said. “Utah has one of the largest readerships. There are about 1,700 copies of The New York Times that are read daily on campus.”
