The Atlantic's Absurd China Article

I'm reading an article from The Atlantic about China. What I really want to do, more than anything, is pick this detestable piece of crap apart in detail, but I just don't have the energy. If I dismantled every unfit piece of journalism in this country I would never do anything else.

But I will make two points about this odious article by James Fallows. The first should be evident from the first sentence:

"AS CHINA PREPARES to take its place as the world’s dominant power, it faces confounding obstacles: its insularity and sheer stupidity in delivering the genuine good news about its own progress."

As China "prepares to take its place as the world's dominant power"? I'm actually glad this is the first sentence, because it does exactly what the first sentence in an article is supposed to do: It tells you what the article is about. Except in this case, it also tells you that the article is total shit.

Under what definition of "power" can this sentence be true? Is China about to exceed the USA in economic activity? Scientific discovery? Military power? No. It is not. In fact it is not even close in any of those three categories.

China's per capita GDP is woefully behind ours - $5,300 - vs. $45,700. The middle class in China is far below the poverty level of the United States. Their total GDP is 3.3 trillion dollars, vs. America's GDP at 13.8 trillion dollars. In no way, shape or form can China be said to even be in the same league as the United States economically.

And lest you think that America's recent economic troubles have given China a leg up on us, China is suffering more than we are. The Hong Kong stock market is down from its highs more than ours is, having fallen 57% versus America's 40%.

Militarily, the Chinese have a bigger army than we do, but they always have. They have a very land-centric, infantry-centric army, because that is one of China's strengths: It just has an ungodly shitload of people. It can field a 5-million man infantry army because rifles are cheap and in China, so is human life. Tanks and airplanes are expensive.

China does not have a blue water navy. America has twelve aircraft carriers and the Carrier Strike Group ships to support it. This means that with six Carrier Strike Groups at sea at all times, within days, the US Navy can be operating 100 aircraft off of any shore in the world, and they can double, triple or quadruple that number within weeks. China has no carriers.

China has 77 blue water ships like frigates and destroyers, no cruisers, no carriers, and a gaggle of local, littoral combat ships like missile patrol boats, and 800 aircraft. The US Navy has 283 ocean-going, blue water ships. and 3700 aircraft.

The People's Liberation army Air Force has 2,300 aircraft. The US Air Force has 5,700 manned aircraft, and the US Army operates hundreds more aircraft (mostly helicopters) , and the Marines operate hundreds more again.

In the coastal waters of China, China's navy is capable. Beyond Japan and Taiwan, it is no match for the US Navy.

In the ability to project force, China does not even come close to the US. We support military forces all over the world, and in addition, America solely has the ability to put 150,000 troops into Iraq, a country on the other side of the planet, and support them indefinitely. Nobody has this ability besides us, and certainly not China.

So I must ask the Atlantic, what the hell are you talking about? Where is China beating the US? Where is it even matching the US? Where is it even close?, that you would say it is about to become the "dominant world power"?

Secondly, the entire paper addresses a very disturbing premise: that China is, sadly, not very good at telling the world how awesome it is, despite the fac that they control their media and no significant criticism of the government is tolerated. I must point out here that this journalist, who lives in a free country with a free press, is eager to help China expend its power as a brutal dictatorship by teaching it the fine art of PR.

And I bet the irony of it is totally lost on him.