Press coverage of President Obama’s China visit earlier this month made much of a perceived “power shift.”
No doubt a power shift is occurring — as an Associated Press story reported, “a shifting balance of power: two giants moving closer to being equals.”
The power shift is happening for many reasons. The world is rapidly changing, and power shifts are part of a changing world.
But one of the reasons for the shift that is most frightening is the amount of American debt that China holds, $800 billion.
Of course, the debt works both ways. With China holding that much debt, it has great interest in seeing that America doesn’t fail and debt and interest payments keep coming.
We know that, too, but that’s the same scenario that got us into trouble in the Middle East. We became debtors to oil states, dependent on their resource, which has led to poor political decisions and involvements later.
Cartoonists are joking about Obama’s trip — who actually symbolizes the United States in their cartoons — bowing to Chinese pressure. It’s a situation that has developed over several presidents, and one we shouldn’t have gotten ourselves into. Now we should try to get ourselves out of it as soon as possible.
