China taking another great leap forward

By Steve Friess

Beijing -- Without a doubt, 2001 was a landmark year in world history. A turning point. The beginning of a new era.

But not because of Sept. 11.

Pundits now regard the terror attacks and subsequent war in Afghanistan as the biggest story of the year, and they're right. The world would be hard-pressed to find a more shocking, far-reaching calamity.

In the long-term, though, the story of this year was China.

Decades from now, after Americans have returned to their complacency and some other brutal regime has assumed control of Afghanistan, the lasting impact of 2001 will be the revolutionary, truly astonishing events witnessed in the Middle Kingdom.

"Emerging superpower"

This was, after all, the annum during which China became a member of the World Trade Organization, landed the 2008 Olympics, qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time, acknowledged its AIDS problem and enjoyed robust economic growth even as the world endured the worst slump in an age.

And, in what would have been the most dramatic foreign story to Americans had it not been for Sept. 11, the Chinese elicited an apology out of the United States before releasing the detained crew of a U.S. spy plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. That the apology was blatantly insincere is irrelevant to the fact that the Bush administration liberated those service members only by pleasing Beijing -- and then spent the summer groveling to improve Sino-U.S. relations.

It would be going too far to claim this was the year China came into its own, but it proved in 2001 that it is an emerging superpower whose growing influence will someday alter the global landscape.

The WTO entry, certainly, places this once-socialist bastion firmly on its way to rivaling the United States as a capitalist powerhouse. Its borders will open wider to trade with more even-handed tariffs and its laws will soon become far more conducive to foreign businesses opening shop in every conceivable industry here. The result will be the accelerated development of China's hinterlands, a massive influx of new jobs in manufacturing and professional sectors and a modernization of civil, criminal and corporate regulations that could eventually help force a more even-handed administration of law for all.

"Mover-and-shaker"

Politically, too, China emerged as a far more savvy player on the world stage than the United States, as evidenced by its successful bid for the 2008 Summer Games. Sick of being lectured to by an arrogant America about its faults, the nations of the world welcomed Beijing's live-and-let-live approach and rewarded China for it.

Meanwhile, the country also kissed up to all those seemingly inconsequential countries Washington finds of little use. By the time the International Olympic Committee handed it a landslide in July over Canada, France and Japan, China had spent years trick-or-treating for votes around the world to world leaders who couldn't get past the White House switchboard.

These gestures -- a visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin here, a direct-aid gift to help build a soccer stadium there -- add up. Pretty soon, Sino-Whoever relations are better than ever.

Turns out, there are an awful lot of seemingly inconsequential countries out there, and many of them vote in the IOC or the United Nations or wherever a reflection of world opinion emerges. While Washington disregards dominant views on everything from Israel to missile defense, Beijing continues to enhance its prospects as a palatable alternative to America as the world leader the others obey.

"Ongoing problems"

China's abysmal human rights record has become irrelevant. It remains an agonizing problem but one the world lacks the motivation to tackle. Unless Beijing does something overwhelmingly egregious -- and apparently persecuting Falun Gong members and annihilating Muslims in the northwest who crave autonomy aren't bad enough -- no country with any human rights problems of its own will say a word. That's most of the planet.

Washington won't shy away from speaking up because it makes Americans feel superior, but the United States will do little else because there's too much money to be made in China. U.S. politicians know consumers also view it as a human right to be able to buy cheap, China-made stuff at Wal-Mart and that America's major companies view it as a human right to be able to open franchises in the world's only booming economy.

Instead, the West will hope that China's economic success forces democratic reforms, too. That logic, uttered incessantly when the IOC picked Beijing for 2008, remains to be proved. There's been no evidence yet that China's f inancial success thus far has led to genuine political freedom.

A decade from now, China will be more powerful and more economically accessible than ever. The events of 2001 position it for this. That outcome will resonate to every part of the globe.

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