Go ahead and read it. It'll sound about the same as every other thinly veiled awestruck/fearstruck warning to the western world, to "get off yer duff and take these bastards seriously, or they'll run the world in a few decades, while you and your familly drown in your own excrement." You'll find things like, "There are 300 million cell phone users in China." "If even 10% of the Chinese population did _blank_ then that would turn the word market for _blank_ on its ear." They always talk passingly about "our market opportunity" but belie it with "if only China would open its doors to the west." Sprinkle in "human rights," "nuclear weapons," and "communism" and you've got the makings of a nice little pseudo cold war in the brewing, a nice sun brewed ice cold war.
You see, our problem is that we are really afraid of China, but it's not just China. Before them (or concurrently) it was Russia. Before that, it was the Vietnamese, Native-Americans. Before that, it was the Turks... It's always somebody, and hindsight has always proven our fear was all for naught.
So, back to China. What was it about this article that irked me? - Cell phone users - I got this image in my head of 300 million folks walking around with little black gadgets stuck to their heads. I see them, a sea of thin, slight, Chinese people hustling and bustling with little portable hot-pocket roasters yibber yabbering away about important stuff concerning world affairs and their plans for global domination and our own subsequent subjugation.Unfortunately, their plans are probably more in line with, do you know who X has a crush on, or did you get the new album by X, or hon, pick up some rice on the way home from the office, or hi, mom, the phone company told me that it would be another ten years (or never) before they extended service to our area, so I just got this cell phone.
So people aren't doing anything but using these cellphones to perform the same things that you or I do in the same circumstances. But what if the Chinese dumped cell phones onto our markets, got a lock on the global cell phone market, why, they could... hello? These are cell phones, people!! These are communication devices. Like ALL tech, it doesn't have the ability to DO squat by itself. It can't invent anything new. It can't create. It can't motivate. It can't thrust. It is a TOOL, a tool for people, subject to their follies, their strengths, their weaknesses. A cell phone cannot DO anything to you. It cannot change your way of life. It cannot subjugate you. Unless...
And that brings me to another point. If technology is essentially impotent, what CAN China possibly do with it or any other piece of technology they acquire? The short answer is this: What their president tells them to do.
We should not fear a people without true freedom, for it is the most important attribute of success. One person cannot make decisions for 2 billion people. He can't even begin to comprehend the lives of his living relatives. The only way China can succeed in any lasting way is if they are free to pursue their inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Will they pursue folly? Sure. Will they do great things? Sure. Will they be a threat to us? Surely not.