Don’t know the history of European domination of China? National Review editor Rich Lowry does, and he contrasts it with the current state of affairs between a rising power and a dying continent.
The Chinese refer to the period from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th as “the century of shame.” Now, the shame is all on their former tormentors. The Chinese suffered foreign rule and the breakdown of calcified institutions inadequate to the modern world. No one will conquer the Europeans, but they are laboring under a broken model of governance that has exposed them to the humiliation of asking for Chinese backing for their bailout, and, inevitably, more embarrassments to come.
The Europeans share a misbegotten single currency that is amplifying the inherent problems attendant to the practice of spending money that you don’t have. Perhaps the Greek crisis can be contained, but what if Spain and Italy spin out of control? Europe is trying to fund a “bazooka” big enough to fend off doubtful markets but doesn’t want to — and perhaps can’t — fund it all by itself. Germany is Europe’s economic powerhouse, yet its public debt–to–GDP ratio is already larger than ours.
This is where China and its $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves come in. If China were to contribute to a bailout fund that Europe wants to build up to $1.4 trillion, it would surely ask for concessions in return, such as the Europeans’ dropping their criticism of China’s undervalued currency. China also might wonder why it should come to the rescue of a European Union that still has it under an arms embargo. History comes full circle, with the ascendant Chinese in a position to extract concessions from erstwhile colonial powers.
