The American elites are trying to preserve their economic dominance. The material strength of the 1960's. The Chinese elites are behaving as if their dominance was already achieved. That the date was not 2010 but 2050. A very big mistake. In military terms there is no contest. In economic terms they will soon be Second. Social divisions are masked by nationalism. And this makes the Chinese elites vulnerable when the American elites put them in their actual place. Trade balances make it easier for America to hurt China. What will happen to China's growth in a trade war? And the European elites will certainly join in to exploit the situation. The Chinese government has hinted at serious repercussions. And there will be but only for China. Its put up or shut up. And I predict shut up.

As usual russian medias and politicians will have to admit than nothing has changed in the imperialists' way to stir problems all over the World. The US militarist economy has no respect for human life; her only goal is making money. In his snicky way to operate; soon, we will realize than Obama is just the "Uncle Tom" of his MIC and Wall-Street's masters. Russian leaders, please wake-up, there is a way to deal peacefully with that situation ! Sorry Future Generations. Jean-Claude Meslin

Other than making money, the US government never really wants to see China and Taiwan to become united. They use Taiwan to watch over China. Thank God the US lost the Vietnam war or there will be US troops stationing along the Veitnam and China border today. Now Obama is scheduled to meet Dalai Lama, knowing jolly well it will upset the Chinese leadership but still goes ahead. Well this is politics. The US Government is a trouble maker. Do not be so naive that they want to see the world in peace. Doesn't matter who is President, Bush or Obama. They are all the same in their foreign policies. Under the banner of protecting America from terroists, very soon all of us will have to go through the Full Body Scanners!

As an American, I am confused about your comment as to why this differs from Russian or Chinese arms deals with other countries? Could you please explain?

Meslin, sorry...the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty obligates the U.S. the keep Taiwan armed in a defensible way. Your lack of military history in regards to the Sino-American relationship is evident. You also lack one very significant historical insight...it was the U.S. who trained and gave support in winning autonomy from Imperial Japan. It was General Stillwell and U.S. intelligence (not Soviet) who trained Maoist rebels. Of course the U.S. through support to the Nationals because of ideology. This in turn rallied the U.S. to support Taiwan, and this treaty is dated as of 1955. Jean-Claude you carry on the usual troskyiest rants against the U.S. but simplify history to nothing more than elementary school yard brawls. How easy you forget that is was the U.S. who gave the ultimate sacrifice by defeating Imperial Japan, thus allowing Asian nations to have autonomy. I imagine what Asia would look like without such U.S. involvment. Keep yelling "imperialist". It is nothing more than a weak slogan for a disgruntle bunch of Troskyist.

If the US want to start a new arms race in Asia, it is working. Selling arms to Taiwan is like giving the Chinese permission to expand its military. Is that going to help Taiwan? Or is that going to harm Taiwan? It will not even help the US if China stop buying from Boeing an others.

There is China's way, and there is the US way. One proceeds from principles of global harmony and cooperation. The other continues to see the world as a source of exploitation or simply as the enemy. Until and unless the United States undergoes a systemic change--and this includes the impossible task of adopting a new Constitution, much too revolutionary--it will remain an imperialist country with militarism to back its policies. If anything, the financial meltdown toward the end of the first decade of the 21st century proved one truth: the time has come for a drastic transformation of socio-economic orders in developed and advanced developing countries as well as of existing norms of international relations. The Chinese leadership has shown a great political sense for adaptability to the prevailing global conditions and an admirable ability to solve many of the toughest problems a country of 1.3 billion people faces. China has drawn a path toward a sustainable economy. The United States is locked in the ideology of expansionism. This is why China preaches harmony, but the United States practices war. As for the future? China and the US are poles apart. China has a plan. The US does not. Guess who will lead the world two decades from now?

Mister T. Burns I sympathize with you because I have lived in your country for over 20 years, working for your aerospace industry. Just look at those numbers: In 60 years, mankind has wasted 60 trillions $ on armaments (15 times the financial crisis' cost) America = 5% of humanity made 65% of those arms and ways to send them. Beside the USA have been and still are the initiator and first maker of all WMD. The average American citizen is a very good person, like us Frenchmen, but we are naïve. Just remember what your wonderful Constitution say and the speech of your President Eisenhower on January 21st 1961. You really have a big mess to clean-up !And nobody can help you from outside; it will be too dangerous. We can only expose the facts; which will be better if notorious leaders will do it instead of a nobody like me. Believe me; I am not any kinder with Russian or Chinese decision makers...Sorry Future Generations...Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

Karl, You are the only person who spoke with any real intelligence and facts. Thank you! It seems that most people on here just like to bash America when given the chance. Last week someone said on here that the swine flu was a debocale to benefit the Amefican Pharma Companies, when in fact the vaccine was mass produced by a SWISS company! Although I do agree it is a debocle. These are prime examples of some of the uneducated people who love to bash America without any knowledge of what they are talking about. THank you Karl!

America does such a good job of getting herself in situations that cause people to want to bash her! BASH!

Sam, I may agree with you, but you cant just come on to a web site and voice untrue facts about something or someone for the sake of bashing them. This just makes you look ignorant. My Swine flu example is prime. If you are going to make comments for the sake of debate, please do your research!

freedom, Let's see, you seem to be eager to lecture the uneducated majority of commenters on the merits of productive discussion. Although, so far it appears that you fall short of meeting your very own suggestions. First, your "Swine flu example" -- the only prominent swiss company who made swine flu vaccine was Novartis, and it isn't even leading. It is hard to find a summary, but from a cursory look across a couple of google hit pages the leaders, instead, seem to be GlaxoSmithKline (UK), Sanofi Pasteur (FR) and Baxter Intl (US). So you've failed a fact check with your statement "when in fact the vaccine was mass produced by a SWISS company". Second, you have chosen a perfect, immune position for building a base to support Karl -- you bash an anonymous somebody from two weeks ago -- and we can't even know who you are talking about, the context of his words and what exactly was being said. You seem to have found someone who was overgeneralising Big Pharma to be American Big Pharma. Big deal. And you generalise that to describe the whole spectre of commenters critical of the US policies. Not very smart. What you fail to see, though, is that corporatocracy has indeed originated in the Anglosphere, and your failure to actually check the facts prevented you from noticing that two of the top three swine flu vaccine manufacturers belong to it. Moreover, with the ubercomplicated ownership structures of nowadays, it is not trivial to reliably identify company owners. It could very well be that Novartis is owned by the Anglospheric interests. In short, your missteps are: 1. Factual incorrectness, 2. Overgeneralisation of a not so far-off characterisation of US/corporate interests being the benefactors, which stemmed from 3. Lack of historic context and failure of imagination.

If China wants to get tough America may have to cut China off as a supplier for our landfills. America could stop buying the lead hazard toys and dangerous sheetrock that is now filling America's landfills and warehouses. All the trinkets and junk that is currently filling American stores could be taken to land fills and no more allowed into America. This is what tough is all about. Does China still want to get tough?