China has it, America doesn't; a vision, a strategic plan for the future - International Prose

China has it, America doesn't; a vision, a strategic plan for the future
by michael payne via shirl - OpEd News Sunday, Jul 30 2017, 1:53am
international / prose / post

They go from day to day just reacting to conditions that as they emerge. They have absolutely no vision of the direction that this country needs to take going into the future.

Is there any plan of any kind that this Trump-led government is following? Well, we keep hearing that Trump and his GOP cohorts want to create jobs, improve our system of healthcare, repair and rebuild the infrastructure, and initiate tax reform.

That's great but that's the same old stuff that the American people have been hearing for a long time. But do we hear anything about specific steps that they intend to take to make those initiatives come to fruition? What they are doing is talking about a plan to make a plan and that's getting nowhere real fast. In reality there is no plan, there are no priorities.

What the current U.S. government is doing is no more than wishful thinking, hoping these things will be achieved through some sort of political miracle. Right now America, because of its backward, shallow-thinking government and leaders, is like a ship with a badly damaged rudder and a faulty compass foundering on the high seas.

Captain Trump and his motley crew are certainly not burning the midnight oil working furiously to develop positive programs and legislation to achieve key objectives. There are no deadlines to meet and no sense of urgency.

In Contrast China, which is well on the way to becoming the #1 economic power in the world, is in the process of implementing its 13th consecutive 5-year plan, one based on achieving continuous economic growth. Its leaders emphasize the need for "strategic vision" in developing the government's key priorities. Has anyone heard Trump talk about his vision or strategies for America in explicit terms?

The U.S. government remains in its stagnated condition while that of China continues to advance its main objective; to become the economic superpower of the world. It does not waste its wealth on the pursuit of useless wars but, rather, invests it in working with nations all over the world on mutual productive endeavors.

As the U.S government continues to conduct a relentless bombing campaign in Syria, destroying infrastructure, and launching drones and their deadly missiles down upon the countries of Somalia and Yemen, the Chinese are accelerating in a totally different direction, investing in projects with excellent returns on those investments.

China has a very ambitious initiative, called "One Belt, One Road," with a massive scope and scale like no other in modern history, with the objective of investing more than $1 trillion in infrastructure building involving more than 60 countries. China will be pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into railways, roads, ports, pipelines, and utility grids.

While China is pursuing these highly ambitious infrastructure projects with all these nations, this U.S. government can't even figure out how to fund the repair of its own crumbling infrastructure.

A new day is dawning in the world as it seems to be on the verge of a kind of "changing of the guard", i.e., when a dramatic change relative to world leadership is on the horizon. When closely watching events unfolding in the world today we might well draw the conclusion that Chine is ascending into that top spot, passing America as it continues to descend.

What are the U.S. government's objectives, its plan to interact and cooperate with other nations to make things better in the world? Well things don't seem to be going so well as the Trump administration has managed to damage its relations with several nations that have been allies and friends and allies for some time.

Here are some clear signs of the difference between the U.S. and China in their relations with other countries, and why China's influence among these nations is rapidly increasing, while that of America is on the decline:

The relationship between Germany and China, already huge trading partners, is becoming even stronger.

Chancellor Merkel of Germany and President Macron of France have made it clear that they are no longer going to rely on American leadership and will go their own way in the future.

In meetings with foreign leaders Mr. Trump certainly has made more enemies than friends. He criticized various nations for not contributing their share to NATO operations but said little to nothing about how he intends to honor America's deep commitment to NATO and its objectives.

Former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, said, "We are looking at a real weakening of the leadership and credibility of the United States in the world."

Martin Wolf of Britain's Financial Times: "We live in the world the U.S. made. Now it is unmaking it. We cannot ignore that grim reality." Also that "Trump has revolutionized our ideas of what the U.S. stands for."

Deutche Welle, Germany's public international broadcaster, warned that "Trump's unreliability is pushing Europe to 'pivot to Asia', especially China."

And to top off his many ill-conceived statements and actions, the world saw Trump recently remove the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, which all the other countries of the world, except Syria and Nicaragua, have joined. He thumbed his nose at the world and said, "America first!"

In a sign of things to come, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended a two day meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, ahead of wider meetings with European Union leaders.

There is no way that this U.S. government could ever do such ambitious infrastructure building around the world. First, it has no desire whatsoever to do so. Secondly, how could it be done when America needs at least $1 trillion to repair its crumbling infrastructure and there is no funding available to do it; and so it continues to deteriorate?

The U.S. government's only plan, quite apparently, revolves around using its military in attempting to dominate the nations of the world. China, conversely, has a very explicit plan to be the dominant economic power. Which of these objectives will be the most successful as time goes on?

If one thinks about the pros and cons of each of these countries and what their objectives are going into the future, the answer is quite obvious.

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