kristoff and friedman are running neck and neck for most hysterical pansy. dame sullivan will of course be presenting the year end award.

China matters only because she scares the bejabbers out of Taiwan and Japan.

san fran fred :)

the prc is acting in our greater interest and doesn't even know it :) they really should read up on carthage, and change course -- but of course they won't. "a nicer bunch of chumps you couldn't ask for"

There's no big issue separating the U.S. and China...

They don't like our Taiwan policy, but they aren't going to invade Taiwan anytime soon, so that's just a rhetorical issue.

They don't want to do anything about North Korea, but they're willing to host and participate in talks.

Many in the U.S. are upset by China's yuan peg, but in the meantime the Chinese are subsidizing American consumers.

What's the big deal ?

They aren't a democracy and don't allow self-determination to the several regions that desire independence.

From the article:

Privately, some Chinese dismiss the North Koreans as "Gaoli bangzi" or Korean hillbillies. And fortified by a bit of liquor, North Koreans denounce Chinese as unscrupulous, money-grubbing traitors.

The thought of North Koreans looking down at anybody is hilarious.
Even the Vietnamese and Cubans live like royalty, compared to the NoKos.

The country that is distorting global capital flows and destabilizing the world economy is not China but the U.S. American fiscal recklessness is a genuine international problem...

Huh ?!?
American spending is the engine that's driving the world economy right now, keeping the Eurozone and Japan from sinking further into recession.
Japan and several European nations have higher public debt to GNP rations, and have less ability to repay.
In fact, Italy is extremely likely to have her gov't paper reduced to junk status with the next few decades.

In recent years, China has supplied almost one-third of the growth in the global economy (measured by purchasing power), compared with the 13 percent that came from the U.S.

Um, duh, where does Mr. Kristof think that China's growth has come from ?
It's been mostly export driven, not internal growth, and the U.S. are China's # 1 customer.
America is just applying the hyper-growth economic Force to China, as we did to Japan after WW II.

oj:

Those aren't issues that keep the U.S. and China from working together, although they do cause friction.

Perhaps you mean that if you were King of the U.S., they would be deal-breakers ?

I don't need to be; W is.

Why would anyoned read past the first sentence--only ignorance can follow.

why would anyone need to read past the byline ?

He's written some surprisingly sensible stuff, though only intermittently:

http://www.brothersjudd.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=kristof

Why would anyone read anything from the NYT?

i never read anything by a leftist. maybe i miss a few things that are ok, but the time i save allows me to read more by people with a higher rate of return to me. to put it in a baseball analogy:

he might get a hit once in awhile, but that
doesn't make up for the inummerable strike
outs.

once you know some one is of the left, there is nothing more to be gained from them.

Not a Realist; but a coward.