In his quest to make his country the undisputed leader of the global economy, China's President Xi Jinping can learn a lot from his next-door neighbor, Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
Not about what to do, but about what not to do.
Except Xi just doesn't seem to get it.
Let's take a close look at the conduct and choices made by Putin and then by Xi. We'll see parallels that undoubtedly have pleased Russia's dapper despot - but should cause Xi to hit rewind and rethink.
First, Putin: Success in the global economy must start with at least the appearance of a Good Neighbor Policy. But Putin has been willing to massively invade or mysteriously kidnap and poison to get what he wants. Also, we recall Putin's planned Sochi Two Step of 2014: To showcase Russia's global economy potential, Putin planned to host the Sochi Winter Olympics - and then host the G-8 economic summit in Sochi. But in between, Ukraine sought new economic ties with Europe - and Putin exploded at having the world see Ukraine rejecting Russia. So he invaded and captured Crimea - causing the G-8 to cancel its Sochi summit and kick Russia out, making it the G-7.
Today, Putin has amassed some 100,000 troops along Russia's border with Ukraine. President Joe Biden this week warned Putin if he invades Ukraine, Russia will suffer economic repercussions "like ones he's never seen." Russia will become an economic shell of its already Potemkin economic self.
Of course, there is a world of difference between Putin's Russia and Xi's China. Putin's Russia is a nuclear superpower, otherwise just borderline above much of the Third World - and often seems unable to fend for itself. Overwhelmed by COVID-19, Russia reportedly suffers more than 1,000 deaths and 35,000 new infections a day. Russian independent journalist Alexey Kovalev wrote in The New York Times that "only 41 percent of the country's people are fully vaccinated, a lower number than in Laos or Cape Verde."
In contrast, China swiftly protected and vaccinated itself - after its global sin of initially covering up while COVID-19 generated and spread. And last September, The Economist reported the success story that means most to Xi's China: "Is China already the world's most dominant economy? By one measure, yes." One expert's statistical analysis of countries' "economic dominance" showed that China surpassed the United States and became the world's dominant economy in 2020. Other analyses show the USA still has a narrow lead.
Now let's rewind and rethink Xi: First, China used a Summer Olympics in 2008 to introduce its sparkling new high-tech self to the world. Now it is about to host the Winter Olympics. But Xi's China has shamed itself by what the United States has called its "genocide" and abuses against the Uyghur Muslims. Also by its crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and its recent military harassment flights in the skies around Taiwan.
Does Xi plan to invade Taiwan someday? Or is he just bullying and menacing, Putin-style, to get the West's attention? Xi must ask himself: Does atrocious conduct mean more to me than seeing China emerge from the economic backwaters that Richard Nixon first saw to lead the world's economy.?
Because that's what he is ultimately risking. The international corporations, global markets and the politicians who front for the global economy have pocketed huge profits and meekly overlooked all the above inhumanity that was "Made in China."
But they, too, bend and inevitably buckle under the demands of a greater power. And that power is you - and all the decent consumers throughout the world.
When you "Just say No!" and refuse to buy anything bearing the badge of proven genocidal criminals and humanity's bullies - well, that is the one power that can buckle and even break the dominance of both China's abusive rulers and capitalism's maxi-profit moralists who have too long served as China's silent collaborators.
Tribune Content Agency