Cold War II: Uncontainable?

It's Drudge's top link, but other than the new numbers, it's not really news.

China will boost military spending by 17.8 percent this year, a spokesman for the national legislature said Sunday, continuing more than a decade of double-digit annual increases that have raised concerns among the United States and China's neighbors.

This growing China, if it can overcome rampant corruption, unchecked pollution, and in twenty years its one-child-induced-top-heavy senior citizen problem, its military and economic standing will be second to none. The hurdles on the way however, make this one-man race to the top have the appearance of risk, but as with all one-man races, 1st place is guaranteed.

They learned that the USSR couldn't outspend the U.S., and is why it collapsed. China has the big capitalist beast on the leash of communism, and they know better than to let ideology get in the way of prudence. We need to get in the race, and we need some help.

We have options. 1) Hope they'll collapse on their own, and risk them rivaling or overtaking our supremacy, or 2) Bankrupt them now, and potentially ourselves in the process.

But our choice has already been made. Thanks to Korea and Vietnam, containment no longer has that allure, especially without half the world on our side. Thanks to Iraq, acting before it's do or die risks political suicide.

Even if we tried to contain China, or outspend them into the poor house, it wouldn't be another round of U.S. vs. the Soviets, it would be a game of capitalism. How do you take down a giant in the market?

Option 3) Buy Indian. India is China's main competitor, and right now, we have an advantage. We all but control the IMF, World Bank, and most global financial centers which we can use to India's advantage. We need to get India in the game, and use the two of them to our advantage. We'll need to support China's competition, and win this war economically. And we need to do it while we still can save Taiwan.