Perhaps it was inevitable. If so, the inevitable has happened.
Countries that have either an authoritarian streak or are outright totalitarian are beginning to talk of a new model of development to replace what’s known as the “Washington Consensus.” In other words, state-controlled economics divorced from pluralism and political freedom.
A case in point is this article from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has long chafed at demands from Washington that it open up its political system and allow things like equality for women.
For Al Riyadh, Dr. Abdullah Bin Abed Al Mohsin Al Faraj writes in part:
“If in the next 20-25 years, the yellow dragon succeeds to maintain high rates of growth, China will be the undisputed global economic superpower. … What does this mean to us [Gulf countries] and the rest of the world?”
“If China’s public sector continues to play the role in the next twenty five years that it does today – without this having a negative impact on economic growth – then a new model contrary to the ‘Washington Consensus’ will have been produced. … Beijing will be able to impose its model, extend its hegemony and redefine the principles of economic development and the political order that was imposed by the United States with the “Washington Consensus.”
By Dr. Abdullah Bin Abed Al Mohsin Al Faraj
Translated By Nicolas Dagher
November 21, 2009
Saudi Arabia – Al Riyadh – Original Article (Arabic)
On the U.S. President’s recent Asia tour, China was considered the most important. Despite insistence about a “partnership” by Barack Obama, who is called Oubama by the Chinese, the competition between the two countries is apparent for all to see. In the future, China will be a powerful rival of the United States – and not in the economic sphere alone. If in the next 20-25 years, the yellow dragon succeeds to maintain high rates of growth, China will be the undisputed global economic superpower.
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