Dealing with the rise of China: the US should learn from the British the art of the deal
Tom Plate says the US would be wise to follow in pragmatic Britain's footsteps and learn the art of the deal
Whatever the then general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party might have thought, he decided not to return the volley by impolitely laughing in the American's face. The exchange, after all, took place in Washington. But since then, the former Chinese president, now 89, has presumably enjoyed a few chortles with colleagues. China, governed by one-party communist rule that's often depicted in the West as the root of all possible political evil, may be on history's wrong side; but if so, isn't it rather odd that governments will jump to the Sino side quickly enough these days - or at least seek to play both sides of the ideological street?
With their own long history of hard knocks, the British are not about to permit past loyalty to block future survivability
So what do we have today? What we have is Brits cheering, as if he were David Beckham, the visiting President Xi Jinping, as if for all the world one big jolly Chinese Santa Claus - with Great Britain greedily peering into his goody-bag. You just had to love the sight of Xi's triumphant victory parade to Buckingham Palace (he and his glamorous wife Peng Liyuan royal guest-ing overnight), riding in a royal carriage, not to mention the solemnly attentive joint session of Parliament.
So history is flipping over on its back and landing on its "wrong" side?
