My TakeChina wins by making fewer fatal mistakes than US
- Between the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 Winter Games, the world saw not just China’s rapid development but the indelible, self-inflicted wounds of America from financial crisis to war
There have been endless comparisons about how much China has changed from 2008 to 2022. In truth, the country has transformed profoundly from the time it held its first Summer Olympics to the current Winter Games.
But if you are talking about the most important bilateral relationship in the world, those years are even more instructive about the United States.
In 2008, the real estate and subprime mortgage market collapse threatened the entire US banking system and triggered the global financial crisis. The Great Recession punctured a myth long believed by Americans and much of the rest of the world.
It was that a financial crisis that could threaten an entire economy could only happen elsewhere but never in the US because of the sophistication of its institutions, the cutting-edge skills and knowledge of its financial practitioners and the inherent soundness of its capitalist system.
Today is the sixth month since the US military completely withdrew from Afghanistan, its longest war that ended in defeat by a ragtag group of Muslim fundamentalists fighting with basic weapons.
It left behind a country facing complete economic collapse and famine. This was despite the trillions of dollars spent and countless lives wasted over two decades.