Smart Power, Chinese Style

• Mahbubani says that there is surprisingly no tension between America and China. I'd have to agree with that, I suppose. But there is, I believe, tension (or at least some type of rivalry) between American and Chinese people. Americans typically believe that Chinese = genius, and this creates a divide between the two cultures. Also, this may be a completely ignorant comment, but I think Chinese people are sneaky! They don't express themselves like Americans do, Facebook is banned in their country (what?!) and they're Communists (which, historically, automatically means that they are untrustworthy). I also had a really bad roommate experience with a Chinese girl, so I'm probably biased.
• Three of Xiaoping's seven guidelines are: "conceal our capabilities and avoid the limelight... keep a low profile... strive for achievements." This basically sums up my view of Chinese people in general, so they seem to be doing a good job! I agree that these are why it is  "difficult to describe Chinese successes, because the Chinese themselves say so little about them."
• When Mahbubani talks about how American diplomats aren't the best and brightest (like those of China), I immediately connected. There are way too many jobs in the United States that just have the "wrong man for the job," but there is one in particular that I have a problem with. I love my future-teacher friends, and most of them are adequately prepared, but there are a lot of teachers who really confuse me as to how they were ever qualified to teach children, the future of our country. I blame these problems on our poor public education, but how are they going to get fixed when bad teachers are constantly being put into classrooms?
• "American diplomats live and work in fortress-like compounds" - Well, especially now after the attack on the U.S. diplomacy in Benghazi, Libya.
• "Obtaining any kind of assistance from the US requires compliance on a battery of restrictions." - It would be nice to just help countries out, but we live by "If I do that for you, then I have to do it for everyone else, too." We believe in contracts because we like rules and don't want to get jipped. What's wrong with that?
• "Western incompetence has provided significant opportunities that China has been able to exploit without paying any serious political price." - Ouch.
• "It is amazing how solid and stable the sino-american relationship has become" - I will refer back to an earlier statement: Chinese people are sneaky! I think I may just be a conspiracy theorist, but if I were China, I would play nice with America (my biggest threat) for the time being, at least until I've gotten strong enough to be the world's absolute superpower. Because if I'm not nice to America, they'll get suspicious, and I can't have them snooping around. (Maybe I watched too many Scooby-Doo cartoons as a kid...)

*Most of what I write has a sarcastic undertone, so please don't think I'm anti-China!