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In response to
"I disagree. The Philippines won't be buying anything from them now. "
by
Krusty
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China's influence doesn't come from what it sells, it comes from what it buys.
Posted by
Roger More (aka rogermore)
Nov 17 '13, 07:32
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China will probably overtake America and Japan as the biggest buyer of exports from the Philippines, and the country is actively seeking more investment from China.
And in that part of the world, even the democracies are authoritarian. Japan has basically had one-party rule since the Second World War, Malaysia and Singapore since independence, Thailand until very recently - and the entrenched interests are fighting back there. When I say authoritarianism looks attractive, I'm not talking about ordinary people, but from the perspective of people who want to run countries.
They look at China, where the government has no direct accountability to its people but the economy is growing at 8%, the country is modernizing fast and a lot of people (including people like them) are getting fantastically rich.
And they compare this against democracies of the West, which are not growing and where democracy is not providing solutions - see the euro crisis - or not working at all - like with the US shutdown. Authoritarianism looks a much better path - that gives these people more control and makes them rich - than chaotic democracy.
(Of course I don't agree with this perspective. Democracy is more sustainable over the long term, and one of China's big problems is that no one really believes in communism and everyone just gets pretends because it helps them earn $$$. But this is how the world looks from Asia)
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