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James Debono
Throughout 2005 China made significant strides in its long march to become a superpower, with the European Union and the USA losing ground as cheap Chinese exports took their toll on their economies.
With a growth rate of 9 per cent China is an economic powerhouse fuelled by an army of cheap and docile workers. The Chinese model, combining hyper-capitalism with totalitarian control, could become a model for elites in developing countries who want to enjoy the benefits of capitalism without giving up their power.
Caught between American neo-liberalism and the Chinese model, Europe has once again failed in emerging as a key global player. The rejection of the European Constitution by the traditionally europhile French was the biggest set-back for stronger European voice on the world stage.
The Constitution would have given Europe a recognisable President and Foreign Minister. As the European economy remains sluggish in the face of competition from countries where social and environmental safeguards barely exist, the future of the European social model is being questioned by politicians emulating the US model.
Yet it is this social model combining liberalism and social democracy which gives Europe an identity and makes it a model for emerging social democracies in Latin America.
Ironically it was in the name of this social model, that many French socialists rejected the European Constitution as too corrupted by neo-liberal vocabulary for their tastes.
Yet in the absence of political unity, Europe does not command the same strength as the USA in the world arena. Cheap imports from China have crippled European economies. In 2005 Europe responded to the Chinese threats by export controls. Yet in the absence of global standards setting limits to the exploitation of labour in the Far East, the future for European workers is bleak.
Fifteen years after the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, the Chinese Communist Party still reigns supreme over a sixth of the world. Using its vast reserve of cheap labour, China is growing to new highs.
China disproved the notion that capitalism and liberal democracy are two sides of the same coin. Although an affluent Chinese middle-class is emerging, it has been co-opted in the party or is simply too busy making and spending money to care.
Yet democracy has also received a set-back across the Atlantic, in the very birthplace of liberal democracy. The recent revelations that the CIA had been using airports around Europe as stop-offs for flights carrying prisoners for torture in so called “black sites” – secret prisons – in central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East exposes the dark side of the war on terror.
George W Bush says the US “doesn’t do torture”. But in August 2002 the US Department of Justice had issued a legal opinion saying “interrogation methods just short of those that might cause pain comparable to ‘organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death’ could be allowable without being considered torture.”
The torture flight revelations threaten to reopen and deepen the rift between the US and the EU, risking to undermine Bush’s post-election efforts to woo European allies in sharing responsibilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yet despite being re-elected, Bush has not managed to improve his country’s standing in the world. The ultimate proof of the crisis facing US hegemony is growing defiance in its own backyard. The election of Evo Morales, a left-wing former coca farmer in Bolivia and Hugo Chavez’s triumph in a referendum in Venezuela is the ultimate proof that democracy is a very difficult tool to control.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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