Such statutory provisions would be more effective, Thompson said, than the Most Favored Nation trading status debate that Congress would annually hold regarding China. While this is an important trade matter, because of non-trade events it has become much more than that. It comes at an important time in our relationship with the PRC and. I believe it will probably force a long overdue re-examination of that relationship. China may choose to exert itself and dominate the Asia-Pacific region, an area which is of great importance to the political, economic, and security interests of the United States and our allies.
Many experts are now -focusing on China's prospects in the long run.
The optimists point out that China is not an immediate military threat to the United States or our interests, nor is it an ideological threat as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War. China doesn't have the revolutionary zeal of its earlier generations, and Communism is not very attractive around the world these days. Capitalism has changed all that. China lifted 200 million people out of poverty in two decades. It doubled its per capita income from 1978 to 1987 and then doubled it again between 1987 and 1996.