America and China Expand, Russia Seethes

In exchange for security guarantees from the United States, the Polish government signed on to the American defense shield by agreeing to host ten interceptor rockets; the Czech Republic gets the radar. Moscow remains profoundly offended, as they should be, though in the end, they should also realize that America is primarily concerned with smoothing out the world for commerce, and not conquest.

This process of militarily colonizing former Russian satellites has been going on for some time and tends to capture all the headlines and attention, but there are other such actions going on all over, including here in the United States. The Chinese, in particular, are focusing there economic guns in our direction, according to this CNN report by reporter David Ellis:

Now more Chinese banks, bolstered by a booming economy and recently forged alliances with big Western players, are eyeing a stateside presence.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve gave the go-ahead to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China's largest lender, to open a wholesale banking operation in New York - a sign that some experts say could herald a wave of other Chinese banks entering the United States.

Chinese banks have been performing relatively well the first half of 2008, though profits are expected to be impacted by a slowing world economy, with exposure to the United States trickling back to affect China's banking performance. Such business ups and downs go with the territory, and the territory is worldwide.

The expansion of banking into the United States by mainland Chinese banks is but one part of the growing influence that China has on the United States. They buy our government bonds and prop up our struggling firms, in addition to selling us more goods than a dead broke nation should be buying.

Which is why observing China is so important. The correct observation to note is that while the United States is placing enormous efforts in expanding American military might, other nations, and the Chinese in particular, are placing great emphasis on getting the economics right (or as right as a philosophically communist government can get it).

Even Russia's attempts to regain some "hand", some influence, are not focused on the type of efforts that will insure long term prosperity; Russia has stumbled into recent wealth by virtue of vast energy assets, but those assets maintain their value in part by the deliberate and careful economic expansion by neighbors like China and India and other nations.

It can certainly be argued that American military influence is the foundation for economic prosperity, but too often the focus is singular. The last thing we want to do is become a prisoner of war, by getting the focus wrong.