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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 08 2012 @ 07:38 PM EDT |
To see the effect of economic power in WTO disputes resolution look at the
Antigua off-shore gambling complaint. The US lost and the case entered
arbitration to settle damages.
It was the abitrators, just individuals, who were nobbled in the gambling
dispute, and not all of them: one resigned in protest at the inadequate award of
$21 million instead of the claimed $500 million plus. This outcome allowed the
WTO and US to preserve the fiction of fair dealing while respecting the
realities of power.
Nonetheless, the US should be very afraid of the precedent thereby set, because
the Chinese are far better at this jiggery-pokery and have no institutional
qualms whatsoever about doing it.
As to the supposed nuclear threat, remember the Soviets never had the slightest
influence at the WTO despite their massive (and ongoing) advantage in warhead
numbers.
The military in China has nothing to fear from the US. Their nuclear weapons are
as good as those of the US from the point of view of destroying the enemy
civilisation.
As to conventional war, given the disparity in numbers there is a good chance
that the US would not survive a land invasion by China (adopting the usual rule
that a successful offence requires three times the number of troops as the
defence).
The main countervailing military threat comes from nations in China's rear,
notably Russia and India, but a better reason the Chinese aren't anxious to face
off in a war of aggression anytime soon is that their military is corrupt, from
top to bottom. One reason is that the brass are in fact capitalists of deepest
blue dye, and the PLA is in many ways a particularly successful business. War is
antithetical to making money. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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