The Post-American Era Begins

The 2008 economic crisis in America is different from any other the world has ever seen. The new president-elect, Obama, had "change" as his election slogan or manifesto, reflecting a real need. No matter what the U.S. changes, however, the already changing world can not do a U-turn. From 2008 on, the world begins the post-American age.

American-dominated technologies and economy have guided the world’s development from the English industrial revolution to America’s domination of the globe. Because of this, the values of American culture, beacons of light for mankind and the world, have led to human rights.

Things are changing, though. America has been bereft of its self-sufficient spirit or its capacity for self-sufficiency for a long time. The U.S. is retracing the historic steps of the Roman Empire, which actively or passively lived an unearned, extravagant life due to its dominance, supported by others’ tributes and oblations.

Actually, the U.S. has become a protector of dictatorships and autocracies in the third world and has reversed human rights. With the world in reverse, the U.S. has ceased to be a place of spiritual yearning. Based on freedom and human rights, President Reagan’s revolution prevented American civilization from waning. Again, the U.S. turned out to be the beacon for human spirit and civilization, while, at the same time, an economic and technological exploiter and leader. It is a pity that the good times did not last long.

Old habits have returned America to the well worn path of extravagance , while the September 11th terrorist attack led to small-minded American nationalism and a double standard of morals towards the world and the U.S. itself. So, the world must begin to seek a way out and its own progress.

Oblations and tributes, after all, can not support huge and boundless extravagance and spending, which have made the American economy unsustainable in 2008. In fact, the effects of the recession are far smaller than the reversal in moral courage and human rights. If the U.S. were capable of acting as the maintainer of global justice and development, then the whole world would be willing to support its economy.

In 2008, the U.S. went on a pilgrimage to the Beijing Olympics for its own economic interests, and so did all of the Western world. It is very obvious that all of the West is on the wane.

After 2008, the U.S. will fall further, in fact. The newly elected president has retreated more ideologically than his predecessor when he claimed that the U.S. has no intention of safeguarding world justice or progress, and will enter into dialogue with dictatorship and tyranny. And economically, he will further protect ungrounded extravagance instead of living frugally on the earnings of the country . What option will the U.S. have but go begging and retreating if the world stops buying dollars and the dollar turns out to be a hostage of the crisis?

Europe Cannot Invigorate the World

Bush’s last secretary of defense said nothing wrong in his remark about Old Europe and New Europe. The old Europe has long been a place where ideology gives way to national interests, but the new Europe, a place glowing with new spirit, puts ideology first and maintains its moral integrity.

The old-fashioned politicians in Old Europe have been ousted because they have lost the support of the people, but their successors are still swaying between ideology and national interests, wishing they could have both. Dictators see through the mind of Old Europe, and so ignore it when Old Europe scolds them . The New Europe cannot contribute to the world while it is trying to put ideology first.

It is apparent that the European Union can resuscitate Europe, but not the whole world as its maintainer or leader. Europe, like a downfallen aristocrat, is glorious on the outside but rotten on the inside. How can Europe be the power to save and revive the world?

Northeastern Asia is Where the Hope Lies

If there is a region that can maintain and guide the world after 2008, it is northeastern Asia. Within it are three countries that are expected to be the hope of the world.

In terms of economy and technology, Japan and China are playing the roles of Britain and America to the world. During 2008, and perhaps in the years to come, the yen has been the strongest currency in the world, and it is expected that the RMB may be the next . No matter how the Japanese government intervenes, it cannot change the yen’s strength. And Korea is the pioneer that has made the most advanced technologies more affordable, and in this sense, Korea promotes and disseminates the quality and technologies, leading the world forward.

As a moral and technological leader, and a guardian of freedom and human rights, northeastern Asia is in a hard but promising situation. Recent decades have seen Japan become the number-one international humanitarian investor, even though Japan itself is a high tax burden country. Japan is far beyond the world in its contributions to moral and social progress.

China, still a dictatorial country, is also in a completely new phase. China’s change is clearly evidenced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, which revealed Chinese progress in morality, philanthropy, humanity, and equality.

And Korea, a country with the most Christians of the three, has brought the gospel to war-chaotic Afghanistan. The blood of Korean martyrs will be a seed of morality and philanthropy in the world after 2008.

China will soon be the biggest industrial country in the world, bigger than any in the West, and America's in particular. Japan’s role as a country with the most advanced technology has been confirmed and Japan’s development after 2008 will further this role.

Both China and Japan offer tributes to the U.S. by purchasing American treasury bonds. China and Japan have now become the first and second creditors to, and investors in, the U.S. with the two largest dollar reserves – just like the U.S. who was a debtor to the British before World War I, and then became the largest creditor to, and investor in, the world.

Northeastern Asia had its own trouble in 2008. Japan is still has the political mindset of an occupied country, believing that it must follow the U.S., often close-mouthed when it comes to global moral issues and human rights. So it is unrealistic to see it as a maintainer of those rights. However, Japanese politics are changing quietly. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, an old-school ruling party, is thought to be close to demise, while a fresh new democratic party is grasping at power, portending a thoroughgoing change in the role Japan in world politics.

Meanwhile, China faces a disaster that it cannot avoid. Because its rulers are not willing to make radically reforms, China is being trapped into a calamitous economic crisis. It is expected that this crisis, which will cause suffering to the Chinese economy and people, will last a couple of years as the possibility of a complete solution is not there.

The West understands the graveness of this crisis and in responsive, the RMB has recently depreciated in global markets. But China, baptized by both Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science in the last century, having pulled through its socialist revolution, having enjoyed and still enjoying its 30-year reform and opening up to the outside world, is actually still in a process of constant reconstruction that began in the late Qing Dynasty in the 1910s.

This process will continue and is far from its end. There is a good reason, based on the first 100 years of this process, that the disaster today will eventually lead to a reform in the distribution system. Not only domestically, but globally, China, born again after this nirvana, will have a bigger role as maintainer of the world with completely different practices in terms of moral and human rights.

In a word, the world will enter a post-America era in 2008. The reason why I don’t refer to Russia in this article is that the age of Russia, neck and neck with the U.S., during the Cold War, has passed with its predecessor, the Soviet Union. No matter what way Russia chooses, its renaissance and expansion are impossible. The glory and the dream of a Great Russia was terminated at the end of Soviet era.

Russia today is moving toward a new despotism with increasingly conservative politics, undeveloped technologies, and an economy based mainly on energy and the military. Russia today is indeed returning to Europe. But the Europe to which it is returning is an old Europe, and I cannot find no evidence for Russia’s ability to maintain and guide the world, either economically and technologically , or politically and morally.

Northeastern Asia has become the hope of the world beyond 2008 and it will gradually become an economic leader and guardian of human rights. It might take 100 to 200 years to reach this goal, but the trend and process are inevitable.

Ke Li in Jinan