"Chicom made AK47" Sorry Salo. Iraqi AKs are mostly Bulgarian and Romanian; cheaper than Norinco.
The Chinese will be a formidable economic competitor to the west, especially the EU. I notice many of my favorite folks here consider China an enemy. The troubles in the ME don't seem to register as high on their threat list. Anyway, the Chinese privately guffaw when they hear western complaints of "unfair trade practices"...they still remember the Opium War - you know where the gently caressing Brits forced drug trade on China with naval cannons, shore raids and looting. Then returned a few years later to seal the deal with French, US and Russian backing. More recently they remember the Brit's last minute whining about Hong Kong citizens losing their right to vote under the PRC. Unfortunatly the loving Brits forgot to provide sufferage to Hong Kong residents for the first 150 year of their rule and only corrected this oversight 3 years before the scheduled handover.
I agree China is the only country on the horizon that will challenge the US hegemony (a hegemony I support and enjoy) but our only option is to battle them on the economic front. We need to play the Great Game much better than we have been and much much better than the Brits did.
