A-Infos (en) [soa] !*Dancing with the Dragon" by Mumia Abu-Jamal

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           "In the ancient East flies a dragon,
              Whose name is China,
           In the ancient East live a host of people,
              They are all descendants of the Dragon.
           Under the Dragon's wings we are growing,
              Growing as offspring of the Dragon
           With black eyes, black hair, and yellow skin,
              We remain the Dragon's descendants forever.
                         -- Hou Dejian, "The Dragon's Descendants"


               The angry rhetoric, the mouth-foaming oaths,
           and the muffled political threats arising from the
           11-day detention of the 24-man crew of the
           damaged U.S. spy plane in China, are already
           beginning to fade.

               Political leaders in both countries are speaking
           in subdued, measured tones, in sharp contrast
           to the strong, bellicose terms used at the very
           beginning of the crisis.

               While anti-Chinese speech predictably arose
           in the aftermath of the downing of the spy plane
           and the detention of U.S. Navy personnel, there
           came a quiet, almost imperceptable, message,
           one coded and no less powerful for its silence,
           that a burgeoning Sino-American conflict was
           bad -- for business.

               And it is business that drives international
           relations, not politics, for both Bush and his
           Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, President
           of the Peoples Republic of China, are at the
           mercy of powerful economic forces at home.

               When the average person is asked to
           speak out loud his, or her, thoughts about
           China, a number of images spring to mind:
           The Oscar-nominated movie, "Crouching
           Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the "Charlie's
           Angels" remake featuring actress Lucy Liu,
           your friendly, neighborhood Chinese
           restaurant, the late martial arts icon,
           Bruce Lee, or to some, the specter of
           "red communism."

               If the average businessman or Wall
           St.-denizen is asked, another image
           emerges, as evidenced by comments made
           in the April 7th-13th, 2001 edition of
           The Economist.  For them, the economic
           potential of China fairly makes them drool.
           An investment consultant, Stuart Leckie,
           predicts the imminent integration of its
           domestic (yuan) stockmarket, with
           the Hong Kong stock market.  When that
           happens, China will rank in the top three
           markets in the world, right after the U.S.
           and Japan.

               Andy Xie, regional economist for
           Morgan Stanley, predicted that in less
           than 20 years, China will be "the next
           $10 trillion economy," after the U.S.

               An hour before the Chinese foreign
           ministry announced it would release the
           American spy plane crew, business news
           sources announced that Ford Motors Co.
           would open a car factory in China.

               Historian-columnist Manning Marable,
           in his recent collection of essays,
           Black Liberation in Conservative America (1977),
           looking at the changes of the last few decades,
           observed, "Communist China today has
           arguably the most aggressively capitalist
           economy on earth." (p. 3)

               In short, times have changed.

               While the Bush administration sports more
           than its share of cold warriors who would like
           nothing better than to portray the Middle
           Kingdom as this month's candidate for the
           Evil Empire, we must remember that business
           calls the tune here.

               And business, from agricultural salesmen,
           to tobacco merchants, to car dealers,
           ad infinitum, looks to the vast 1.3 billion in
           China with a capitalist hunger that virtually
           borders on lust.

               Business convinces its politician servants
           to cool it; play nice.

           Copyright '01 - Mumia Abu-Jamal
           ============================

           PLEASE CONTACT:
           International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
           P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143
           Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180/
           E-mail - icffmaj(a)aol.com /www.mumia.org
           AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!

           Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
            Mumia Abu-Jamal
            AM 8335
            SCI-Greene
            175 Progress Drive
            Waynesburg, PA  15370

           !! PEOPLE GET READY !!



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