-- Preface
to "America in the Age of Neoliberalism:
The decline of a superpower in the 21st century"
At the present, increasing numbers of signs have shown that the global financial melt-down, triggered by massive defaults of sub-prime mortgage loans in the United States will prove to be one fundamentally different from all the previous crises that had broken out approximately every ten years or so since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 - the debt crisis at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, the Black Monday in 1987, and the Asian financial crisis in 1997. While, the previous crises invariably resulted in the strengthening of U.S. supremacy and expansion of capitalist system, the global financial crisis this time however foreshadows the beginning of the end of the global capitalist system headed by the United States, which came into being in the wake of the Second World War.
On the eve of this momentous transformation of the global system, Mr. Ben Mah, a successful Chinese-Canadian investor, in a prodigious attempt to discern and understand its shape and nature, Mr. Mah has authored four books in succession in a short span of three years by focusing on wide-ranging aspects of the American Empire, and, in particular, the dynamics of its inexorable decline. With vision and insight, informed in particular by his vast experiences as a professional player in the high-stake game of strategic investment carried out in the heart of the financial empire, the author has captured in these works the tremors and pangs of this historical transformation, which is still in its early infancy.
In "America And China: Political and Economic Relations in the 21st Century (Tri-City Press, 2008)", Mr. Mah, with his characteristic directness, points out that America is the only superpower in the world while China is the country with the largest population; the relationship between the two will determine whether the 21st century will be a century of peace and stability or one of war and turmoil. While viewing U.S.-China relations in the context of world peace and stability, Mr. Mah, by devoting the first work of his multi-volume study of America to critical assessments of U.S.-China relations, has displayed a passionate concern for prospects of China’s development, constantly bearing in mind the over-all interests of the Chinese people. His second book, "America and the World: The Global disorder in the 21st Century (Tri-City Press, 2009)", presents this picture of America as a super power: on the one hand, it is a power that has long provided leadership for world development on the strength of her science and technology, culture, and institutional innovation, thus enriching world civilization, but, on the other hand, it is also the source of global disorder and turmoil. Indeed, all the major wars since the end of the Cold War have been started by the United States. The author maintains that only by resisting the pernicious influences of military-industrial complex and Wall Street special interests, repudiating Neo-liberalism and Neo-militarism, including policies of military intervention and the doctrine of preemptive war, and ending the aggressive and predatory acts in the realm of global finance, can the United States, as the only superpower in the world , help usher in a better and more peaceful and prosperous world, instead of a world of great disorder, for the 21st century.
"America In The Age Of Neo-Liberalism: The Decline of A Superpower in the 21st Century", Mr. Mah’s third volume in this series, bluntly calls our times the era of Neo-Liberalism, and proceeds to investigate American conduct against this backdrop. In spearheading Neo-Liberalism, the United States has subjected the working people of the developing countries to brutal economic aggression. The doctrines and policies of Neo-Liberalism pursued by America have not only dealt debilitating blows at Third World countries but also seriously undermined her own industrial and financial systems, bringing hardship to the lives of average American people as well. With the era of Neo-Liberalism drawing to a close, America has turned into a real paper tiger that remains powerful only in appearance but has been enfeebled in a fundamental way.
The coming fourth book, entitled "Financial Tsunami and Economic Crisis: The End of U.S. Hegemony" is based on author’s copious notes, which he dutifully kept by recording once every week his reflections and observations as a professional investor on the unprecedented destruction of wealth. He eagerly hopes that the facts and analyses contained in this work will help the readers understand the complex, predatory, and corrupt nature of the American financial system. In short, he investigates and analyzes the inherent paradox of American global hegemony by studying the links between global financial crises and American hegemony: on the one hand, the United States had laid the foundation for her global hegemony by jettisoning the gold standard and putting in its place the dollar standard, which constitutes the key to American global hegemony as well as its central core; on the other hand, it is the institutionalization of dollar standard that has placed the world on a fragile balance of financial terror, sowing the seeds of a major crisis every decade or so, not to mention endless minor crises in between; it is therefore fair to conclude that dollar standard is the root cause of current global financial disorder.
Over these years, I have devoted myself to the study of American global hegemony, dollar hegemony, and the transformation of the global system. Ben Mah’s works came to my attention in 2008; then I had the good fortune of becoming the reviser/editor for the Chinese editions of his third and fourth titles, which are scheduled to be published later this year by Tri-City Press, New York, thus having the chance to read all his four titles, both in the original English version and their Chinese translations. All his works share three distinctive traits. Firstly, he adheres to a methodology that is marked by the integration of practice and theory; on the one hand, he invariably starts from the ground level of facts, data, and concrete situations, and then, on this basis, proceeds to form more general and theoretical propositions, instead of presenting first theoretical constructs and then trying to explain facts by theories; on the other hand, after forming views and theories, instead of putting them aside on the bookshelf, he would constantly try to apply them to concrete realities and subject them to verification by facts and situations emanating from practices. Secondly, he strives to cover a very wide range of important topics and events deemed pertinent to his main themes, while paying close attention to accuracy and representativeness in his selection and presentation of facts and information. His works are thus highly interdisciplinary, touching on many subject areas and issues. Thirdly, his works are distinguished by clarity and straightforwardness: he would go directly to the point, and render very complex subjects easily understandable by simple and clear language.
In going through his works, I can feel this Chinese Canadian investor’s love for his mother country, the land of his ancestors, and the passion of an idealist that would come alive in many passages. In fact, the global financial maelstrom, triggered by the American sub-prime loan crisis, will most certainly propel the global financial system towards disintegration. On the eve of this epic global transformation, many ideas and positions are being floated; the clash of contending ideas and tendencies most likely will pave the way for the birth of a new type of global system. In this light the value and significance of the four works by Mr. Mah, the fifth one he is working on and the sixth he will be writing and so on-do not lie in the profundity or validity of the analyses presented or the direction for moving forward advocated therein, but, rather, in the thought—provoking questions raised and the unique perspectives offered, which I will outline for the benefit of the readers as follows.
Firstly, how do we make sense of the major global developments since the 1970s, beginning with the US abandoning the gold standard, and gradually putting in its place the dollar standard? In a world system based on dollar standard and composed of sovereign nations, have all the countries been truly able to effectively safeguard their economic sovereignty and always act in the interest of the great majority of each and every nation concerned? As we know, the philosophy guiding world development has undergone a paradigm shift from embedded liberalism to Neo-liberalism, which is currently facing withering critique and public fury world-wide. Is it possible then to achieve a second paradigm shift for global development, namely to achieve the historical crossing from Neo-liberalism to Post-liberalism?
Secondly, how do we view the relationship between the United States and the world? Would it be better for world peace and development to have United States stay on as the only superpower in the world, or would it be better to bring to an end the U.S. hegemony - America would then be just one of the powers in the world? In the present world, dollar standard is first and foremost a mechanism for the exploitation and plundering of the weak by the powerful; what then is its link to Neo-liberalism? What kind of system should we try to build to replace the dollar standard? Or, to put it differently, is it possible for the world to succeed in bringing about a peaceful end of the dollar hegemony through global institutional innovation? In particular, we need to address a key question: will the current financial crisis mark the end of the U.S. supremacy for good? Given the momentous change in U.S. position, what sort of future is the world facing?
Moreover, how do we view China’s relationship with the world? The history of modern and contemporary international relations clearly shows that the key to interaction between China and the world in these historical periods has always lied in its dealings with the "West", a term whose meaning evolves along with the times - in the Post-WWII context, it refers to a set of developed countries headed by the United States, forming gradually, through the integrating effort of the United States as a military and economic superpower, a so-called community of democratic and peaceful nations, which view the spread of democracy, freedom, and market economies as their shared mission. In view of this strategic goal of the West, how can China ultimately achieve peaceful coexistence and common prosperity with the West, and in particular, the United States? As the reform and opening up since 1978 has brought China into an increasingly interdependent world, how should China assess the close interdependence and symbiosis between the US and Chinese economies? On this eve of the Great Global Transformation, how should China take part in order to reap significant benefit while averting serious harm? Is China able to come to realistic and objective self-evaluation in terms of its power and global influence? will China have enough leverage to effectively influence the direction of the systemic Global Transformation? Incidentally, Mr. Mah is currently working on his fifth book, which is to be entitled “China and the World”.
Lastly, above all, how do we view in a comprehensive way the relationship between global systemic transformation, American strategic adjustment, and China’s peaceful development. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and disintegration of the global system, the world, the U.S., and China are all undergoing enormous and profound changes; transformation has become the defining feature of China’s relationship with the United States and the world. What we have here are three distinct processes of transformation. The first is China’s transformation, namely, the evolving relationship between China and the world; or, to put it in more concrete terms, can the peaceful process of China’s development be sustained and how? What role should China play in the evolving international system? Secondly, there is the U.S. transformation, or the evolving relationship between the U.S. and the world. To put it in more concrete terms, can U.S. maintain its hegemonic position as the only superpower in the world? What strategy will she adopt to attain the goal of continued world hegemony? A key component of this strategy is undoubtedly to maintain dollar hegemony. Thirdly, the transformation of Sino-US relations: What kind of future will the current inter-actions between the two countries bring? will it serve to promote sustained peaceful transformation of the present global system?
The main purpose of exploring the first three questions is to help provide answers for the fourth question. In the Chinese lexicon, the equivalent term for "crisis" is composed of two characters, one meaning danger and the other, opportunity, which always coexist in a crisis. Chinese thinkers, however, have long cautioned that crises only serve the interest of those who are in a position of power and those who are prepared for them. The historical records of the Post-war period clearly document the fact that the United States has successfully overcome two serious economic crises by shifting them onto other countries. The first time was in the 1970s, when capitalist world faced its most serious financial and economic crisis; the United States effectively forced Europe and Japan to bear the cost of restructuring her economy. The United States faced another major crisis in the mid 1980s, when her economy went into recession while Japan was able to maintain fast economic growth; United States once again forced Japan to bear the burden of her economic adjustment, resulting in a prolonged stagnation from which the Japanese economy even today has not yet fully recovered. In the current financial tsunami will the U.S. government be able to once again successfully shift its crisis onto other countries? If the answer is affirmative, which countries will bear the full brunt of U.S. economic adjustments?
For Mr. Ben Mah, all this boils down to one key question: Is China sufficiently prepared? We have reason to believe that the honest reflection and groping for answers as engaged in by Mr. Ben Mah would offer plenty of food for thought and valuable information to all those who share his desire for a new kind of global system marked by enduring peace and common prosperity.
(The author is from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.) |
