This story, China Races to Replace U.S. as Economic Power in Asia, includes some of the worst economics ever written in the NYT:
Some see China’s economic thrust, more apparent now under its newly minted membership in the World Trade Organization, as the beginning of an inescapable process of China replacing the United States as the dominant power in Asia.
There are many things about China to worry about, such as their increasingly aggressive military posturing and their almost complete lack of respect for human rights. However, if you want China to become prosperous and democratic, support their economic engagement in the world, don’t use meaningless scare phrases such as “hungry importer”, “siphon of other nations’ foreign investment”, and a “surging exporter” that is “forcing its Asian neighbors to adjust.” One of the most basic lessons of the last 500 years of economic development is that economics is not a zero-sum game.
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