Because the Chinese are:
1. Brown people, and
2. No pool of politically active relatives in DC (read Lobby firms) willing to play the "shame card" in getting politicians to support Chinese policies.
3. Commies.
However, here
U.S. Treasury statistics indicate that, at the end of 2006, foreigners held 44% of federal debt held by the public. [20] About 66% of that 44% was held by the central banks of other countries, in particular the central banks of Japan and China. In total, lenders from Japan and China held 47% of the foreign-owned debt.
This should tell us to be careful who we piss off - especially since Japan seems to be sliding back towards some who aren't happy with the US
And don't forget this shitbag:
Jonathan Pollard
Money quote: "He's not a spy for us (Israel), buuuut we'll give him honorary citizenship. Just because we like the cut of his jib."
You better not criticize the government of Israel, or else Harold Ford might call you anti-Semitic.
Politically, it is advantageous for Republicans to have it both ways with China. Use their cheap labor system to enrich the corporate elite while telling the people at home how they will be the next Cold War enemy.
Why do we try very hard to make nice with China?
Could it be because they hold the note on the mortgage?
Ahh. Another episode of simple answers to simple questions. And the answer is:
Because India isn't the only nation with sacred cows.
CAFKIA
It's not just Israel. Look at Saudi Arabia. A regime propped up and supplied by the West, meddling in Iraq, although you'd never know if you were dependent on official Washington and a compliant MSM for a worldview. All we ever hear about is 'Iran, Iran,...... must bomb Iran!'.
the republicna core is proisrial for there own deeply disturbing and cinical reasons...its all about who controlls teh "holy lands"
proisrial
sorry, timeout. is that a word?
Just give the Chinese time. It takes a while to build an entrenched Beltway lobby. And ceabaird is right. The brown(ish) people and commie hurdles are difficult ones to overcome. But as long as the Chinese manufacture (however shoddily) a large proportion of the crap we buy, and as long as they can hold that whole "debt" thing over our heads, it is awfully foolish to go provoking them.
Then again, if you're looking for logical consistency, you've come to the wrong shop, brother. We as humans aren't so good with that.
And then there's this gem:
CNBC anchor Erin Burnett, on Friday's Hardball:
"A lot of people like to say, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China -- you know, if China were to revalue its currency, or China is to start making, say, toys that don't have lead in them, or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up. And that means prices at Walmart, here in the United States, are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now.They're keeping prices low, and they're keeping prices for mortgages low too."
Tainted goods are cheaper. Huzzah!
Sorry hubris pro-Isrial.....
as for he chinese...thsi is going to be a very annoying holliday saeson as I try and find sources for none chinese toys...Matel is launchign anotehr toy recall
moonglum, bro, it's spelled "Israel." Your point about the "Holy Land" is spot on.
The simple answer is that Israel is the most stable and reliable ally in an important part of the world, and China is the greatest rival in an important part of the world.
When the oil goes away, the Middle East won't be important any more, so that will change.
I would also note that in the Pollard case, he came to them, and you don't turn down an intelligence asset who presents themselves.
Also, our relationship with Israel has as a part of its foundation common values, while with China it is merely common interests.
You better not criticize the government of Israel, or else Harold Ford might call you anti-Semitic.
LOLOLOL! That ass. We better be careful with China because our so-called ally sold them our technology.
US up in arms over Sino-Israel ties
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Israel's relationship with its closest ally, the United States, seems to have hit a rough patch, with Washington apparently upset with Israel's clandestine dealings with China. The spat is not new, however.
The quarrel is over Israel's alleged concealing from Washington of an upgrade of a major weapons system it sold to China more than a decade ago. The United States claims that by upgrading the system, Israel violated its commitment not to transfer US technology to China without Washington's permission.
What appears to have propelled this simmering tension into the open is a clash of personalities. According to reports in the media, US Under Secretary of Defense Doug Feith believes that Israeli Defense Ministry director general Amos Yaron misled him on the arms sale to China. On Wednesday, Israeli media reported that Feith had demanded Yaron's resignation (the Pentagon has subsequently denied this).
Israel is China's second-largest arms supplier (the first being Russia). Although diplomatic relations between Israel and China were established only in 1992, military ties go back to the early 1980s. Until formal diplomatic ties were established, the military relationship was covert. Israel sold about US$4 billion worth of arms to China during the covert courtship. In the 1990s, the Sino-Israel military relationship grew rapidly. In fact, arms sales contributed to the strengthening of diplomatic engagement.
The military relationship hit a trough in 2000, however, when Israel came under pressure from the US to scrap a $250 million deal to sell China the Phalcon, an airborne radar system equipped with advanced Israeli-made aeronautics on board a Russian-made plane. Washington's argument was that providing Beijing access to the technology would upset the military balance between China and Taiwan and threaten US interests in the region. When the US Congress threatened to cut the $2.8 billion it gives Israel annually if the deal went ahead, Israel buckled and scrapped it.
For years, the US government has expressed concerns over Israel illegally transferring technology to China. During the Gulf War, the US gave Israel Patriot missiles as protection against Iraqi Scud missiles. In 1992, a US intelligence report revealed that soon after the end of the Gulf War, Israel had sold Patriot anti-missile data to China. Israel denied the intelligence report.
Washington has also alleged on several occasions that Israel violated agreements by exporting restricted US technology ((((it buys with yearly US subsidies.))) This was the case with the largely US-funded Lavi fighter-plane program. Israel, the Americans believe, passed on technology to Beijing. China's F-10 fighter jet is believed to be almost identical to the Lavi.
Washington has also expressed concern from time to time that Israel's arms trade with China could result in its military technology falling into the "wrong hands" - such as Iran's, for instance. But this argument rings rather hollow considering that the US itself supplies Pakistan with high-tech weaponry, despite Pakistan's "all-weather friendship" with China and Islamabad's abysmal record on the issue of nuclear and missile proliferation and its supply of military technology and know-how to Washington's foes.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
FL21Ak01.html
I imagine the two issues are actually very closely related. If you read the PNAC policy papers, pre-911, they really are all about China. China is a huge threat to Israel, because Israel has invested so much in influencing US politics, and if US dominance is lessened or erased, that investment is wasted. In a world of peak oil, where the Arabs achieve pricing power for their oil, they will get significant political leverage to demand political compromise from Israel, IF there is a buyer of last resort outside of the US dollar hegemony. That buyer is China.
Matthew,
What common values? Show me where we have ethnic access roads, airports that assign your luggage an ID number based on ethnicity, and walled in communities in the US and I'll shut up.
Why is there air?
Israel has a profound place in American foreign polocy because of a myriad of factors. From guilt over doing nothing when Europe went insane to having serious political supporters in every state, they have used and abused that relationship for years. I highly doubt this will change in my lifetime, but we can hope to assert at least some control... or maybe not. Afterall neither Palastinians nor Israelis are exactly blameless in thier tragic mess.
China is a rival that carries our paper and fills our Wallmarts. Talk about a love hate relationship. I highly doubt this will change anytime soon unless the Chinese get whackier in thier need for oil.
Chinese people work for every multinational I have ever dealt with... here and in China. Thier slave and cheap labor appeals to American bottom lines, they lend money to a bankrupt (morally and economically) American government while foisting off tainted goods to American Citizens. Plus thier sheer size means they have a lot of weight to throw around.
The only good thing about it is as the Chinese get richer, the less they will want to rock the boat. And while it is a very leaky and tippy boat, it is the only one America has right now.
Expect global warming and oil shortages to get those waves a pumping.
I think CAFKIA's answer was the best one.
Because it's the Dineros, buddy. We do tons of bidness with the Chinese and it's not going to get smaller.
Plus, it's SIZE. You can't push around a billion-plus Chinese the way you THINK you can push around smaller nations.
And as a former China-studies scholar, I can say that the US policy towards China since normalization in 1979 has been relatively consistent overall, with few differences between Dem and Republican presidents.
The United States has the most numerous Jewish population in the world today, even more so than Israel. Before the Holocaust and particularly when eastern Poland was part of the Czarist Russian Empire, it was Russia and its conquered territories that had the largest Jewish population. Not every Jewish person in the USA is a foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing Zionist zealot, but the ones who are that are a very vocal bunch who know how to work the political system and broadcast their talking points to the media.
Oh, and the Chinese "miracle" won't last. They've been showing typical communist disregard for the health of their country's environment badly enough that it will bring an abrupt halt at some point to their economic expansion.
I keep hoping for a bracing shot of isolationism -- of the best sort -- to course through the veins of America. We've been "globalizing" for so long that we've completely lost the ability to consider our own best interests, or act in ways that maintain our own self-sufficiency.
Instead, we've become the world's largest addict. China supplies our jones for money and cheapshit. The Middle East lets us keep mainlining oil. India is happy to take our jobs in exchange for....what?
So we can no longer make our own stuff, finance our own dreams, run our own machines, or pay our own people.
At what point does this stop?
I've been looking lately at everything I buy, and wondering about this. Where did it come from? At whose cost? Where will it go? What does its existence do to my community, to my country, to the economy, to the environment?
And I'm trying to find ways to keep the money here, to buy stuff that doesn't increase my footprint, to create jobs for people close by. I'm considering trying my own "year without China," just to see. Nothing I can do will matter; but as Gandhi said, it suddenly seems vitally important that I do it anyway.
I like pretty things as much (or more) than the next person. But I'm starting to be a stickler for wanting pretty things made closer to home. I want to know who made it. I care about how they treated their workers, what they made it out of, and how they dealt with their waste. I like being able to hold them accountable for all that -- hard to do if they're an ocean away. I want that money to stay in my neighborhood. I want to avoid goods that made a long, carbon-intensive trip by truck, air, or ship. I'd like to see big box stores account for less of our economy; and to have more local options.
And I'm increasingly aware that I'm voting for or against this vision every time I open my wallet.
The purveyors of globaloney might call me a Luddite, an isolationist, and worse. But, geez: at some point, we need to stop giving away everything we have, and start banking it where it will do our own economy some real good. How far gone do we have to get before it will be OK for us to start looking after our own interests first?
I'll mention a couple of things which might be obvious to some of you.
Israel is a different country from the USA. That means
1. It has its own interest and stakes in the region which are incompatible with the USAs' (as in Oil). This leads to lots of complications on the diplomatic and commerce side
2. All said and done, the sheer racism and 'jewish state' identity is completely antithetical to American values. (but they seem to be converging with all the ripping of the Constitution)
3. Any military technology which the USA sells to Israel WILL get passed on to Russia, China, India and Pakistan(yes, you got that right) in no particular order he F-35 clone will be seen in some country before this decade is out or something.
4. The risk of double agents in the USA will be the largest with the large influx of Russian Jews in Israel. Israel too. Just think, Putin, ex-spook, Russians in Israel, dual passport holders with USA.
5. The rise of anti-semitism in the USA due to dual loyalties upon the first full blown case of Israeli spying from 4. above.
6. The Iraq/Iran fiasco will result in the USA looking for a fall guy and it's conveniently Israel. Not that AIPAC or Foxman is going to wait for that. The backpedalling will start this September or Bush will be made the fall guy in turn.
Israel is right now tasering America economically and Americans are screaming Iran! 
shanks
Mrs. Robinson:
Here's something that deserves a GNB post of if its own. The Comptroller General of the United States who heads the Government Accounting Office (basically, the position is the Federal Government's chief accountant) has come out publically saying that we're on the same "one-foot-in-grave-other-foot-on-banana-peel" trajectory as a major nation-state that ancient Rome was in its sunset years. A statement such as this from someone that high up in the Federal bureaucracy is really quite extraordinary, and really quite chilling.
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