This Time US Is Glad It Is not Superpower

choi

(1) Helene Cooper, A Silver Lining to America’s Waning Influence; With dimished power comes less responsibility. New York Times, Nov 2, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/0 ... 20lining&st=cse

Quote:

"President Hu Jintao of China will arrive [at G20] in Cannes, France, this week pondering a plea from Europe for tens of billions of dollars to help the continent get out of its debt crisis. * * * Without the spare cash that Mr. Hu has at his disposal — and the power that can come with it" US is relatively care-free.

"the relative decline of the United States as an international force also comes with a silver lining. For decades, the United States has been the global rescuer of last resort. It is a role that has brought significant costs, both financial and human.

Note:
(a) The "hearty" in "hearty handshakes" is an adjective that means "enthusiastically or exuberantly cordial : JOVIAL."
www.m-w.com
(b) inflection point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection_point
(c) more power to someone: "best wishes to someone"
Christine Ammer, American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/more+power+to+someone


(2) '中国人对经济前景亚洲最乐观.'  BBC Chinese, Nov 2, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... ey_globalscan.shtml

Quote:

"BBC国际部在25国所做的最新调查显示：对经济前景看法，富国普遍'悲观'而发展中国家普遍'乐观。' * * * 在中国，对长期经济前景持乐观态度的受访者比例高达62%

"国际民意调查公司“全球扫描”（GlobalScan）为BBC国际部在2011年7月3日到2011年9月16日之间，在全球25国采访了25，438人，调查他们对明年和未来5年经济前景的看法。

(3) 专家：中国拯救欧债面临国内压力. BBC Chinese, Nov 2, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... g_euro_greece.shtml
("英国亚非学院的金融学者孙来祥教授认为 * * * 借钱给欧洲等于把中国穷人的钱借给欧洲更富裕的人。孙来祥说，如果中国投资购买希腊政府债券，本来根据欧洲拯救计划，希腊50%的债务是不用偿还的；如果希腊公投否决了欧洲拯救计划，希腊就要拒绝偿还任何债务。如果中国经历这样的损失，在国内是无法交待的")

Note: 亚非学院  School of Oriental and African Studies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch ... and_African_Studies
(SOAS; a public research university located in London; a constituent college of the University of London; Specialising in laws, politics, economics (specifically development economics), humanities and languages concerning Asia, Africa and the Middle East; founded in 1916)

(4) 英媒：中国自顾不暇 不当救世主. BBC Chinese, Nov 2, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... ress_china_eu.shtml
("文章说，在欧洲的乐天派把欧盟最大的贸易合作伙伴中国看作是将会从天而降拯救欧元区危机的'超人'时，清华大学经济及管理学院的程致宇(Patrick Chovanec）教授说，这个不可阻挡快步往前的超人已经跑到了悬崖边上，如果他不往下看感觉还好，但只要一看，他就会掉下去")

Note: This report cites

Tania Branigan, China Is More Wile E Coyote Than Superman, Professor Warns; EuropeEconomic observers believe China is riding for a fall amid rising debts, illicit loans and increasing social unrest. Guardian, Nov 2, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ ... ofessor?INTCMP=SRCH

(a) Quote:

"The eurozone bought €281.9bn (£241.9bn) of Chinese exports last year.

"A growing number of observers, like [Patrick] Chovanec[, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management], think a correction is due in any case because the country's spectacular growth rate (10.3% last year) has masked equally spectacular problems: most obviously, a property bubble and frightening levels of local government debt and illicit loans.

"Usually, the Jiangbei Yichuan Electronics Company in Ningbo sells 10-20m yuan (£2m) worth of blenders to Europe annually. But this year, plummeting demand and pressure to lower prices mean it will sell perhaps 4m yuan worth, said production manager Miss Xu.

"There are suggestions that China could put in $50-100bn (£30bn-£60bn). But already probably a quarter of China's reserves – around $800bn – are euro-denominated. People expected it to accumulate similar bonds anyway; it needs to put its surplus somewhere

"Others wonder if China may go bargain hunting as struggling Europeans flog off assets. 'The debt crisis does offer China some kinds of business opportunities,' said Professor Dai Bingran, director of the Centre for European Studies at Fudan University. But the firms able and willing to invest are often state-owned or state-linked, he noted, raising suspicions in Europe.

(b) Note:
(i) Wile E Coyote and Road Runner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wile_E._Coyote_and_Road_Runner
(The Coyote's name of Wile E is obviously a play on the word "wily")
(ii) Jiangbei Yichuan Electronics Co  宁波市江北意川电器有限公司
http://www.eastron.net/
("Established in 2000 on the basis of an existing company (Ningbo Eastar Electric Appliances Co, Ltd")
(iii) Alan Sugar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar
(1947- ; Jewish; leaving school at 16; founded the electronics company Amstrad in 1968, the name being an acronym of his initials - Alan Michael Sugar TRADing [making computers])
(iv) For Arthur Daley, see Minder (TV series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minder_(TV_series)
(starred George Cole as Arthur Daley, a socially ambitious but highly unscrupulous importer-exporter, wholesaler, used-car salesman, and anything else from which there was money to be made whether inside the law or not)
(v) eye-watering (adj): "(informal, especially British English) so high or extreme that it is difficult or painful to think about it
<eye-watering fare increases>
<an eye-watering £20 million.
<The losses announced so far are eye-watering>"
Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, undated.
http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdicti ... ionary/eye-watering
(vi) Guardian cites a Global Times/ Huanqiu article, which I simply can not find, unaware in the first place if it is written in Chinese or English.
(vii) flog (vt): "SELL <traveled by horse, flogging encyclopedias — Robert Darnton>"
www.m-w.com


(5) 美参议员：中国挑战美国的非洲政策. BBC Chinese, Nov 2, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... _china_africa.shtml
(参议院非洲外交关系委员会的主席库恩斯说: 由于中国对非洲的大量投资和贷款，美国正在逐渐丧失对非洲国家的影响力)

Quote: "他表示，中国除了无条件地提供非洲专制政府贷款，援助当中有七成是以兴建道路、运动场馆以及政府大楼方式进行，而且通常是以中国的劳工和材料兴建。而美国的援助则是用在防治艾滋病、疟疾、结核病之类'重要但是比较看不见'的项目。

Note: US Senator Christopher Coons (D-Del) at Subcommittee on African Affairs, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

(6) 傅莹：中国拯救欧洲问题不成立. BBC Chinese, Oct 29, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... _china_europe.shtml
(中国外交部副部长)