Scary China?
1 May 2007
Editor, USA Today
Dear Editor:
Why does Niall Ferguson find China's rising prosperity to be "pretty scary" ("Tale of Two Planets," May 1)?
Would the world be safer if China remained isolated and ruled by a Mao-like madman? Do today's commercial ties uniting China with the west raise the likelihood that Beijing will seek war? Hardly.
As the work of Columbia University’s Erik Gartzke suggests, the economic freedom increasingly enjoyed by the Chinese people will make that nation less, not more, belligerent.* And, as a happy bonus, it will further enhance our prosperity.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.columbia.edu/~eg589/publications.html
Editor, USA Today
Dear Editor:
Why does Niall Ferguson find China's rising prosperity to be "pretty scary" ("Tale of Two Planets," May 1)?
Would the world be safer if China remained isolated and ruled by a Mao-like madman? Do today's commercial ties uniting China with the west raise the likelihood that Beijing will seek war? Hardly.
As the work of Columbia University’s Erik Gartzke suggests, the economic freedom increasingly enjoyed by the Chinese people will make that nation less, not more, belligerent.* And, as a happy bonus, it will further enhance our prosperity.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.columbia.edu/~eg589/publications.html
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday December 18, 2007 at 7:56am