International Law

More On the Fallows-Ferguson US-China Relations Discussion

By Stan

Jim Fallows has posted more information and links (here and here) on the moderated discussion he had with Niall Ferguson (I commented on this last week) on US-China relations.

I just viewed a clip that included a question from the audience and Fallows’ response. I admit to cutting out halfway through because of Internet speed issues (arrgh!). The entire vid has not been posted yet.

Anyway, from the wording of the question and the response from Fallows, it seems like the biggest winner of the debate was Ferguson’s ridiculous term “Chimerica,” which was used by both folks in the clip I saw.

I’ve already bitched and moaned about this, so I’ll only add one thing. If I really need a cute label like “Chimerica” to convince my tiny brain that the US-China bilateral relationship is truly significant globally, then I’m probably not intelligent enough to appreciate Ferguson’s opinions on the subject to begin with. This perhaps says something about Ferguson’s intended audience and the ‘high’ regard in which he holds them.

Lest we forget, the melding of two words in this manner is actually quite popular these days. Unfortunately for Ferguson, it goes in the pages of the entertainment press (i.e. the celebrity “uni-name” phenomenon). I don’t really think Ferguson wishes to emulate the same folks who brought us “Brangelina,” “Bennifer,” and (thank you Steven Colbert) “Filliam H. Muffman.”

OK, enough on this. Tomorrow we can discuss “Chindia”!

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on July 06, 2009 (boomark / email).