American Buddhist Net

...The West has watched with unease as years of quiet diplomatic maneuvering have helped China step up its presence in the region by handing out billions of dollars in loans, snapping up energy assets and building an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan.

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This shows a basic difference between Dick Cheney and Hu Jintao. We elected Obama to stop being Dick Cheney, but we are just getting more Dick Cheney not less. Sometimes - usually - it is much cheaper to just pay for things than to try to steal them. Creates better relationships and cements your power far into the future. The American ruling class, or oligarchy or whatever you want to call it, has been a dismal failure since the assassination of JFK. Violence abroad, cannibalism at home, ruined dollar, ruined economy, ruined manufacturing, ruined health care, ruined education, ruined environment, ruined status in the world, almost nothing good. Have we been taken over by some insane secret society bent on driving the USA into oblivion? ABN