For a clear picture on the China "problem", anyone who doubts...

For a clear picture on the China "problem", anyone who doubts the necessity of this current China/US fight just needs to consider the South China sea. A body of water shared by approximately 7 nations, who have managed to share the space without significant tension for 60 years, and then China decides to stake a claim. Now do they take say just half of it - ie. putting a claim half way between them and each other nation? No, they claim it all, and then start building and arming islands around the edges to secure their claim. They construct fleets of "fishing trawlers" that somehow don't do any actual fishing but act on mass to surround / "mob" individual ships of the other nations in an effort to scare them off.

If this behaviour is a reflection of a cultural problem where one sees winning as process of ensuring the other guy loses then it is essential that they be taught otherwise earlier than later, or like the bully on the playground they will continue until everyone is crushed, at which point the worm will turn violently. If this behaviour is cultural, then it is likely being reflected in lower level business to business contracts as well.

It does the bully no favours to let him win as ultimately like Macbeth, he sees threat everywhere creating enemies from friends and ultimately facing a unified unreasoning and unforgiving enemy destroying him from within and without (... and Banquo's kids get to rule Scotland for generations thereafter). It is in fact a greater kindness to turn China from this path now, although the price may be high, the price later will be higher.

It is essential for corporate and world peace that China learns that success is built on creating contracts where both parties feel they have won, not necessarily on every front, but on enough of the core items that they have a desire to meet both the letter and spirit of the contract.