The United States and China are currently engaged in a titanic and far reaching contest, a struggle over who will gain supremacy resulting from an  effective and thoughtful  Long Term  Strategic Plan. In one corner we have a culture stretching  back for several millenia and  based on a Confucian philosophy of generational reverence and planning. In the other corner sits the young and boisterous United States, scrappy and full of vinegar. Not yet three centuries old it has changed the landscape of the world, mostly for good, sometimes an overconfident and arrogant strain leading to trouble.

Both countries have great talents and strengths, one coming from the collective memories and struggles of hundreds of generations,  the other flowing from the aspirations and energy of a free people in the persuit of happiness. The younger contender has produced in its short time the most remarkable long term planning document in the history of histories, The United States Constitution. A document produced by pragmatic men, fierce in belief but tempered by the spirit of compromise and the  common good.

A snapshot of todays players show an ever changing and dynamic picture. One country is moving ahead rapidly and gaining its footing, while the young contender seems paralyzed by an inability to get anything done , boxed in by rigid ideology and extreme positions. Its as if  the United States has entered its teenage years, uncompromising in its positions , and all of our politicians are wearing the t-shirt “Hire me while I know it All”.

It is ironic that a young and free  United States needs to pay heed to the words of Deng Xiaoping, Head of the Communist party from 1979 – 1990. Deng’s famous maxim speaks with pragmatic clarity, “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice”. In the United States, it should not matter if the idea or policy is a republican cat or democratic cat. If it catches mice it is good for the country.