Chart Porn: The US-Asia Arm Race

The conservative Heritage Foundation comes up with a deck of wonderful charts on Asia.

Writes the Zero Hedge,

Asia is a study in contrasts. It is home to economic freedom and political liberty; it is also home to political instability and tyranny. Some of Asia’s borders are unsettled and volatile. And military budgets and capabilities are expanding, sometimes faster than economic growth. The rise of China as a great power presents both sides of this equation. It is being watched carefully by all the countries of the region. It is the U.S. that is recognized as the catalyst in ensuring a prosperous peace over conflict. America is a Pacific power. That much is a matter of geography and history. But the facts – and America’s principles and interests – demand more than resignation to geography. They call for continued American leadership, commitment, and the predominant comprehensive power that has enabled Asia’s very welcomed, opportunity-laden rise."

Thus prefaces the Heritage Foundation its Asian 'Book of Charts', which summarizes most of the key economic, financial, trade, geopolitical, most importantly militaristic tensions both in Asia and, by dint of being the global marginal economic force, the world itself. And while we will present the complete deck shortly, of particular interest we find the summary in 7 easy charts how Asia is slowly but surely catching up on that accepted by conventional wisdom GloboCop - the United States.

We present it in its entirety below.

In my view, the current sensationalist brouhaha over territorial claims has been more of a political diversion (from domestic political and economic woes, e.g. in China and the US) and a complicit attempt by both US-China to promote the interests of the neo-conservative protected military industrial complex through an arms race and a resurgent build up of bases around the world in order to justify government expenditures on defense and inflationism.

[Perhaps the real reason is the encirclement and domestic infiltration strategy against Russia by the US, but indirectly implemented with China as the bogeyman or as the smoke screen].

Lastly these may have been part of the desperate attempts by welfare-warfare governments to curb civil liberties (through nationalism and financial repression) in face of growing forces of decentralization.

More great charts of Asia here.

Note: charts can mean different things or perspectives depending on the person’s interpretations and biases.