The collapse of the US banking system may be a harbinger of a new world order in which the United States will be replaced by China as the world’s sole global power. The American banking system has all but collapsed and once America’s great financial institutions are now dependent on huge injection of public funds to survive. With the banks lost their ability to provide credits to business, the US may be entering into a protracted downtown and when its economy recovers, it may not be able to sustain America’s dominant role in the world affairs. A country dependent on foreign credits, America will not be in a position to sustain its huge military budget and consequently, like the collapse of once mighty Soviet military, the American military might shrink.
   While the US financial institutions have collapsed, China’s banks are in perfect shape. In contrast to America’s trillion dollar budget and trade deficits, China’s coffer is running a staggering trillion dollar surplus. Although China is also hit by the global recession, its banking system remains sound and is in a far better position to finance its own stimulus package of $500 billion. The United States will have to borrow heavily, mainly from China, to finance its own stimulus and this means China’s role will be crucial in US recovery plan.
   This is why the G-20 summit in London is now dubbed as G-2 summit between China and the United States. Most analysts now think Europe and Japan, facing their own economic downturns, no longer matter and the Sino-American economic relations are central to the world economy. Since China now stands alone as a growing economy, why not make its role as the world’s leader official? And there seems to be enough substance to it. ‘For the world economy to recover, these two economic powerhouses must cooperate,’ wrote Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, in the Washington Post. ‘Europe and Japan, embroiled in the deepest post-war recession, are barely worth consideration as rivals to China and America. And America, the superpower, has passed the peak. ... The real business in London will not be the G-20 meeting but the G-2 summit between President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao,’ asserted Britain’s Economist.
   Not only Western governments are looking toward China for salvation, Western companies are crying out for Chinese funds for their survival. Chinese state-owned companies are flush with cash from supplying the country’s manufacturing boom and now looking for investments and acquisitions abroad. Zhou Zhongshu, chairman of the state-owned Minemetals told China Daily last month that the company plans to expand abroad through mergers and acquisitions, taking advantage of the decline in asset prices due to global financial crisis. It seems that China’s bulging finances are about to enter into an era of global acquisition as the once rich Western companies face bankruptcy and liquidation.
   But China’s domination may not be limited to the financial sector. The Chinese armed forces are also flexing their muscles. With 10 million in uniform, the Peoples Liberation Army is by far the world’s biggest. Now it is going through rapid modernisation. China is also building a blue ocean navy bristling with submarines, guided missile destroyers and frigates. Its air force is also undergoing enormous expansion. With a treasury bulging with surplus, China can afford to pay for such huge military expenditures which the United States, facing a staggering trillion-dollar budget deficit, can no longer afford. The result of China’s growing military might can be seen everywhere. The Chinese just staged a naval confrontation with a US navy ship in the South China Sea, drawing only mild protest from the United States. Clearly, the Americans are wary to bite the hand that feeds them.
   The implications of China’s emergence as the economic superpower are obvious — it is also becoming a military superpower. The collapse of the Soviet Union as the world’s formidable superpower has mainly been due to its collapse as an economically viable country. The American economic decline may herald its end as the world’s greatest military power and economic strength of China may propel it to be the world’s only economic and military superpower in the world.
   Is China becoming a new type of imperialist power without colonies? Only future can tell. But how China manages its newly found status as the world’s sole superpower and how rest of the world respond to it will be the most interesting question.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada

The parking of automobiles is clearly a wasteful use of road space, but the alternatives—providing all off-street parking—is a wasteful use of other resources. A compromise is thus needed to improve the
   efficiency of road space without inflicting inordinate costs on society in terms of paying for off-street
   parking.
   A few places should absolutely ban car parking, with sufficiently strong penalties to serve as true deterrents. These include busy streets, all footpaths, and all parks and playgrounds. Banning car parking on busy streets could allow for greater provision of space for bicycle lanes, rickshaws, and an efficient bus rapid transit system. Car parking on footpaths is an offensive deterrent to pedestrians and should never be tolerated anymore than would the stowing of other personal belongings (a bed, a table, a desk) on the footpath.
   Minor streets could allow car parking within designated areas, with people around to collect fees based on time and space used. Sensitive areas that require free access and especially where children gather should ban parking altogether within a certain radius. This would include schools, and would have the effect of reducing traffic congestion, increasing safety,
   and serving as an inducement to travel to school by more efficient modes.
   Rahidul Samana Roky
   Dhaka University