China's New Launch Contract/China & The World Economy

 

Segment 1:  China's New Satellite Launch Contract

According to the Wall Street Journal, China has secured its first launch contract with a major Western satellite operator in more than a decade. This is a significant boost for Beijing, which wants a larger share of the world's satellite deployment industry. China agreed to put a five-ton satellite into orbit for France's EutelSat Communication.  Beijing's ambitious satellite-construction program coupled with its aggressive space-exploration efforts could lead to heightened concerns inside the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill regarding China's ascendancy as a space power.

Guest:  Rick Fischer, Senior Fellow of International Assessment and Strategy Center, author of "China's Military Modernization"  


Segment 2:  China and the World Economy, Will China Save Capitalism?

For a quarter of a century the American consumer has been the locomotive of the world's economy and now has the locomotive derailed and taken the rest of the world economy with it.  It would seem recovery could require a great change in direction of capital flows.  For the past decade, poor people in the developing world have financed the consumption of rich people in America.  America has borrowed nearly $1 trillion a year, mostly from the developing world, and used these funds to import consumer goods and buy homes at low interest rates.  The result is a solvency crisis of the American household, which shows up as a solvency crisis for financial institutions.  Is China, with nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and a sovereign wealth fund with $200 billion at its disposal, the next rescuer of the world's economy?

Guest:  Robert Sherretta, President of International Investor Corporation