It's no accident, or is it? Parenting, U.S. decline, and the Chinese stealth fighter plane

Until a week or two ago, when I picked up the hard-copy issue of Time magazine with the cover story about the 'Chinese tiger mom,' I had no idea that Amy Chua had written a controversial article, and now book, about her approach to parenting. I knew of Chua as a law professor and author of serious books about globalization (World on Fire), empire, etc. But since her Wall St. Journal piece appeared, her controversial parenting style has been the talk of the 'commentary space,' for lack of a better phrase to refer to blogosphere and print-sphere. Item: a Jan. 24 post by Alex Barder, which draws connections between U.S. decline vis-a-vis China (and other emerging powers) and the fuss about Chua. I'm inclined to think these supposed connections are mostly coincidence. Yes, Obama's State of the Union spoke of the U.S. falling behind in education, innovation, and competitiveness; yes, China is now the world's second largest economy; and I suppose some of the attention Chua garnered could be explained by the attendant anxieties. But I think her statements were eye-catching enough to have sparked a controversy on their own, without any help from the imperial decline theme.

Barder disagrees. He says this, among other things:

It is not by chance that Chua’s article comes on the heels of proliferating news stories about China’s greater than expected military capabilities. A few months ago, for example, James Krask published an essay entitled “How the United States Lost the Naval War in 2015” in which he posits a scenario where the US navy no longer has supremacy of the East China Sea. Recent information on a new Chinese stealth fighter highlights China’s technological military prowess that potentially rivals the US air supremacy.

Plus, he adds, a focus on parenting and culture diverts attention from the bad effects of neoliberalism.

"It is not by chance that Chua’s article comes on the heels of proliferating news stories about China’s greater than expected military capabilities." On the contrary, I think it's entirely by chance. Indeed, if I went looking for an example of chance, I'm not sure I could find a better one than this.