China's new economic plan
Remember what they teach you in basic manners class: if you're invited to someone's house, don't turn up empty-handed.
China's president Hu Jintao is going to Washington in a few days for a summit to discuss the global financial crisis. Now he has something to show his hosts: a new economic plan.
The Chinese government has just announced a series of measures worth $586bn. The plan includes spending on infrastructure, housing, healthcare, and disaster relief. The measures are designed to make sure that China's economy keeps going - and that its people start spending.
Here's what makes the package necessary: the global downturn has begun to affect China. Put simply: since consumers in the West can no longer afford to buy as much, China can't sell as much. So, China's growth has dropped to 9% from over 10% a year ago. Exports have fallen. Factories have shut down. 67,000 small and medium businesses so far have gone bust this year.
Here's why all of this worries the government: fewer jobs means more social unrest. In recent weeks there've been reports of protests and marches by workers who've lost their jobs. More than anything else, the Communist Party hates instability.
So, the government will hope that its $586bn package helps out. It's something for Hu Jintao to discuss with his fellow world leaders when he gets to Washington.
PS. For those who've read my previous entry, Hu Jintao and Barack Obama have now actually spoken on the phone. They did so on Saturday.
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
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So, James, according to you, the CCP is doing it to maintain stability, to hold on to power,to bring it as a gift to western government. Did you ask Chinese people what does this mean to them? Is this welcome by the people? If you possess a little bit language skill then you will find out more details. The package is about better transport, sanitation, housing and basic social safety net for poorer rural areas. It is about expressways, high speed train systems and better ports. It is about better water supply for north China and less flooding for south China...... The Chinese government is laying down solid fundations for China's future development. The factory workers who lost their jobs will soon find themself working on construction sites. China will come out of this recession as a stronger and happier nation.
James, have you ever thought about the possibility of being brainwashed by your democratic government? I remember a propoganda song which was popular in China during 1960s. " Socialism is good, socialism is good, people have high status in socialism country......" From what I observed the same type of brainwashing happens in democratic countries. The song is like is "Democracy is good, democracy is good, people have high status in democratic countries......" There is thorough education of the superority of democracy in primary schools, high schools, and even language schools for migrants. When it gets to the point that the recipients come out of such system believe the democratic government is entiled to bombed other nations into the far from being perfect demcracy, when the voters believe it is OK for their democratic government to interfere with other countries's politics in the name of human rights, freedom and deomocracy, I would say that brainwashing has taken place not education. I believe all countries will progress into democracy but at their own pace in their own way. China will. To me, your complete paranoia about China's political system only confirms your inability of independent thinking and make me doubt your motive.
I am posting from Australia. My state government has just cancled a 15 billion dollar raiway project because they can not afford it. In order to vote against the war loving and environmental non-friendly Liberal Party, I voted the Labour Party knowing that they have a history of failing the economy. Now the Labour has been in power for months and has been mismanaging the economy. I want to get rid of them. Tell me James, where is my high status and where is my choice?
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I suppose the advantage for the Chinese over their western counterparts, is that Chinese people usually save very hard and will have savings to fall back on. They are also more likely to borrow from friends and the extended family if necessary.
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Given the vast number of working-class Chinese people who not only sustain the country's fast-growing economy but very much depend on it for subsistence, the pandemic feeling-the-pinch syndrome must be very different from the situation in UK.
As far as I know, social welfare in China doesn't provide protection or benefits for all those who are unemployed, nor does the country have a tradition that encourages the citizens to actively pressurise the state.
The customary practice in China is to seek help from the informal networks of families and friends that one has established through day-to-day interactions. Many ordinary Chinese don't really have trust in the state when in dire need of help, as informed by an old adage 'the sky is high and the emperor is far away' (Tian gao huangdi yuan).
It is thus interesting to see how the relationship between the government and Chinese workers has changed in recent years against the backdrop of shifting domestic and global conditions.
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Like any government in the world. The Central government's aim is to help their own people, the Chinese. There is nothing wrong with it. Just Obama will act in the best interest of American. If the Chinese government's economic plan can help West, then it is a bonus (it is definitely not their primary aim)
I also believe the world finicial crisis does not effect the Chinese as much as the wealthy westerners because most Chinese are still live on the land and not depend on share markets.
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Thanks for the post James.
Lets hope that the citizens don't go starving during these economically tense times.
I heard that teachers got a double pay rise following a teacher's strike. I think that this was a bit excessive, and that some of this money could have gone into this project. Oh well, again, I hope for the best.
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10% growth in an economy the size of China's was always unsustainable. Given the choice of four years at 10% or twenty at 2%, they went for the burn, forgetting that the world economy could not support it. Added to this was a lack of quality control which meant dishonesty flourished (melamilk and unsafe toys being classic examples) and a fake exchange rate, no wonder the wheels are coming off.
To this must be added to lack of innovation - down to the point of buying up production lines - and the story's going to be painful. Economic autonomy may yet have value.
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I cannot aggree more with funnyanotherblogger. Once again, James has shown his ignorant and cold-war mind.
I just don't understand how BBC can expect a reporter who cannot speak any Chinese can do a good job in China.
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So what our esteemed Beijing correspondent is saying is that if the Chinese government engages in fiscal policy to stimulate the economy, it's to prevent social unrest, but, presumably, if the more 'enlightened' governments of the world try to stimulate their economies (not that they can), it's for the good of their citizens.
Oh dear, I think perhaps the author is beginning to show his true colours.
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Hi for all these “fen chin" (the chauvinistic young Chinese): I am an oversea Chinese and lived in the US for over 30 years. I don't buy Chinese made foods any more. You know why, you guys have no morale to make any decent things, especially foods. Let me tell you a story, Firestone for years has been a very good tire company, and then they cut corners and made the tires that blew up on the highway, because of this no one is buying their tires anymore. The same thing happened to Chinese made goods. The ethics and good reputation are more important to earn a few bucks. Add poisons into food products are not only morally unacceptable, but also murdering people. It has to stop, where and what the government is doing right now? (only thuners and no rain-like an old Chniese saying). The ruling elites have separate organic food sources and they couldn't care less about the ordinary people, so why you guys have such a big head and blame the western economy is the problem?
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I think China should be very careful when she adopts Western stock system. This system is manipulated by irresponsible and greedy persons.
As for the BBC story talking about Chinese shooting Tibetans: this is a typical illegal border-crossing. The lead will be shot no matter where it is. Have you checked the death toll of the US-Mexico border? Have you checked the death toll of EU and African border? Why do you single out China? Why do you only talk to Tibetan exiles but not Chinese?
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James, good point about good manners.
Another one is to try and learn something about your hosts and attempt the language. James, please try it...
To funnyanotherblogger I can give you the answers to your questons
"Did you ask Chinese people what does this mean to them? Is this welcome by the people? If you possess a little bit language skill then you will find out more details"
A resounding NO !!!!
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Mr. Reynolds,
Rather than showing once again your biaseness disguised in your "British sacracism", it would have been more professonal to show some neutrality as claimed by the BBC, while also describing the content of Hu's proposal a little bit more.
All responsible government wants to maintain stability, and think of its own country's interest first, including your own government. What is wrong with a proposal aimed at maintaining stability in China, which afterall will contribute to maintianing stability elsewhere? What is your point in trying to be sarcastic about it?
Please do yourself as a reporter and the corporation you represent a favour: be neutral, at least try to be and let it be seen so.
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A few points that keep being overlooked in these 'will/won't China help the West' discussions:
A year or so ago everyone was predicting the Chinese economy might slow slightly over the Olympic period due to the huge number of restrictions introduced, the Wenchuan earthquake and the widespread flooding in the spring, etc. Now growth has slowed slightly. What a surprise!
A year or so ago everyone was also, funnily enough, worried that the Chinese economy would 'overheat'. It's now cooled off slightly to 9% from 10. Shouldn't that be good news? Short term it might well not be great for those workers, but the economy will come out healthier.
The Chinese government is currently attempting to shift production from basic, low-skill manufacturing into more profitable areas such as computing and engineering, as Taiwan and Japan did. Some toy and clothes factories have closed? What will replace them? More high-tech, high-end jobs, which are also less polluting. How is this not good news?
Americans have less money to spend; many of their products are made in China. Which ones? The expensive, high-end luxury goods? Well, some of them, but the majority are still basic necessities. If people have less money, they'll buy the cheapest products available. Which country currently makes things most cheaply? Americans (and Brits) will still buy Chinese products because they have less money and Chinese products are cheaper than Western ones.
Of course, overall demand from the West will still drop somewhat, but come to China. Look around a few random medium/small cities. There are a *lot* of newly moneyed Chinese spending a *lot* of money that they didn't have 5 years ago. These people don't have credit cards. They often don't even have mortgages; the only likely debt they'd have are relatively short term loans for investing in property. These people are where the rapid growth of the past few years has come from. This market simply did not exist 10 years ago. China still didn't have a recognisable middle class 5 years ago but does now, according to a Chinese friend I spoke to today in the random medium-sized city where I live, which is by no means one of China's wealthiest or most developed.
The first commenter was right that this 'recovery package' is more about what needs to be done in China to further develop the country than what needs to be done to 'weather the storm' of the economic crisis. Many of these measures have been on the cards for months; the plan for an increased healthcare system was announced last year if I remember rightly. China may well end up propping up the rest of the world for the next few years, but it's not going to be a charitable act, simply the result of China's continued development.
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The truth is China would have this economic plan with or without the Washington summit. It's very childish and stupid to think that it's done for showing off.
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It seems to me that the Chinese government has decided on exactly the right thing to combat a depression and the resulting unemployment- and has done so more rapidly than the fumbling Westerners.
In government, the motivations and internal monitoring of the leadership group seem to be the critical factors.
Does anyone believe that Americans or Britons have the foggiest understanding of what to do about governmental things- or must they be told by the media?
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Ever since the Olympics Western reporters have been saying that China is neglecting the people in the countryside. Now they have the time and means to ameliorate this.
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"More than anything else, the Communist Party hates instability."
Not really the party, per se, but the government. In fact, any organization prefers stability in its ranks than the other alternative.
#1 funny,
"I am posting from Australia"
> Well done. Having said that, I suppose you're not a CCP affiliate then?
"I voted for the Labour party knowing that they have a history of failing the economy. Now the Labour party has been in power for months and has been mismanaging the economy. I want to get rid of them. Tell me James, where is my high status and where is my choice?"
> Is this a rhetorical question? To answer it anyway, you KNOW that the Labour party sucks at the economy, but you voted for them anyway. Now you're complaining? I suppose this says something about your sound judgment.
>What high status? I don't understand you. As for your choice, you could wait until the next election and vote for someone better, or you could complain about the Labour party's alleged incompetence. Just don't forget, YOU HELPED put them in power in the first place.
I've read the first 2 paragraphs, by the way. I'll just comment on them if you want me to.
Just a little tired today.
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to funnyanotherblogger:
Great comment! You are absolutely right. The westerners always see everything through colored spectacles.
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I have to say that the 1st comment quite sharply pointed out why a seemingly neutral (James has been trying very hard to appear neutral in his recent posts) would still cause uneasy feelings in a Chinese reader: in James'view it's the instability that the CCP hates most, and that is the motive for the new economic plan. Have you (I mean James) ever considered the possibility that the Chinese government, like any other government in the world, is adopting this plan for the sake of the economy as a whole, and for the benefit of the people who have lost their jobs or whose jobs may be in danger?
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As a native Chinese living in China, we strongly support hu's announcement of huge economical package this time. As reported, China will mainly pay attention to the much-needed fields such as infrastructure, medical care, disaster relief, etc. By doing so, we can create a lot of job opportunities and put money back into common people's pockets which will stimulate the spending. Obviously due to the global financial downturn in recent days, though China is relatively immune to the outside disaster, still China has begun to feel the pressure due to shrinking oversea market. As a global manufactrure center, we witness a lot of small and medium sized factories have been shut down left thousands jobless in the pearl river region this year. Thus we have to stimulate the domestical expenditure to make up for the loss in the exporting sector. And this is exactly the reason of this policy.
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1. funnyanotherblogger:
I agree with you. It still seems impossible for James to look at China objectively.
It may be true that the package will secure stability for the country hence secure CCP's power. It is equally possible that the package will secure jobs, economical prospects and stability that are much wanted by the Chinese people. The two do not necessarily have to conflict. When the two are in tune, it actually confirms the CCP is serving the interests of the majority of the Chinese people, hence deserves its position of the ruling party.
But this is not how James thinks. For James: Communism = Evil. Anything that helps the CCP to stay in power is bad, even when the majority of the Chinese people benefit from it.
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#3 Actually, I believe the saying is - The mountains (shan) are high and the emperor is far away. Meaning that so long as the emperor (and his tax collectors and officials) are far away, the locals can carry on with their lives the way they like it to be !!
There is a Russian blessing of a similar meaning - God bless and keep the Tzar; as far from me as possible !! The second part of the blessing is usually and preferably muttered or mumbled !!
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The closure of factories has meant a large exodus of workers going back to the agricultural heartlands. Often not full paid, there is growing resentment and unrest across the provinces.
Have no illusion, the primary aim of this reform is to curb domestic insecurity. China has always been reactionary rather than visionary when it comes to domestic reform. The plight of rural oppression has been shunned by ivory tower city dwellers and officials since the beginning of Chinese history. Why now of all time to reform?
The only stable and everlasting pillar of Chinese society is the unity through family and philosophy. Police state and economic Catch-Up are just tempory measures. China must reduce internal political time wastage and bring about true social reforms to sustainably grow herself.
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#5 from what I can understand there was no teachers' strike. However, the teachers' pay have been frozen for a long time and inflation and modernisation had eroded what little value it had. Therefore, doubling the pay is fully justified; especially as China is finally returning to the Confucian model of society that it re-imported from Singapore. One of the tenets of Confucianism is that teachers are highly respected and should be rewarded accordingly !!
In Britain, teachers' morale hit rock bottom when thuggery is rampant in State schools and the teachers are not allowed to deal with it directly !! Many of my friends have left teaching for better paid, less stressful jobs in commerce and industry despite their earlier high ideals. Shattered dreams are the most hurtful !!
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Just a bit of history. The CCP came to power in 1949 after a decade-long peasant revolt. An earlier workers' revolt, Russian-style, in the cities failed spectacularly and resulted in the Long March.
Now the peasants are revolting, again (pun intended). Any stability and employment will be for the benefit and the greater good of *all* their citizens.
If Mr. Reynolds will read the posts in his colleague, Mr. Peston's blog, he will find several that speak of or threaten unrest in the streets of Britain. By that same token, is Gordon Brown's not-very-successful attempts to solve the economic woes also an attempt for the sake of stability ??
There is an old English saying - Judge not lest ye be judged !!
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Great readings, this blog is alive as ever.
I am glad that it is still operating after the Olympic.
keep your style Mr Reynolds. It is educational.
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Oh my Lord the incessant complaints about objectivity!
This is a blog. An opinion. Opinions are partial.
Want news?
Read the news.
Want editorial?
Read this and stop whingeing because it's not objective. Offer your own opinions in response. Offer details of the evidence that has led you to that opinion - this would all be very interesting. But please, please, please stop whingeing about objectivity.
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No 18 Midnight.
My judgement is as good/bad as majority Australians. Should introduce our two great parties first. They are actually identical, no, they have some differences because they have different defects. Liberal Party tend to lead the nation toward a cliff and our much better Labour party only cripple us. I should really shut up and be happy about the our great democracy! I had the choice and made my decisions and deserve the consequences! It is all my fault and it is also the fault of the Australians who voted Labour! What a great system!
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funnyanotherblogger
Thank you very much for a constructive comments. Some westerners don't have the basic manner of respect.
I already believe that western media, UK in particular, would not like to see prosperous china. What they fear most is their master America finally figured out by cooperating with china, the world would be a much better and peaceful places. This leaves no space for UK on international stage. So by smearing Chinese in any possible way, creating dislike and hatred from nowhere, they can play and profit from both side. They did this to Africa, to middle east, and Russian. By making one ethic people violently destroy the other, they can sell weapons and buy resources cheap. They sold drugs and created drug war a hundred years ago. The same mentality still applies. I personally would not recommend to treat them in high moral ground. The fluffy words only hide the unspoken agenda.
Although the standard of the media report for BBC is very high domestically, because of the supervision of ofcom, the international reporting standard can be very low -- lies, delusions, deliberate spinning everywhere. I don't need to give examples, details of them can be found on anti-cnn website. If I am retired, having plenty of time I would construct an anti-bbc myself. But I have families to feed.
Australia, on the other hand, has close ties with china, economical and cultural. My ex-boss who is the head of the Asia pacific department of a world known consultancy, is an aussie. I talked to him about the worrying of sacrifice professionalism in the Chinese environment. To my surprise, he objected fiercely. He said according to his experience, the Chinese financial regulation is really good, improved by "leap and bound". The type of corruption is common in Indian but would not be seen in china. The professionalism is close to high western standard. Again, this is something british would not like to see, I would expect intensive brain wash after they come back home after the expat experience.
I am very happy about the government announcement for stimulus. That means to improve the life for the poor and low incomers in the mean time boost china' economy. There will be huge changes. There are plenty chanced to make difference. China would not be the same after this. Meanwhile pounds have dropped to the lowest to Euro. House market is slowest for 30 years. UK's economy is highly dependant on other countries, because it’s lacking of real industry. If UK doesn't change its imperial mind, thinking he can still treat other country with ignorant superiority and disrespect, the economy can only get worse. If I am as mean as Shannon stone, I would call this Karma. But I am not. UK, gets well soon. Have right attitude would help. The world can evolve with peace co-existence. Just have respect to other countries which is not America. Thanks.
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China saves the world economy. That is what 2008 will be best remembered.
Already western news report are beginning not to sound too biased against Chinese rule in Tibet. Finally the West are beginning to understand China is the force for good and stop supporting anti Chinese groups.
Either you work with the world that has to include China or you work against it. Seperatists AKA terrorists in and outside Tibet and Xinjiang has to choose were they stand.
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#28,
That's what I've been trying to say.
The reason why we can comment on these blogs is to correct any "bias" in James' writing. If we can't educate James, we can at least explain our side to the countless other people who populate and read the comments on this blog.
It's much better to argue in a more reasonable manner than resort to name-calling, because you'll just reinforce the idea of "Angry Brainwashed Chinese" on some of the less-informed readers here.
Peace
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64. zhexuejia wrote items that made sense.
An essential feature of the better Western democracies is the ability to "throw the [governing] rascals out".
The CCP wants to avoid unrest, even though the CCP offers no chance of being voted out.
There has been some consideration of local voting democracy, however.
If nepotism and corruption could be reduced, there is much to recommend the CCP leadership "for the people".
I wonder if features of initiative, referendum and recall could be introduced in the CCP system?
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#25
Perhaps it was a culmination of everything. It was what I heard from a teacher anyway.
There were the pilot strikes as well.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
The Chinese "atrocities against religion" are 100% lies made up by Christian bigots. Anyone who speaks Chinese fluently, and lives there for 10+ years can verify. Do a youTube search on Jew Brew. Christian-lies serve to promote hatred and exclusion of Chinese influence. The Christian churches are bloodily insecure about their Santa for adults. They know they are inferior to Chinese philosophy. This is why they use childhood indoctrination to desperately maintain their control of followers.
Christianity must stop indoctrinate hatred and racism to its children.
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"These words [under God] will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.".
To MidnightJunkie,
You talk 100% Christian value with none supporting materials. I have posted a large number of supporting stories.
How does an imagined deity, namely Jesus the Ghod, make people humble? The reverse is observable!
I don’t see Christianity or faith have ANY moral high ground. You are told so since day one. If you use a scientific measure to observe, there is NONE.
“One Nation under Ghod” is a brutal violation of my religious freedom. It FORCEs a European way of life onto EVERYONE in the US. It is a Christian self-supremacists behavior.
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I don’t see worshiping Ghod makes people humble.
Did you watch Survivor China? How did those Christians, young and old, react in a Chinese temple? Remember?
Christians are very disrespectful toward other traditions.
Let’s set aside the thousand-year discrimination against Jewish Europeans and the Jewish holocaust.
European media are extremely hostile to non-Christian China.
European newspapers repeatedly insult Moslem God. Dutch cartoons have thoroughly hurt the feelings of Moslems.
Christians run around the world to pay disrespect to others. In Thailand, they insult the King.
I don’t see “Believing in Ghod makes people humble”.
Is this clear? Why do you say that?
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@ Mikelia.
"You guys have no moral to make any decent things......so why you guys have such a big head and blame the western economy is the problem?"
Who are the "you guys" you are talking about? The heartless criminals who tinted the milk? If you want to talk to them you have to visit the jail in China to find them first.
Who blame the western economy is the problem? Any westerners who can think knows the problem rooted from the western economy.
It is either the greedy criminals and western media make you think the Chinese cause all the problems of this world or you are making use of these criminals and western media to start an new round of attacks on the Chinese.
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Re: comment #28 by Doogletastic,
FYI, this article is listed as a News/Analysis item in the BBC News website. This means that either BBC News has now become a blog site, or this article needs to be written as neutrally as possible.
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James, I really hate your wording. As you said, "more than anything else, the Communist Party hates instability", do you and your party like instability? What's wrong we take some steps to prevent instability. Plus, we have enough money to do so in case of urgency. No matter what Chinese and the government do, good or bad, you can find something wrong or ironic. You are the one brainwashed.
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James:
I hope that China's new economic plan, is a great success....
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funnyanotherblogger wrote:
"So, James, according to you, the CCP is doing it to maintain stability, to hold on to power,to bring it as a gift to western government. Did you ask Chinese people what does this mean to them? Is this welcome by the people? If you possess a little bit language skill then you will find out more details. The package is about better transport, sanitation, housing and basic social safety net for poorer rural areas. It is about expressways, high speed train systems and better ports. It is about better water supply for north China and less flooding for south China...... The Chinese government is laying down solid fundations for China's future development. The factory workers who lost their jobs will soon find themself working on construction sites. China will come out of this recession as a stronger and happier nation."
Is this all a pipe dream? Without transparency, opposition in any form and a free press, we would never know if the $586b project would be well spent. It's a ginormous sum of money and given the endemic corruption and lack of accountability and the govt-knows-best mindset, I fear incompetence, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds to small or middle-ranking officialdom.
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#28.
"Read this and stop whingeing because it's not objective. Offer your own opinions in response. Offer details of the evidence that has led you to that opinion - this would all be very interesting. But please, please, please stop whingeing about objectivity."
I'm doing exactly what you're suggesting and my opinion is that James has not being objective and my evidence is in my posting!
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i almost laughed after reading this news.
" BEIJING, China (AP) -- Preparing for a Washington summit to discuss a response to the global financial crisis, China indicated Tuesday its focus will be its own economy -- not paying to bail out others.
Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech in Beijing on October 12.
Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech in Beijing on October 12.
Officials have yet to say what President Hu Jintao will propose at the weekend meeting of leaders of 20 major economies. But Beijing made the outlines of its strategy clear with the announcement of a multibillion-dollar package to stimulate its economy with more spending on construction, tax cuts and social programs, with no mention of efforts abroad.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants Beijing to use its nearly $2 trillion in reserves to help top up an International Monetary Fund emergency loan facility. But a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that Beijing's priority is to "put our own house in order" and ensure domestic stability."
Who cares whether UK survives or not...
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post 28:
if this blog is not on BBC, not have bbc on top of the banner and not read by many readers from western countries, yes, James can state whatever oppinion he has. Again, if that is the case, nobody gives a damn what he says, thinking just another extreme individuals having extreme view against china.
But this is from BBC, and it has wide influence. Of course we expect a minimum standard which is not seen here. Plus what we did is just to express our opinion, why are you so upset?
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#48
It appears the rich are waiting to be bailed out by the poor. ROBinhood in reverse.
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Hey, my post at #47 got blocked by the moderators, I wonder why. I was merely pointing out that they were slacking off in their jobs, as evident from the fact that the comments on this blogs were "awaiting moderation" for 2 days.
Moderators, if my post really happened to break house rules, might I direct you to the comment at #35 by beercup.
It contains swear words, abusive, is a statement of violence against James's well-being, is completely off-topic, is defamatory in manner, and is completely objectionable.
You don't do you jobs properly, and now you prevent me from pointing this out, and yet you allow comments such as that to be read on the internet on this website. That's a real shame.
Now I'm fighting with the moderators...
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#38 timbatu,
Here we go again. That's not Christian nonsense. That was a quotation from Dwight Eisenhower explaining why he allowed the words "Under God" to included in the Pledge of Allegiance. As to your posts, that's exactly what they are: only stories. You use them to support your arguments, ignoring the fact that they should be verified as well.
Ok survivor china. supposing that some Christians reacted not so favorably to some chinese temples, does that mean that ALL Christians are disrespecful towards other traditions? Well I saw the video showing a chinese border patrol shooting at fleeing tibetans who are trying to cross to the indian border. Does that give me the right to say that the chinese border patrol will kill ANY person that is trying to cross the Indian border illegally? I could already see the headlines should an american be shot at that border.
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"Who are the "you guys" you are talking about? The heartless criminals who tinted the milk? If you want to talk to them you have to visit the jail in China to find them first."
#40, I was born in China and my grandparent brought me to Taiwan and then to the US. Now you probably can guess my age? My wife was born in Hong Kong. The food poison problems are very wide spread in China for at least 50 years. Frankly speaking, I don’t know how you can survive the air, water and food pollution problems in China. All my relatives toured China are complaining about the pollution and food problems. Therefore "you guys" means a generation of Chinese raised and educated with very little concern of morale, honesty and the concept of quality. Just try to catch a few "criminals" to show case it to the world may fool some of the gullible Laowai, but not the Chinese with indigenous cultural understanding. The people in Chungnanhai could care less about the food problem for 50 years, every time this happened, they just arrest a few scapegoats or even execute a few to show the world that the problems were found and solved. Guess what? I have bad news for you, I have been blogging with the westerners in the US, and all feel that they should boycott all Chinese made goods not only the food items. You see, in the business world, reputation and quality are two most important things. I hope you and especially the government do understand the gravity of the situation and hopefully the government will honestly do something about it, such as passing tougher laws, implementing quality standards and also re-educating the general public regarding the importance of honesty and reputation. I have to emphasize that being a Chinese, I have no intention like the bunch of Falungong to bash China. The food problems and the quality problems are indeed very real and urgent and all Chinese should take this issue very seriously and not just by arresting a few "criminals" and hopefully the world will forgive and forget. They don’t.
“It is either the greedy criminals and western media make you think the Chinese cause all the problems of this world or you are making use of these criminals and western media to start an new round of attacks on the Chinese.”
You know, when the western media lied about the Tibet incident, I was among you guys to write comments to the anit-CNN.com. Unfortunately your above answer was exactly what I expected from some of you, i.e., to balme everyting on the “evil western media”. The reality is that the world has lost their confidence in things made in China. I think it will take a long time for China to repair this damage and I sincerely hope that it is not too late for China to repair the tremendous damage that is being done on the Chinese economy. However, the four trillion RMB stimulus package is a correct and wise way to shift export economy to domestic need. For that I salute Mr. Wen.
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I see very few words of appreciation from our Chinese contributors for their right to exercise their freedom of speech here (ok so you occasionally get blocked but this is for a valid reason). Imagine if I went on Chinese websites whilst in China and started criticising your country? I'd be thrown out and have my visa revoked. Maybe we are the fools to let you stay here. The truth of the matter is our government isn't paranoid of being toppled like yours. I know where I'd rather be.
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@ yangshanghai.
"Is this all a pipe dream? Without transparency, opposition in any form and a free press, we would never know if the $586b project would be well spent. It's a ginormous sum of money and given the endemic corruption and lack of accountability and the govt-knows-best mindset, I fear incompetence, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds to small or middle-ranking officialdom."
It appears to me even with transparency, opposition and a free press, corruption, incompetence, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds still happen on an enormous scale across western democratic countries right now at the moment. How many people lost their retirement to the big fat rats on the wall ST? How corrupt is Bush administration? The top 5% riches, weapon dealers and oil masters have their wealth skyrocketing while the middle class robbed, the country has fallen from a surplus into trillion dollar deep debts. Are all these mismanagement, corruption and incompetence punished anyway? NO! Is there any system in place to prevent it from happening again? NO. Did transparency, free press, opposition help in anyway to prevent it from happenning? NO.
In contrast, what the corrupted government officials have to face in China? Death penalty. Firing squart. However, those corrupted Chinese officials always find safe heavens in western countries, makes the hunting down of these criminals very difficult. Certain level of surveillance does exist in Chinese system which has helpt the government and the economy navigate out of trouble. It is true the system in China has its weakness in the form of lacking political opposition, transparency or a free press. But, are you sure there is real transparency and a "free" press? in the western system? I quite doubt about it. How much can the political opposition do when majority knows the country is heading into disaters? Vote them out? The same party will come back. It is only a matter of time, right? Since WW2 every ten years or so the democratic USA with a free press and opposition goes into a major war against a country on this planet, causing unbelievable human sufferring. How much have these wars helpt in the long history of human civillisation? I can see no positive effects at all. What kind of roles do the free press, the transparency, and the oppossition play in all of this? The free press seems provide lots of materials to its government to justify their aggressions against other nations. Look at the cyclic wars and recessions does it come to you that there are problems in the western systems? Yes, surely democracy can adjust its self and get out of this. But it would not be long it will fall into the same trap again. To me, it is very obvious that the two party system is very expensive, lack of efficiency, and it is often manipulated by big companies in many ways. The so called free press is doing a poor job abroad. Most of time only acting like a nagging bitch, lies or exagerates problems. This leads to an emphasis on differences not seeking common ground. Then results in confrontations and wars.It is time for the people who live in democracy have a long hard look at the system and reform it.
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To Topbear1974.
Nice to meet you. You said what I want to say. Thank you. I had never posted any comments on the internet not until I saw the wheel chair bound Chinese girl harrassed by Tibetan separatist and 3.14 riot. It was the distorted reports by the western media prompted me into the onlineactivism. I think james needs some feed backs from Chinese who have seen both sides of the story.
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Here's to Jim Reynolds: you seem like an intelligent, educated, and worldly young fellow. I found your pre-Olympics blogs entertaining, yet since then your blogs have been full of judgmental, bigoted eurocentric views. This is the 21st century, and the glory days of the British Empire are gone, yet your Anglo-Saxon superiority complex thrives. Would it hurt your chance of winning a Pulitzer to present an informed, unbiased opinion, and let the readers draw their own conclusions?
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James:
It is true, that never go to a person's home empty handed.....
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I hope that Hu Jintao, will bring some ideas to the table in Washington!
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I think that Reynolds does a fine job in raising points and letting all sorts of views concerning them be presented here.
Whether his points are valid or only provocative of comment is irrelevant.
Is personal abuse a characteristic of the new generation in China?
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China wants to revamp so it is up to the West to sell them materials and stop belly aching about China. As good captalist, we should make a habit of cultervating customers and minding our own business. Colonialism is over.
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To #52 Midnight Junkie,
Well I saw many videos showing American boarder-officers shooting at crossing Mexicans. Why are these not reported in the West?
To #53 mikelia,
A sweater made in China was sold to an US store at $5. The Chinese side makes less than $1. The US store sold it at $100. Now think where the $95 did go?
Boycott whatever you want. Do we Chinese care?!?!
BTW, who and what is “the World”? Do you ever really think about it?
To #55 Senlin,
You REALLY, I mean REALLY, should go to China daily and experience our superior Speech Freedom. Your imagination of a Chinese websites is not true.
I have POSTED on Chinese sites. The Chinese sites are MUCH MORE tolerant on different views than this site.
The conclusion is: China has superior freedom!
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Have to agree with funnyanotherblogger. The western media is biased not only against China but every third world country. It cannot stand anything done right without the help of IMF, WB, or UN, incidentally, those organization have pretty much done nothing right, except for the few in western countries.
Chinese government is doing good for the people to avoid the unrest, which is an indication that government is responding to public demands (democracy, unlike Bush's regime) and a huge difference compared to tyranny few decades ago.
Let Chinese live their life and do not try to try to fix their problems with opium war morality.
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Some Westerners disgrace their own country to show how open they are. But the old Chinese have a saying, “Do not defecate in your own eating plate, but leave”. May be that is another culture difference??
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IMO China is doomed. It may not look that way to some now but its problems are so great and so many that it's impossible for me to see how they can be solved.
BTW the Communist Party doesn't hate instability most, it hates opposition most. That is because its number one objective is to stay in power without any threat of being deposed for any reason. But if the economy collapses, rioting and anger may spread throughout the Country.
Ishkandar #23, did you recently see "A Fidler on the Roof?"
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I have to quote your post to start with.
"Therefore "you guys" means a generation of Chinese raised and educated with very little concern of morale, honesty and the concept of quality. Just try to catch a few "criminals" to show case it to the world may fool some of the gullible Laowai, but not the Chinese with indigenous cultural understanding. "
I believe that you are a person who cares about China's territorial integrity. For some reasons I keep thinking that you are a nationalist. I have friends who come from TaiWan. They are KMT supporters. They say things such as "If communists continue to rule China, all the goodness of Chinese people will disapear." I think you have taken that attitude bit further, believing that a generation? of Chinese raised and educated with very little concern of morale, honesty and the concept of quality. Since the PRC was established in 1949, do you mean whoever borned after that are the "you guys" that you are talking about? Which means every one who are younger than 59 years old? The entire mainland China's working population? Then all the mainland Chinese boggers here are all with little morale, honesty, concept of quality? Do you have any evidence to back that claim? If it was true then mainland China would be a worldwise famous hell full of liars, criminals, and would not attract any of your relatives to tour. Do you have mainland Chinese friends/come across with them? Are they all with little morale, honesty, and Concept of quality? There is no country can guarantee the quality of all products they manufactured. Not long ago Sony was forced to recall 100,000 lap tops because the poor quality batterry caused fire. Also recently a Japanese high rank official committed suicide as he was involved in poisonous rice scandal and allegely covered up the corruption case. A sydney restaraunt served customer icecream with a visible junk of faeces......Immoral, money driven people can be found in every single country/race. China is a developing country, many small companies produce cheap goods. When you buy something from an one dollar shop, do you expect it has high quality? I do not. Yet it seems I always have good luck. My toilet brush is already 8 years old, made in China, 2 Aussie dollar, I bleach it regularly, and it is as good as new. Pls donot forget China produces millions of goods of a spectrum of quality and the good quality ones are not that cheap. There are many many honest business men and millions of workers working in silence trying to maintain and improve the quality of their products. Compare to them those dozens of criminals who tinted milk are the bad apple in the basket that should be discarded. They are not scapegoat, they have destroyed the reputation that millions hard working Chinese care so much.
It is very obvious that the western media has tried hard to cast a negative image of China and Chinese people( although they are not using plain words against Chinese people anymore). It is all about WHERE it happens. If it happened in other countries then the company responsible would be mentioned. If it happened in china then the Chinese national flag and the Chinese workers would be shown on the TV, the western company responsible for the quality of the goods? Can be ommitted, forgotten, and forgiven.
I know where your conclusion comes from. From decades of anti-commie educations and probably your family? It is like this:
The communist government can not and doesnot want to do anything right, they are evils.>>>They set up eductation system only want to brainwash their people and secure their rules. >>>The people are brainwashed and inferior.>>> The only smart people are those who are against the evil regime and the rest are all stupid with little morale, honesty and concept of quality. Right? Inevitable conclusions.
I think I am a Chinese nationalist too. I love China. I love Chinese people. I am aware that the people and the country are facing many challenges from both outside and inside. I am confident that 1.3 billion hardworking Chinese people with their first class wisdom will be the winner. They are not inferoir campare with any human races on this planet.
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#70
You have written a rather large assay and I am not necessarily disagreeing with most of what you have said. Yes, I am a nationalist; I was not educated by the communist system. But I have read a lot of Chinese publications from mainland and I think that I understand your mentality very well. I have a cousin who told me a lot of stories about Cultural Revolution and I still have first cousins living in China. I have friends in Church and coworkers who are also from mainland right now. I still want to go back to visit my birth place and I still want to contribute if I can.
My only message to you and the young Chinese who are eagerly to defend China is this: The Chinese Mainland food scare is pathetically chronic for at least 50 years old. For 50 years, Chinese government and its people has developed a technology to go to the moon, yet the government officials still refused or inept to solve the basic need for human's basic right to survive - the safe foods for their citizens to eat. I don't care what people say. This is absolutely not acceptable by any standard. The chronic poisons will slowly kill all Chinese citizens and maybe that's the way the Chinese government wants to control the population? I don't think there is any excuse that you can convince me that a 50 years old problem is still lingering around and every time when the problem happened, the government just caught a few criminals and executed them or put them in jails and that's it. Do you believe the ordinary Chinese and foreigners are that stupid to believe that the problems are solved? This is a serious time bomb.
Besides you, there is another fenchin said that they don't really care about the boycott because $5 Chinese made goods have only $1 profits and the importers sell them for $100 and pocket the $95 profits. Yes, that’s the scheme of the greedy westerners, who have outsourced everything world wide and this free market economy system has resulted in the world wide economical meltdown at this moment in addition to the toxic security notes issued by the Wall Street to the entire world. For China, the unfortunate reality is that a lot of poor Chinese people depend on that $1 profits to survive. You can see that a lot of toys companies and a lot of low end manufacturing factories are already folded and the reputation damage to China and Chinese people has already caused a world wide boycott. The only way out now is to make tougher laws and to solve this honesty and reputation problem very quickly. About 50 years ago, the things made in Japan, Taiwan were also had quality problems, but they have solved that honesty and reputation issues. I think if Chinese government is willing to invest their will and money and effort, this is not an unsolvable problem, but unfortunately they have convinced people like you that this is a "foreign devil and evil western media who are trying to subvert the Chinese reputation". That’s just a bunch of baloney, pardon to use this language. I sincerely hope that something can be done very soon for China's future is dependent on it.
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Every year we have over 18,000 companies going bust here, some bad years we get over and more than that.
And this whole country's population is smaller than a mid-size city in China.
So, are you talking big news or just some BS about China?
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Some Americans love to hate Chinese money going into US companies, but some places not people in America love Chinese money.
The casinos in the US love Chinese money, they will love you Chinese in A/C, Vegas and Detroit. Maybe they will not want you to over stay your welcome.
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Well, since there's no accountibility within the system itself, the need to avoid social unrest/instability is the only balancing force
that keeps CCP trying to respond better to people's needs.
But it's difficult to evaluate how good these responses really are since there's no effective monitor within the system. You only know something's wrong when people start rioting.
#64
"The conclusion is: China has superior freedom! "
I really wonder what's up with those melamine milk scandal victims and Sichuan earthquake parents. Has this superior freedom allowed them to bring their cases to the Chinese judicial system yet ? ? ?
Perhaps, as you said some time ago about speech freedom, only losers need judicial justice. That the freedom to bring your case to court is an inferior one.
Perhaps these victims are indeed enjoying their superior freedom by not trying to take whoever responsible to criminal justice.
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timbatu
"Well I saw many videos showing American boarder-officers shooting at crossing Mexicans. Why are these not reported in the West?"
>You reasoning is flawed. Since those tibetans were crossing over to another country, if you wanted to compare them to illegal mexican immigrants, you should have taken note if mexican border police have shot their own countrymen illegaly crossing the border. Are you telling me that the chinese border patrol is only trying to protect india from illegal immigrants?
>Anyways, all you're doing is nitpicking at small details, you haven't even responded to the question I asked you, which is: "Do you have the right to say that Christians are disrespectful to other traditions?" Because you don't. Even if you parade countless other so-called evidences in front of me, it will be just like me saying that the Chinese are counterfeiters/fakers/pirates, because even if I parade my own evidence, there is still that one chinese farmer who makes his own living howing his field, and that will make my reasoning invalid. So will one respectful christian make yours.
>I believe you're old enough to think before you speak(or post), otherwise, sooner or later, you'll say something that's liable to be a major embarassment to your fellow Chinese.
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#68
"If (China's) economy collapses, rioting and anger may spread throughout the country"
It won't happen however hard you pray, like what some people did after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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To #55 Senlin
hi, friend, someday mabe you will find the China in your brain (got from media and ...) is so different with the real one.
I know what I said may be nonsense for you, but this really is what I want to say. :)
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I thought the CCP domestic stimulus package was to show the rest of the G20 that it will only spend money for the sake of its own interest. Is it not?...
Not quite understand why the responses here are so hostile. I don't see anything offensive said by James...
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To #71 Mikelia,
Your problem is that you have no clue how China works. It is very sophisticated. You will never get it right if you do not speak Chinese.
The food poisoning has nothing to do with the Moon Mission. The Chinese majority see it as a result of capitalism. During Mao’s era, such things will never occur. Such an easy case is thoroughly misread as shown in your post.
It is safe to say that you get everything twisted about China. Your suggestions will never work in China.
As for the workers, yes they can make a living back home. The reason they come to cities is for MORE money. They may fight to get their pay checks, but they are not challenging the system. If you do not believe me, learn some Chinese and have a talk in Chinese. Your imaginations can be easily proved wrong in 1 hour.
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Heyone,
Politicians in democracies are not accountable by any means. Is this not clear? Democratic governments have no accountability. Politicians simply lie. Nothing and no one ever change in the profoundly racist West.
As for Sichuan earthquake: if this happens in the US or UK, the majority will suffer more. The reaction of Chinese government is deeply popular among the Chinese people. Let me know if this is not clear to you.
It is true that most Chinese do not follow the Western way to sue.
Hey, if you have no money, how can you sue in the West?
Are there any New Orleans Africans sued the state? They are shot at, you know!
As for the milk scandal, it is seen by Chinese as a problem of capitalism and individual greed. China is run by the people … Unlike Western democracies, which are run by a few elites.
China dose have superior freedom indeed.
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Tp #75 Midnight Junkie,
You wrote 3 paragraphs in full defense. I don’t worry about what embarrassment, why should you?!?! What is your fear? Do you worry that you may lose your faith by talking with me?
I have not seen one Christian who respects other traditions. It is like I have not seen one Nazi who respects Jews. Christian Bible believes itself as the only truth. This is the foundation of such behaviors.
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Quote #78 londonlurker: Not quite understand why the responses here are so hostile. I don't see anything offensive said by James...
Of course you don’t see any of the hostile bashing of China as offensive, you grow up listening to such nosense.
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Mikelia.
The food poison problems are not 50 years old. It is 30 years old. I lived communist China. Basically before 1976 (During Mao's rule), there was not any private buisness. Every single factory or company was state owned. People earned the same income(almost), wore the same clothes. That was the communist system. We had blue sky and cristal clear rivers but everyone was poor. There was not food poison problems because under the communist system the food factories and workers would not earn more from doing bad things such as tinting the milk. There was no private food ventors, all state owned business. Food back then was boring but safe. The reform started since Deng took the incharge role in 1978.
What he did is actually introduce capitalism into China and this resulted in rapid economy growth. Many business people started from almost nothing, sometimes a little stall on the side of the street. With the typical Chinese hard working and hard saving way to run their small business, today, they become proud shop owners, factory owners or even own a huge company. They run their business in a very careful way, they care about their reputations. I had a neighbour, he did not have a job back in late 1970s. He went to a little creek nearby everyday 4AM. Using a net he made by himself to catch bloodworms from the river. He brought it back and sell it in a market to the people who had goldfish as pets. He saved hard and gradually he started selling gold fish and other pets. Today he owns his own pet shop. To him, reputation is every thing. So, please, if the milk scandle gives you bad impression of Chinese products, could you still remember there are millions and millions people running their business with honesty?
Comes back to the food safety issue. Usually large companies have their own regulations and QA system. It is safe. The problem is small companies and private food ventors. The milk company SanLu collected milk from dozens of milk collecting station. The company had its QA system but still got fooled by some owners of milk collecting stations. The substance they used to tint the milk are non-food, not supposed to be in food, and had never been tested before by any milk company. I have to repeat this: these criminals are not scapegoat of the system. No system can test every single non-food chemical for all the food products. Wait and see, these criminals (from local officials, company chief, and collecting station owners )will be punished by China's tough laws. Just let you know the milk products are tested intensively now.
Competation is fierce in China, if some short sighted money orientated people in food industry want to advance their business by immoral means they have the examples to look at.
You may believe that I am a brainwashed commie. You have seen the commie propoganda books and from those book you get the conclusion that the readers are brainwashed? Do you think the readers have their own brains? For older populations who went through culture revolutions they learned what is government propoganda from hard realities. The younger generations are armed with much more knowlege about this world. The fact is oversea mainlanders know what is propoganda. We are use to it and immued to it. A propoganda will look like a propoganda and smell like a propoganda. Not only the Chinese government but also the western democratic governments all use propoganda as a political tool. It made me feel sick to watch McCain and Palin brainwashed American voters with their propogandas "America is a force for good." To me their campaign is a sickening political propoganda. 47% of American voters voted for them. That tells me whether westerners are more immued to propoganda.
I have a white Aussie workmate recently came back from a China tour. He told me he was so supprised that China is not a communist country. The airpollution is a problem. China is now the largest construction site plus the world's factory. The problem will remain for a while. The government is taking aggressive actions against it and we have seen some improvement in recent years. Large part of the rescute package will be spent in improving environment.
I sincerely welcome you to China.
I have a such good feeling about KMT. I believe China is already on the right track to become a democratic country, CCP and KMT will one day be mature enough to work in a Chinese style democracy.
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Milklia.
By the way, I think the millions and millions small food ventors are poorly regulated. Most are not even registered as a business with the government. I believe most of these small business are run by good people. A small percentage may be doing bad things out of greed or simply lack of basic food safety knowledge. My mum buys Chinese bread from a couple who run their small business from the window of their ground floor unit. We know them for long time and they are good people with many regular customers. I agree wth you that the government needs find a way to regulate food industry better but how? Easier to say than done. Also, I think this is a task for every single government. Just read an independent report about Extra Virgine Olive oil in Australian supermarkets. Some imported oil from Europe labled as extra virgine olive oil are not even olive oil. To me the report means that these olive oil were not even tested before put on supermarket shelves. Do we really know what we are eating whereever we are?
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#79, timbatu,
ROFL, I don't speak Chinese? You're kidding, right? I was born in China and I'm an American Chinese, I speak and write perfect Chinese including the abbreviated version. Believe it or not, I probably understand China more than ordinary Chinese people who live there. There is a Chinese saying "poun guan tzoe tsing, daung jue tzoe mie". Of course moon flight had nothing to do with food poison, I was just trying to say that, moon flight is a very difficult task, yet the Chinese government, engineers and scientists with enough determination, they have succeeded, yet the food problem is being there for a long time and no one seems to care. In terms of level of difficulty, I could be wrong but I don’t think that the food poison problem is more difficult to solve than the moon flight.
I consider myself a very open minded person and I don't get influenced easily by the “evil western media” as you alluded to. I have drawn my own conclusions based on my own experience and my own analysis.
#81, funnyblogger,
Thanks for trying to explain the current situation to me. Let me try to put it more bluntly. The Chinese communist elites don't seem to care about the age old food problem, because they eat the foods from other clean organic sources, which are not open to the ordinary Chinese people. In my humble opinion, they have not treated the food scare problems seriously enough. The problem is definitely more than 30 years old. My wife was born in Hong Kong, she told me when she was a small girl, her parents told her that "don't eat certain Chinese foods, because they were tinted". These were made by the factories during the Mao’s communal era.
Regarding the toxic milk, I did a lot of search about melamine; melamine is made from urea, it was patented in the US in the 1958 and was mixed into the cattle feed for at least 20 years:
1. "Ruminant feed compositions, Robert W. Colby and Robert J. Mesler Jr., U.S. Patent No. 2819968, 1958
2. “Melamine as a dietary nitrogen source for ruminants", G.L.Newton and P.R.Utley, Journal of Animal Science, vol.47, p1338-44, 1978, Abstract
Melamine has also been used in pet foods in the US as recently as 2007. Melamine is a global problem. It has been entered into the human food chain for a long time. But the sad story is that some unscrupulous Chinese scientists learned these tricks very quickly and start to market it as "Dan Bai Jing" and advised people to put it in all kinds of foods.
Therefore the milk problem is the tip of the iceberg. The government was afraid to announce this. The damage done to China is not only the milk, the exported foods, even everything made in China. Chinese government must take this issue very seriously. I have many online discussions with bloggers in the US, everyone is mad and furious and wants to boycott all things made in China. If the government or the ultra nationalist here who are naïve and still refuse to address this problem head on, then I can tell you that the consequence may be the obliteration of the Chinese economy. But the recently development seems to be heading in the positive direction. I am glad that the United States FDA is setting up offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai and hopefully what the US learned in the past century will help China solve the food poison problems. Most people don’t know that the toxic milk, melamine, ethylene glycol problems are not news. They are part of the US history. China is a new comer for industrialization and just repeated every bad thing that happened in the past in the US.
Finally, I'd like to emphasize: There is absolutely no excuse for any government under any circumstance to let their citizens to poison their food supply to the general public. That is murder and it is very unethical.
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"Politicians in democracies are not accountable by any means. Is this not clear? Democratic governments have no accountability. Politicians simply lie. Nothing and no one ever change in the profoundly racist West."
Not clear. Your empty 'facts' again.
"As for Sichuan earthquake: if this happens in the US or UK, the majority will suffer more. The reaction of Chinese government is deeply popular among the Chinese people. Let me know if this is not clear to you."
Proof ? Would people suffer more if it happened somewhere else, say, Japan ? Taiwan ? Why ?
"It is true that most Chinese do not follow the Western way to sue.
Hey, if you have no money, how can you sue in the West?"
Did you miss the point here ? You aren't allowed to sue those responsible for the Sichuan deathtoll even if you had the money. Is this not clear ?
"Are there any New Orleans Africans sued the state? They are shot at, you know!"
There were. Try Baidu, or Google if Baidu decided to censor these for whatever reasons.
"As for the milk scandal, it is seen by Chinese as a problem of capitalism and individual greed. China is run by the people ? Unlike Western democracies, which are run by a few elites."
And ? Are you trying to say Western democracies are responsible for the milk problem ?
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Mikelia.
I do not see the bleak picture you see. I think mainland Chinese remain the most optimistic people in the world. China and Chinese economy has proved its adaptability so far. New and tougher policies that regulate food safety will work. As for those short sighted manufacturers (often small companies) who do not look after the quality of their products, they will be the losers. The failure of their business is something normal in this commercialised world. China is no longer a communist state, the government can not set up a department in every privately own business to test every single made in China goods, neither do westen governments.
The western media has been doing a quite good job to keep Chinese goods under microscope all the time. They some times ignore quality problems by other countries but any made in China goods have quality problems? That will be highlighted and make the headline of the day. When the westen company failed the quality control it is not them to be blamed. It is "made in China" to be blamed. This will certainly affect the reputation of made in China goods.
Boycott all made in China things? It has already happened for long time for the reasons such as China being a brutal communist state, cheap labour, Tibet, humanrights problems or the problems in Africa...... The people who want to boycott Chinese good will do it for many reasons mostly political
reasons anyway.
"There is absolutely no excuse for any government under any circumstance to let their citizens to poison their food supply to the general public. That is murder and it is very unethical."
That surprise me a bit. Are you sure you have sufficient evidence to say that the Chinese government let their citizens to poison their food supply to the general public? Why would the Chinese government do that? The local officials may have attempted to down play it when they were unaware about the extent of the problems. They have already be hammered by the central government. You may not realise local protectionism and fierce competition happens among provinces, cities, and towns in mainland China. Some local governments do stupid things to protect local interest. Days ago the general of Guang Dong province stated the labour intensive industries are "backward productivity" and should been driven out of the province as it gives back little GDP for the province. Then what about millions of workers? Should be driven out as well? His remark caused wide spread anger and he was immediately criticised by the central government. Although some local governments have acted in a foolish way but the nation's interests have been looked after consistently in the last 30 years I would say. I would not say the Chinese government let their citizens poison their food supply to general public. They did not. There are greedy criminals in every single country on this planet. They do the most devastating things to their own people. It is not in any government's interest to let it happen.
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Funnyblogger said:
"I would not say the Chinese government let their citizens poison their food supply to general public. They did not. There are greedy criminals in every single country on this planet."
As I said so many times, I agree with most of the comments that you have made with the exception that the government has no responsibility to allow a small percentage of "greedy criminals" to poison the country's food supply. In fact, they hold the entire responsibility.
You are correct for some strange odd reasons, China is always being put on the microscope world wide, especially BBC may be the number one zealot, but that is not necessarily a bad thing for China.
The government had better come up with a swift and comprehensive policy fast regarding the food poison and product quality issues, because the world is watching China like a hawk. China should be very concerned about world opinions, if they want to continuously develop the export economy. The recent factory shut down is not merely caused by world economic crisis, but also by the world wide boycott.
In the mean time, the government decision of spending 4 trillions dollars to develop internal infrastructure, high technology products, domestic need and earth quake rebuilding is definitely an exceedingly smart move. I hope it may eventually offset the reputation damages done world wide.
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