
China: the New Global High-Tech Power 427
Andy Tai writes "This three-part news.com special report shows how mainland China has become the focus of high tech business opportunities during the global recession. The article compares today's China to 19th Century America as "a booming nation starved for products and driven by a new generation of entrepreneurs", points out China's "sheer numbers and ambitious work ethic are producing thousands of engineers--and U.S. companies are recruiting the best of them," and concludes "that this may eventually be known as China's high-tech century. " Another good article looking at China's rise as a global power can be found here."
China's high-tech *century*? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:China's high-tech *century*? (Score:2)
Yes, and for 400 years, from the mid-9th century until the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1256, Arabic Islamic culture was unparalleled in its splendor and learning.
Easy come, easy go!
Re:The Bloody English (was: Re:China's high-tech) (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, back to persecution, so why they these people run to a country that was controlled by the British until 1901? The legacy of this is still apparent [cia.gov], see flag, see head of state.
Problem is... not being anti-British involves not being anti-English/Scottish/Irish/Welsh, you can't pick and choose.
Re:The Bloody English (was: Re:China's high-tech) (Score:2)
Ming Dynasty. (Score:2)
Before the ming, China was way ahead of Europe and the middle east in trading and stuff. By the end of the Ming Dynasty they were behind.
no, you're wrong (Score:2)
Re:China's high-tech *century*? (Score:2)
China is lo-tech (Score:2, Flamebait)
How about getting the following the foundation for a high-tech economy?
1)-access to energy
2)-fair judicial system
3)-clean water
4)-enough food for its people
5)-uncorrupt governance
6)-educated people
7)-freedom of expression
No amount of friendliness towards business or incentives for technology will overcome these more basic barriers.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
Of course, it would be nice if the chinese government didn't forcibly kill unborn children as well.
Get with the Times Already (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, every time there is talk about China, someone has to bring up something about Human Rights. But give me a break, clean water? food? China has gotten past that stage a long time ago. Right now overnutrition and obesity troubles much of the population. As for the judicial system, fairness is a matter of opinion. In China, criminals are punished more severely than in the US. Corruption in the governance is a problem in China, but the same problem exists in every country. The USA, for example, is a prime source of governmental scandals. China is working on a more efficient education system as we speak. The problem with education lies in overpopulation. Think about it, China has more than four times the population of America, andd merely building more schools will not be able to solve the problem overnight. The curriculum in Chinese primary and secondary schools includes a much more in depth understanding of subjects such as math and science than that of American schools.
I guess my point is that although China's fundations are not yet perfect, it is getting better at a faster rate than any other country.
Re:Get with the Times Already (Score:4, Insightful)
China can best be described today as a fascist country, with the state and big industry inextricably intertwined. It has a secret police (gestapo equivalent) which has wide reaching powers. Individuals who are critical can find themselves executed and their organs harvested for use by those in power. The government is undemocratic and power succession is typical of these regimes... it is shrouded in secrecy.
Until China develops modern government, with respect for human rights including free speech and property rights, enforced by a minimally corrupt judicial system, and watched over by a free press, it is doomed to the fate of all such systems... increasing corruption, militancy and aggressive foreign policy, and poor economic performance.
Capitalism, in many variants, has been proven to be the most efficient economic system yet tried. Capitalism requires property rights; it requires a low level of corruption; it requires transparency; it requires freedom.
China is experimenting with state controlled capitalism - i.e. fascism - as opposed to its own total command economy. It is doomed to ultimately fail as an economic system as long as unelected officials can arbitrarily change the rules to their personal enrichment, backed by the power of a police state.
Re:Get with the Times Already (Score:2)
Free press and open judicial system is not the open cure all that you make sound like.
Hey, if you want a perfect system, you may as well just give up. It is perfectionists that gave us things like Pol Pot.
You have been watching too many James Bond movies, they have police, I know it is just such a modern concept but hey them follow the fashions. Lets take a look at the US, FBI, CIA, DEA, DIA, DoD, ATF, Home Defense Department and that does not include any special units that we have around the world. Do you know what they may or may not be doing?
Oh? Yes, in general we the citizens do know what they are doing. And we have shield procedures that are followed so that misdeeds can be uncovered, publicized and corrected. Does this mean no abuse occurs? Of course not. Does it make it vastly better than the Chinese system? Yes, if you like freedom.
Did you know that the CIA was smuggling weapons to various terrorist countries. Do you think that Afghanistan was making those Stinger missiles in their garage?
At the time, Afghanistan was not a terrorist country, but rather one struggling against a foreign invader (USSR). And it was not a secret that we gave them stingers.
It sounds real good to say that they are a big bad police state because the control the people, well you have 1 Billion people that you have to look at for a police state is not as bad an idea as you think. They have alot of problems, but you know what? They are still human beings and they do what they can.
Now this is really sad. The US and Europe together have over 600 million people. We don't need a police state. India has a billion people and they don't need a police state.
Perhaps you should live in a police state sometime before you so casually suggest it as not a bad idea.
As for the people in power want to stay in power, funny that seems to be how the Democrats and Republicians setup the system too. Sure you can get an independent every once in a while, but you don't see more than 1 or 2. Sure you can setup a Democrat versus a Republician, but I see a number of congressional leaders who have served 20, 3o years without fail and while what they do is not secret, they do the reverse they spew so much crap that you cannot sort the wheat from the chaff.
So I guess in your wierd judgement this makes our system equivalent to that of China, where succession is decided by the oligarchs, in secret? Pretty pathetic.
y in America could someone get so ignorant for spouting this stuff like it is the national anthem regardless of truth. The only thing missing is a"Under God"!
Speak for yourself. If you mean that I happen to believe that the US is a great country, certainly better than the PRC (that's China, ya know), and that one reason it is better is because of its political system, then guess what... you are right! And I can defend it with facts, while you use nothing but exaggerations.
US spends the most of all nations on the military, sound fact.
Duh. Yes, and I think we need to spend more, because the free people of the world need to preserve that freedom and fight the tyrants of the world. You cite our large military budget as if it is some sort of evil thing. Oh, btw, for your information, as a percentage of GDP it is FAR from the greatest in the world. And, since you obviously don't read history, let me mention that it is historically a very low percentage for the US.
e government has no problem with threatening anyone and everyone with the use of military force as long as we have provocation.
Yeah... provocation. Provocation means that we have a reason to respond.
Give George Bush a reason and he would be leading 200,000 man force in Iraq waving the US flag regardless of what anyone else in the world thinks.
Get a clue. George Bush has a much larger army than that.
But I suppose you think that Iraq should just be left to sit there and develop weapons of mass destruction... and then use them (as Saddam Hussein) has a history of doing. I suppose the moral solution is just to let him make a mess of the middle east. Oh... wait... I know your response... you are going to blame us for him too.
It is militancy and an agressive foriegn policy.
An aggressive foreign policy is one that uses military to oppress others, to take territory, or to terrorize. Our policy is to protect the free world (including ourselves). It is to deny haven to terrorists, and to try to make the world a better place. But of course, a bitter and cynical person like you appear to be could never imagine that we might actually do some things for good reasons.
As for poor economic performance, they are a developing country, which somehow you believe that the US was born with Skyscrapers, indoor plumbing and a stock market.
Learn to read. I predict that it will end up with poor economic performance. Currently it does not have poor economic performance, because it is developing, and because the west has been pouring capital into it. And I know how the US got Skyscrapers, indoor plumbing and a stock market: free markets, property rights, transparent judiciary, democracy, and a free press. Things you seem to think are not very important.
Chinese are more capitalists than you or more. They actually work for a living, because they actually have to work to live. They don't have a government supported social security, medicaid, or charities willing to feed them. Actually those programs sound kinda socialist to me.
They are kinda socialist. And the Chinese have all sorts of socialist programs. They are officially a communist country, didn't you notice? The Chinese people traditionally are very good at capitalism. But the Chinese government is not capitalist, it is fascist. And you know what... people often work hard in fascist societies too... just ask the slave laborers in Hitler's German... or for that matter, the slave laborers in Chinese concentration camps!
You could have been George Bush speech writer, willing to spout any willy nilly non-sense without any exposure to the country, the people or even and understanding of their government. No wonder the foriegn policy of the US sucks.
And you presume a lot. How do you know what experience or other exposure I have to China? You seem to think I am making this stuff up just because you are. Sorry... I speak from a lot of knowledge on the subject (not an expert, certainly) and some personal experience with communist states.
Re:Get with the Times Already (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Get with the Times Already (Score:2)
Yeah, a long time ago, like 1970? Only about 30 MILLION people starved to death [uchicago.edu] in China during the 60's.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2, Interesting)
How about getting the following:
2)-fair judicial system
5)-uncorrupt governance
7)-freedom of expression
The US seems to be doing well as a technology leader without the above traits. China will likely do even better than the US because they are more likely to cater to the big businesses than the US is (although the US government does do a good job whoring themselves out to big business).
In order to succeed (in big business) they would be better off with a corrupt government that had a slanted judicial system and the lack of freedom of expression. It works over here quite well.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
Question 2: Now that China has a fair bit of internet acess (OK, stop the Chineese SPAM server jokes) what technical knowlege are they without?
Iowa State may not be typical, but I would venture to say that over half of the Computer Science grad students here are from China/Taiwan. I wouldn't be suprised if the majority of CS professors in the US when our children attend university are from China. China may have inferior infrastructure compared to the US/EU, but they are neck and neck with us when it comes to technology. In the above post they have:
#6)-educated people
and That is all it takes.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:4, Insightful)
Having so stated my assumption, now I just gotta respond to your points under its perverse and wicked influence:
access to energy
Yes, this is pretty essential -- to production, of course (who cares what the customer does with the damned thing after the sale is made?). I wonder if local generation in China is being explored? -- it's an idea being toyed with in America.
fair judicial system
What the hell does that matter? Your factory is setup with Chinese "partners" who will inevitably be a part of whatever local government and "law enforcement" that exists. If shoes and clothing can be produced by a class of people with no recourse to "fair" judgment, then so can many other things that are produced by assembly line.
clean water
What the hell does that matter? People filter water in America; just filter in what you need in China. Whatever the workers drink is their own problem.
enough food for its people
What the hell does that matter? There will be plenty more Chinese coming in from the rural areas to get the chance to work in your factory for money, which they imagine will help lift them out of poverty and possible starvation. It won't, of course, but people have always shown hope in that regard since the Industrial Revolution.
uncorrupt governance
This is probably a factor, but a minor one at that. Bribery is just another line item in your budget. After all, this the standard way that the oil business is conducted.
educated people
What the hell does that matter? Your cheap labor is ideal for Taylorist work arrangements. And any cheap labor that you feel the need to educate for specific reasons (hey we need an electrical engineer for this factory), simply can be educated and returned to China at a cheaper cost than hiring a First World skilled person. Education is highly overrated; craftsman skills themselves have been long obsoleted by factories.
freedom of expression
Ju-das Priest, where do you get these silly ideas anyway? The shoes and clothes you are now wearing have in all probability been produced by people who do without hope, disposable income, fresh air, nourishing food, and job security. Freedom of expression is just another opportunity for the workers to make trouble for the capitalist class that owns the methods of manufacture. Since it is not only unnecessary but harmful to the process of maximizing profits, it must be absent.
(Thank you for your attention. I had as good a time responding to your posting as I can ever have with my clothes on.)
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
I think if I had to judge US like parent did, I'll first list:
1) Stupidity and ignorance.
Yeah, I know that'd cause me some karma, but since karma system goes away I care less.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
As long as the United States opens our doors to inovation and rewards success, the best and brightest of China will come to America and become Americans. Why? Because we hold certain truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal and have the right to the pursuit of happines. We believe that government should not be a body of men but a body of laws. And that government's only truth rests on the will of the people to choose how they are to be governed.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
what have you got in your own eye?
1/ california: deregulation sucks [corpwatch.org]
2/ microsoft antitrust trial: where are the sanctions? [usdoj.gov]
3/ erin brockowich and elsewhere [enn.com]
4/ homeless: so used to it, it must be OK. [tripod.com]
5/ enron [progressive.org]
6/ georges bush jr [bushisms.com]
7/ dmca [eff.org]
no amount of self blindedness or hypocrisy will make the rest of the world forget all this and all the rest.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
Come on! Our system wastes so much time and poeple filtering out jurors.
Juror filtering is silly, wasteful, and a sham.
If the outcome is 2 to 10, then have the judge call it. That way one to two outliers don't F the boat, and we don't have to waste so much time trying to keep them out.
AS-IS Juries.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
My "type"? One opinion makes me a "type"? You must be an OO Eiffle fan or something.
You did not address my complaints, instead hurling vague insults. If you have something specific that you don't like about my suggestion, then name it and we can discuss it.
Note that even with its flaws, I am not saying our system is worse than China's, only that we can do better than we are doing now.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2)
Have you? Most of the people who have been to china say it's not that bad.
Re:China is lo-tech (Score:2, Insightful)
Their most ambitious release ever! (Score:2)
I thought they would beat Mozilla 1.0 out the door - who would've thought the Lizard would have whipped it out first?
Re:Their most ambitious release ever! (Score:2)
Then you haven't been following the news.
What is the purpose for pointing 600+ missiles at Taiwan? Is China afraid that Taiwan will invade it?
I guess we'll just have to see who's right. Unfortunately, if you aren't and we pretend the problem doesn't exist, the people of Taiwan are fucked.
The one thing they lack is a legal system (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:The one thing they lack is a legal system (Score:2)
I don't think anyone could call results in US courts assured. The results from the US courts are as wild and unpredictable as anywhere else.
The thing that mattered in the US was that, for a long time, people practiced a common sense philosophy and tried a lot harder to be fair an honest in their dealings. When the majority trying to understand and work within the system, it will work better than one where power players sit around and twist the rules to their ends.
Look at accounting and Wall Street. When the majority of accountants were trying to come up with figures that fit within the generally accepted definitions, then you had a situation where investors could glean a great deal of information about the health of the company from the books.
Today's MBAs and accountants seemed to have accepted the new economy (which is really a recycling of Kantian/Marxist thinking) and feel that that are appointed to dink and twist definitions to their ends.
The courts can't fix this system. The only way to fix the system is wait and hope that some day we will dump all the new agisms and get back to a market where accountants strive to use the same definitions, and not manipulate and change the definition of terms.
Sheesh (Score:2)
China is 10-20 years away from being a great power ... and always will be.
How many CENTURIES has this been predicted? Yes, China has a lot of people -- and always have had. Yes, China has a huge amount of wealth -- and always have had.
I think this has literally been predicted for a thousand freaking years. I'm not an expert on China, but obviously there are deep-rooted cultural attributes keeping them from expanding their influence in the world.
Wake me up next century when we make the same prediction that won't come true.
Re:Sheesh (Score:2)
She is a great story of power. Instead of typing up a million things about Chinese history let me just sum it up in a quote:
But like you say; before that her fleet of vessels, a staff of 27,000 on 317 ships, was reaching Vietnam, Cambodia, India, the Arab Middle East and eastern Africa. Then just as quickly the law changed to stop those ships - they didn't want out side influences.
Look at the stories in "Once Upon A Time In China" even there they show China's distrust for the outside world.
Even now they have the cancer of (real world)-Communism which was imported, see why they worry. It ruined Chinese culture, even to this day.
Should we launch a pre-emptive surprise? (Score:2, Flamebait)
___
Examples of Chinese Tech Innovation (Score:2, Interesting)
Indeed, I think Alex Chiu's insight can help shed some light on this topic. This is somewhat-lucid prose from his year-old /. interview:
"I think the Chinese government is doing a great job right now. I support population control. I think USA should do the same. If you want to have more than 1 kid, you should pay more tax. The enemies of China always use "human rights issues" to attack China. But if USA has 1.3 billion people, USA would have the same human rights problem just like China. You cannot expect so much freedom in a land of 1.3 billion people. Chinese government is doing such a great job that China not only feeds its own people, it also feeds most of the Russians. Most of the food imported to Russia came from China. You guys always talk about human rights. But why can't you guys mention about "government rights"? Chinese government has the right to do whatever it must do to protect China. That includes population control and the liberation of Tibet. Do you know that before Tibet was liberated, you can buy and sell slaves in Tibet? In the old Tibet, you can have slaves, you can marry 4 wives, but you cannot take a bath for 1 whole year, and you cannot meet a foreigner. You can skin your slave alive, and you can kill your slave when ever you desire. The entire Tibet is ruled by a bunch of religious idiots. You can't take a bath for the entire year, and you can't trade with foreigners. Cummunists don't allow that! Liberated Tibet and kick out that stupid Dalai Lama, whatever that moron's name is. You guys don't know how much Tibet has changed. Most families in Tibet now has electricity. TV, VCR, stereo, micro-wave, you name it. Everything's made in China! They have shopping malls and super markets there. There's stock market brokers there. In fact, Tibet is one of the most popular European tourist attraction of asia. If Dalai idiot is still around, you be buying and selling slaves there right now! Everywhere would stink like hell because nobody teaches you the importance of taking a bath. If you say Tibetans are not Chinese because they have their own language and culture, let me ask you this: Is Hawaii part of USA? Is Okinawa part of Japan? Okinawa people have different language and culture than the Japanese. So should Okinawa gain independence from Japan?"
Re:Examples of Chinese Tech Innovation (Score:2, Informative)
The government is not "military run", and "tens of thousands" is the total number of annual executions (out of a population of 1.3billion), not the number of political dissidents who are executed.
Here is why Hi-tech is going to china (Score:3, Insightful)
Ignorant nerds! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm Skeptical (Score:2)
Western Civilization and Japan
Eastern Orthodox rooted Civilization (Russia et al)
That's pretty much it. Everywhere else is developing.
Granted, it is theoretically possible for China to pull something like that off, but the government is the biggest hindrance. Until there is some serious reform (i.e. eliminate corruption), I don't see China catching up within the next 50 years.
BlackGriffen
Re:I'm Skeptical (Score:2)
You know though that most things you use today were fundamentally invented first by the Chinese...?
But still, people ignore the fact that a "developing" country is the only type of place where changes can be made. For example here we are very controlling over our number one export "media". In other countries however, such as China, where they don't need to worry about "illegal" file swapping there can be explosions in those technologies; they can pioneer stuff we are to comfortable avoiding.
A bit of (non)fiction (Score:4, Interesting)
China, over the next 40 or 50 years, becomes an enormous economic juggernaut. With cheap labor, high tech industry, and a huge population, China begins to develop most of the world's goods for dirt cheap prices. World consumer choice is at an all time high.
Because of the political system in place within the country, the average standard of living doesn't increase significantly.
People are not stupid. The Chinese people will see how the majority are not benefiting from the economic prosperity and attempt to change the political system. The government in place will put down initial unrest, but a civil war could occur the likes of which we have never seen in the world. The world economy that has come to depend on the Chinese government for goods.
With the ensuing economic collapse of China during the civil war, the world is plunged into a depression comparable to the late 1920's and early 1930's. The US Federal Reserve could not handle the removal of a huge portion of the world economy from the picture.
Following the civil war, a democratic government is created in China, and the economy becomes similar to many western countries, with a higher standard of living and increased wages. The economic playing field is now leveled.
Either that, or everybody nukes everybody. Whatever happens, I'll be dead by then. Oh well.
Re:A bit of (non)fiction (Score:2)
Everything I hear about China is their ability to copy stuff! Wooo. China, the world's biggest copy center.
Re:A bit of (non)fiction (Score:2)
Everything from guns to forks were invented by the Chinese.
But the fact that they copy things doesn't make them "uncool". The American legal system is copied, it's other branches of government copied. Many of it's resources are imported.
The list goes on but I've posted to much under this story as it is.
Re:A bit of (non)fiction (Score:3, Insightful)
We're talking about the country that exists today. Now. The stability that made them the most advanced culture in the world also stopped their progression.
And I'm not talking about "Cool" or "Uncool". You're never going to be a world leader if your plan is to simply copy what the world leader has. You're just another follower then.
Re:A bit of (non)fiction (Score:2)
It's impossible for China to be an economic juggernaut, and yet have low wages and standards of living. Basic economic reasoning - if there's real economic growth on a per capita basis, the growth must go towards increased real wages, otherwise where does the wealth go to? You wouldn't be able to name a single counter-example.
The government in place will put down initial unrest, but a civil war could occur the likes of which we have never seen in the world. The world economy that has come to depend on the Chinese government for goods.
Or there could be peaceful transition to democracy, like to Taiwan or South Korea.
Re:A bit of (non)fiction (Score:2)
Chinese Communist Party and PLA leaders.
The southern states of the US had considerable economic growth during the 1800's. Little of it made it to the slaves.
State enterprises continue to dominate many key industries of China in what was now termed "a socialist market economy". Almost half are not profitable. Much of the growth of the Chinese economy has come from a newly freed private sector, but state domination of many industries limits this growth potential.
Urban unemployment is around 10% in China and rural unemployment is much higher. 50 to 100 million surplus rural workers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-time low-paying jobs.
Moreover, the Chinese government has regularly lied about economic statistics, so it is even questionable what we really know about the Chinese economy.
I'm sure that if there is an effective political movement from communist dictatorship to truly free markets and democracy, China would be a tremendous economic powerhouse. China has a high literacy rate and a modern industrial and scientific base.
continued US predominance uncertain (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no reason to believe that this is inevitably a long-term state. The US is a mid-size country (by population), and food, geographic isolation, and natural resources are becoming less and less important. And other countries are becoming as attractive as the US for skilled international workers.
If the US continues to have a leadership role, it will be because it earns it. But that means that US politicians have to give up on their assumption that US predominance is a right that Americans are born with. Isolationist policies like those we have seen over the last few years will likely simply make the US less and less relevant to international affairs.
Re:continued US predominance uncertain (Score:2)
Read more into this subject, and how we can save ourselves in "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom.
http://www.bookworld.com/lucifer/ -excerpts
http://howardbloom.net/
"You only thought you knew what you were until you read this book. I want to burn it. I wish I had never read it. I wish Howard Bloom had never been born. And it is now my Bible. It is undeniable. It is a force unto itself. Everything you believed before, it will rip from you. It will leave you a boneless jelly of confusion. It will be the voice of a new philosophical generation."
Nassir Isaf, an 18-year-old reader from Bainbridge Island, WA
Re:continued US predominance uncertain (Score:2)
How about the voluntary bowing out in technology areas such as bio-technology or cryptography and presistent litigation? These are making the US less relevant also.
"Mid sized"? (Score:2)
Re:continued US predominance uncertain (Score:2)
Americans want to get cheap oil, cheap third world labor, easy access to world capital, easy access to foreign markets, etc. Many other nations don't think that those are particularly good ideas. It is this burning desire to be materially rich that causes Americans to try to influence politics around the globe. And without that kind of influence, Americans would be a lot poorer.
I'm sure most Americans would be happy if Europe would solve the Middle East crisis
That's a good example. Compared to other conflicts, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a small one. Europeans, left to their own devices, would periodically condemn the actions of both sides, send humanitarian aid to both sides, and otherwise not meddle too much. Let them work it out themselves.
It's only a "crisis" because Americans are, on the one hand, politically deeply committed to Israel, and on the other hand deathly afraid of losing Middle East oil imports from Arab states because they aren't willing to reduce energy usage.
Comments demonstrate huge denial complex (Score:2)
The responses meander off into staw-man territory but don't acknowledge economics.
Some, not all, programming jobs are going to go to China, India and Russia. Deal with it, its already happening.
Just spent a month there... (Score:2, Informative)
Already many of the cities have a comparable standard of living to the US; except it's very different. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Shenzhen and enjoyed a view of Hong Kong from my towering hotel room; the city was beautiful. 20 years ago 6000 people lived in a fishing village there. They made it a special economic zone and now 6 million people live there. Not a bad demonstration of the power of capitalism.
I talked to some girls who worked at a nearby coffee shop. They were basically indentured servitudes for the coffee shop. They lived in a company dorm and the company gave them food. The company was, oddly enough, based out of Taiwan.
So that was a little strange.
The lack of a free press made people's view of america interesting; basically they had no idea of what life was like in the US and asked a lot of silly questions. But, they did have access to US movies, through the form of street markets or random guys on street corners who ask you if you want a DVD or VCD. So many people had seen US movies and were curious whether movies such as American Pie truely represented life in America.
Conclusions? China is still a third world country with some parts approaching second world quality of living. It'll be a while before they give us a run for the money. Smart, ambitious people in China still want to come to the US.
-Jay Thomas
http://www.uiuc.edu/~jthomas2
my experience (Score:4, Insightful)
In the university where work as a research assistant, the majority of PhD students are from China and India. Chinese students invariably tend to be the best ones. It seems like by the time they come here they have already done A LOT of practical hitech research in their universities.
Because of this, (and because most of them don't mind being paid 2k$/month or less) a lot of departments actually prefer to hire Chinese students for tech projects.
Many of them will go back to China once their studies are over.
It is also worth considering that for each student that makes it to the US, maybe 100 will stay in China.
And, as the article says: "Hundreds of universities with strong tech departments have been created."
Is this enough to say that China is headed towards becoming the place where hi tech is conceived and grown ?
I think that, IF these government-funded policies will go on, it will be just a matter of time (maybe a couple of generations, maybe less
And btw, it seems to me that they are very inclined toward the sharing of knowledge and information,
giampy
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
America has always been behind in technology compared to Japan.
There's a difference between being behind in gadgets and being behind in technology. Japan leads in gadgets and cheap manufacturing; they do not lead at the cutting edge of engineering.
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Gadgets? You must mean things like automobiles, consumer electronics, robotics, semiconductors, fuzzy logic, AI, embedded systems, and other such gadgets. We have the lead in aerospace, though the aging space shuttle is not exactly cutting edge.
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Cheap? I don't think so. They manufacture some of the most high-end products available, such as medical scanners and high-end manufactoring equipment (equipment for making equipment).
The difference is that the US tends to specialize in services and research rather than direct manufacturing.
"Different" is probably more applicable than "better".
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Back in the 1960s the charge was made that the Japaneese copied everything.
This lead to an oft repeated interview in which Robin Day of the BBC doorstepped the Japanese trade minister with an aleged Japanese copy of British ball bearings...
Looked like he had a case too, the ballbearings were identical!
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Just because Japan can make more impressive little electronic doo-dads (and even that is debatable) doesn't mean they're ahead of us on everything.
When was the last time you rode on a Japanese jumbo jet? No, a 767 operated by JAL doesn't count.
Your TV may be Japanese, but what about the rest of your home appliances? Where are all the new Japanese designs for microwave ovens? Hot water heaters? New Japanese technology in refrigerator compressors? What country makes half the world's appliances again?
On the subject of compressors, I haven't heard about any new developments in air conditioning from Japan. Or is Carrier secretly a Japanese company?
All those synthetic fabrics in your clothing, were they developed in Japan or Delaware?
There was a recent article on Slashdot about some new developments in metallurgy. What country was that from again?
And these are only the examples I could think of most noticable to consumers. Of course, if Japan is so much more advanced than the US, why do they rely so much on the US economy?
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Japan is ahead of us because they use everything we do, and they use it 1000 times faster and better. We complain about 7-8 hour days, complaining about stress - we act as if working causes stress.
We invented the TV, and they make it, we invented the semiconductor... they use it in a million gadgets.
They are on "Tennis Time" we are on a beachy vacation time.
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
Recent studies have shown that Americans put it more hours at work a year than any other industrialized country (including Japan). The only ("non-industrialized") countries that have us beat in that respect are South Korea and the Czech Republic.
Re:Will China be like another Japan? (Score:2)
By volume? Perhaps. Per capita? I think you need to start looking at Western Europe [slashdot.org] a bit more closely.
"sum of all the dogs consumption in US goes away beyond what rest of the world can feed to themselves."
And do you have numbers to back that up?
"If you give up on buying that coke, that other individual can benefit greatly and have more chance of feeding himself and his family in other countries."
If I stop buying Coke (which I don't buy anyway), I'll have more spending cash in my pocket. And other than donating that money to a charity, how is that supposed to equate with helping other people feed themselves? After all, most of that price of Coke goes to pay for Coke's marketing budget, not for the carbonated water, syrup and aluminum involved.
"Why do you rely on Japanese vehicle?"
The Koreans who made my car would be very insulted to be called Japanese. Which actually brings up another counterpoint...
" They get cheap labor, they get their metals, woods, oils (which Bush claims they own the oil) and they fucking process it go through small step that comes up as user-end product."
Hyundai may not have mined the iron ore themselves but probably made the machines that mined it. Hyundai processes their own steel. Hyundai then used the raw materials to make everything in the car themselves. Once the car is finished, they load it up onto a RORO cargo ship in Hyundai's merchant fleet that was built in a Hyundai shipyard (with Hyundai cranes moving around Hyundai steel again, ships powered by Hyundai diesel engines...). About the only thing on my car that didn't get manufactured or processed by Hyundai are the tires.
Where does Hyundai's vertical monopoly fit into your "small steps" statement?
Re:Correction (Score:2)
One reason for this is that the U.S. culture encourages creative thinking more than Japanese culture. Japanese culture is very rigid as far as work goes. So anyway, we develop technology such as PC's and cell phones because we think more creatively. Then the Japanese take our inventions, improve on them, and make great consumer electronics.
Re:Largest market, right (Score:2)
Re:Largest market, right (Score:2)
"Hey, we have 25 million customers in the US; if we could capture the same percentage of the Chinese market we'd have 120 million customers! We'd more than quadruple our revenues!"
"But China has a ludicrously low GDP; there's no way we'll get 120 million people who can pay that much for our product."
"No, no, don't you see? 120 million is MORE than 25 million! A LOT more! SEE?"
Right, that's why Mexico dominates North America (Score:3, Insightful)
If cheap labor were the only factor in determining the relative economic strength of a nation-state, the Romans would never have built and sustained their empire. Ditto for the Venicians, French, English, and Americans.
China is not *the* place to be. Just ask the Falung Gong. Just ask anyone who gives a fuck about freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, due process, or basic fucking human rights of any kind in China.
And from a business perspective, lack of these things, particularly in a world economy dominated by post-industrial persuits that require human creativity and unfettered access to information, is the kiss of death.
Sure, China is booming. But recall the USSR. Right up to 1989/90, many experienced Sovietologists were still predicting that the Soviet Union would allow only moderate reforms, and would certainly be around for another 50 years. That's the problem with a government with limited transparency - you never really know with any certainty what's really going on with the economy (or anything else for that matter).
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:2)
Not to defend the government of China, but what about Singapore? They seem to be doing quite well with substantially less of these essential items than America.
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:2, Interesting)
The devil is in how you define 'prosperity' and for whom. The growth of the American economy might look great in macro terms and for large investors, but the loss of jobs hurts very much the poor working stiffs like me. You might point to unemployment figures as refuting the loss of jobs, but if you carefully consider in which sectors jobs were created and lost, you will see my point. For labor, skilled positions paying enough to support a family are few and far between compared to ten years ago and a world apart from 25 years ago. The sector that gained most positions is the service industry (read: unskilled or less skilled labor). End result is the greater separation between rich and poor, but hey, as long as Warren Buffett is happy, everything is ok right?
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:2)
If you can't compete with an illiterate Mexican who is glad to not be working in the fields under the punishing summer sun, then perhaps you need to ask yourself why you are a "working stiff" after receiving a free high school education and the opportunity to go to college on the GI Bill?
I know a Salvadoran who lived in poverty, came to the US, worked as a maid ("low-paid sevice industry"), saved her money, and started a restaurant. Now she has a chain of three, and is doing quite well. Nor is she the only poor immigrant success story I know.
Save money - go to school, get the right skills - don't have kids until you can afford them. Very simple.
Anyone who is "hurting" should not have time to be reading Slashdot!
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:2)
I can't compete because labor is becoming more and more a commodity on a broad 'global' scale. I can't compete with someone who is willing to work for minimum wage in a sweatshop (here in San Jose) doing E/M assembly for instance, living 12 to an apartment just to take the money and support their family back home. Don't fool yourself, the labor market is not sustainable for them either. You have a choice of either living in poverty here, or becoming migrant labor.
As far as education, not everyone can work your IT job. Remember that (by definition) half of the population has an IQ of 100 or less. Are these people condemned to compete with sweatshop migrant labor because they cannot complete a higher degree? The free high school is no longer sufficient to provide an acceptable standard of living.
I know a Salvadoran who lived in poverty, came to the US, worked as a maid ("low-paid sevice industry"), saved her money, and started a restaurant. Now she has a chain of three, and is doing quite well. Nor is she the only poor immigrant success story I know.
Ahh the great American myth. That Salvadoran woman surely employs a number of people at marginal subsistence levels so that she can live more comfortably and thus poverty is perpetuated. Not everyone can be a restaurant owner or the equivalent. There must always exist labor to staff the businesses, labor will always outnumber non-labor, and if the standard of living is forced further down by the introduction of sweatshop labor, bad bad things result.
Anyone who is "hurting" should not have time to be reading Slashdot!
Listen to what you're saying! Is leisure a luxury? Is the weekend a privilege?
For full disclosure, I did receive that free high school education, and I am using that GI Bill for which I spent years in the military, you're welcome.
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:3, Insightful)
Not even close, although the US has a lead in GDP it certainly isn't the sole superpower. The EU zone as a whole actually has a larger GDP. Japan has a comparable GDP even in prolonged recession.
The US superpower status is military. The EU could match the US in military power if they were prepared to devote the same insane proportion of their budgets to military hardware. However doing that would cost the courtries their welfare state services which seems a lot to give up just to build weapons for the sake of it.
The bellyaching of the US right about China has nothing to do with human rights. The US right never gave a hang about human rights abuses by Pinochet, Marcos or the House of Saud. What they are really upset about is demographics and economics. It is a lot easier for a backward country to grow at 15% as it catches up than it is for a developed country to sustain 4% growth. The only way that China can fail to overtake the US in terms of economic power is to have a civil war and be broken into pieces. Same goes for India.
Bush and the cronies who control him could not give a damn about human rights or the Falun Gong. Their speeches about human rights and democracy are as hypocritical as their speeches on corporate responsibility - one of the chief Enron scam artist who bilked his division out of $15 million in bonuses while reporting $500 million is phony profits is still secretary for the army. If you think that fine speeches about democracy are worth anything I have a lorry load of Florida chads to sell you.
Military power follows economic power. China with a population four or five times that of the US could if it chose sustain a military the same size should it choose to do so. The militarist faction of the right can only understand prestige and power and cannot imagine that any country that has the option of building a superpower status military would give up the opportunity.
Fortunately most nations don't have the same inferiority complex that drives the US right. China, Germany, France, Britain have all done the empire bit and don't need to do it again.
The perils of hegemony (Score:2)
Your arguments about who could or couldn't be a military superpower are beside the point, as are your comments about whether human rights in China are an issue to the US government.
I agree with you about Bush and his ilk. But the fact is, over the past decade, there has been a huge degree of domestic dispute in the US about how we should deal with Chinese human rights issues. Is engagement a better means of influencing their behavior in that area, or is economic punishment?
China's armed forces hover at around 2.8M active personnel, while the US forces stand at about 1.3M. Include reserve forces, and the Chinese military balloons to well over 4x the size of the US military. So in fact it does choose to sustain a military of the same size (larger, actually).
I understand that you're upset about American military, economic, and cultural hegemony. But to chalk it up solely to an "inferiority complex" is a bit childish, don't you think? I agree with you that the US could stand to curb its military expendatures quite a bit, but as history has shown, power abhors a vacuum. The moment the US disengages from a region, someone else will step in to assert control.
None of the countries you mentioned gave up great power status willingly - their empires were wrested from them.
It's convenient having the US as a scapegoat, because while they're lording it over you, you can snarl about how overbearing they are, and if you get in trouble, they'll still be there to save your bacon. I guess memories are selective. Folks remember Pinochet and forget WW I, WW II, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, etc.
Much the same can be said for the US (Score:3, Insightful)
No, thats true, a lot of them went to Canada as well. Its been fairly well established that the North American free trade pact has benefitted Canada and Mexico moreso than the US.
If cheap labor were the only factor in determining the relative economic strength of a nation-state, the Romans would never have built
WHAT? Are you not familiar with the concept of slavery? The Romans didn't pay their workforce, they whipped them. The same can be said for the south in the US prior to the Civil War. Wow, you are demonstrating an astoundingly bad grasp of history here.
China is not *the* place to be. Just ask the Falung Gong.
The US is not *the* place to be. Just ask the Branch Davidians.
And from a business perspective, lack of these things, particularly in a world economy dominated by post-industrial persuits that require human creativity and unfettered access to information, is the kiss of death.
How do you presume to state that Chinese citizens cannot be creative? Microsoft does much of its research (some of which lead to MP4) in China. You're just in denial now, offering up ridiculous reasons why everywhere but the US must fail.
I never said the US was perfect (Score:2)
That's a widely-disputed [ustr.gov] claim.
You singled out my example of the Roman empire as proof of my ignorance of history, but my comment was that if cheap labor were the only factor in determining the relative economic strength of a nation-state, the Romans wouldn't have had an empire. And I'm not sure about the relevance of your comment about the US South prior to the Civil War. The South underperformed the North to a huge degree specifically because they used slave labor. It was only after the Civil War that the American economy, no longer dragged down by the Southern plantation economy, was able to truly modernise.
Just ask the Branch Davidians.
I'm not going to apologize for the US government's handling of the Branch Davidians standoff. But it's specious to compare the Branch Davidians incident with the clampdown on the Falung Gong. They are completely different in scale and cause. It's also instructive to remember that while the FBI was acquitted of wrongdoing, the repurcussions from the event have led to inquiries, a storm of debate, and changes within the FBI. There is no such internal debate regarding handling of the Falung Gong in China, because the system prohibits it.
I don't make any contention that the US is even remotely perfect, or that it's the only place to be, or even that it's going to maintain hegemony forever. But I do believe that whatever nation-state overtakes the United States will only do so on the basis of a social structure rooted in respect for the individual.
China is making huge strides. They have tremendous industrial and high-tech potential, and smart, hardworking people. That's obvious. But the Soviet Union had those same advantages, and their inability to reconcile their technological progress with the squelching of free thought made their experiment doomed to failure from the start.
It's my belief that the Chinese system of government will have to evolve if the country is to ever approach, much less overtake, the US economically.
Re:Right, that's why Mexico dominates North Americ (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't need people with freedom to have a strong economy. If you chain research scientists to their desks and demand that they work, you can squeeze enough work out of them to make it worth your while.
And don't forget the lesson of Hitler's Germany. He turned a broken state into a real world power, and he did it without the whole 'freedom' thing. Nazi Fascism isn't any prettier than Communism.
Re:Cheap labor... (Score:2)
its not about jobs its about businesses (Score:2)
The USA has alot of businesses, if you talk about jobs you are talking mc donalds, and yes mc donalds is in mexico.
Re:its not about jobs its about businesses (Score:2)
Somebody mind explaining to me exactly WHAT a commie country is even DOING with currency? I can understand for international trade, but, err, I mean, uhhh, communists aren't SUPPOSED to have money last time I checked. . . . (or at least in any of the econ courses I have been in. . .
Nobody has been able to explain this one to me yet, rather strange actualy. Heh.
Commies with money? the hypocrisy! (Score:2, Informative)
#2 Communism means a lot of things. In the case of China their brand is "Maoist", or used to be anyways. In traditional Marxism Communism is the end state of a historical process, the idea being that a strong State run by "the Workers" will be created first to restructure society in the interest of people (i.e. along Socialist lines). Eventually the State will "whither away" and the Communist utopia will be created.
#3 Marx anticipated this happening in an advanced industrialized Capitalist system. Then along came Marxist-Lennism (i.e. the Russian Revolution) and the Maoists. Both of which were lead by peasants.
#4 Soviet Russia and Communist China are both really bad examples of theoretical Communism or Socialism, they are both very unique systems which, though influenced by Communism/Socialism, are not at all true to their foundation. (Which perhaps says something about the feasibility of said foundation).
#5 Both Soviet Russia and Communist China have been hugely succesful if you measure success along the lines of literacy or economic growth.
Re:Commies with money? the hypocrisy! (Score:2)
After Mao died, the government threw his wife in Jail. Since then, they have been much more economicaly liberal (as in, pro fre market) and can no longer be called a communist country at all.
Re:Cheap labor... (Score:2)
Actually South Korea did - or closer o homw Taiwan! But the issue is from what base. It is much harder for the US to grow at a Clintonian 4% a years than it is for bingobongo land to double its domestic product by buying a second cow. China is pretty well developed these days.
The source of GOP angst is that China is large geographically and population wise and so will inevitably rival the US once its economy achieves roughly half the GNP per head of the US.
When the GOP bash Communist China their real fear is that China might actually take their advice and reform and so be placed to challenge the US economically in 2015 rather than 2020.
While the USSR economy went right into the tank after they ditched communism there is no reason to believe that China would do the same. In the first place China has been gradually adopting a market model for the past 15 years and has the basic infrastructure of capitalism in place. Secondly the USSR collapsed ecconomically before it abandoned communism and saw the economy go worse. China is not likely to fail economically. Thirdly, China is certain to learn from the USSR experience and reject the IMF advised crony capitalism model.
No ... Trust me ... It's China (Score:2)
Re:The concept of economic growth is flawed. (Score:2)
80% of the country is below the poverty line, they're uneducated and agrarian. ("POOR")
18% of the country has a small amount of money and minimum knowledge ("LOWER CLASS")
2% of the country is rich ("UPPER CLASS") and use the cheap services provided by the poor 98% of the population.
This 2% of the population 0.02*1000mil = 20 million rich people which is a lot, even the US doesn't have that many rich people. The idea is that schooling will improve and this 2% will increase and spread to the rest of the population, there is much scope for intellectual growth. This assumes markets for these intellectual goods exist, if they don't then educatig your population is pointless, and with the high-tech crash it's becoming possible that educating your population won't increase your GDP any more. The US like Japan is starting to get saturated by knowledge workers, having an excessive number of knowledge workers just causes knowledge to be wasted (Unix guru working in McDonalds).
There's a limit to how much money Joe sixpack will spend on having the most advanced PC and software. The first wave of PC sales by Micro$oft has been incredibly succesful, but now that the market is saturated, unless Joe sixpack finds video-editing appealling we're looking at GDP stagnation unless a non-knowledge worker way can be found to increase GDP e.g. decreasing the cost of imported oil, hence Afghanistan to get more oil pipelines there. So just shut up and let the US army kill lots of innocent Afghan civilians, US GDP growth is at stake here. Otherwise in 20 years we'll all be trying to emmigrate to Ethiopea.
Re:The concept of economic growth is flawed. (Score:2)
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:2)
China tends to go in cycles this way: centralism, decentralism, and then centralism again.
Perhaps if the middle class gets large enough and starts wanting political reform, a backlash from the national gov will happen.
They won't give up power easily.
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:2)
"and U.S. companies are recruiting the best of them," ... and this is good for the Chinese economy how? It's called a brain drain for a reason...
I think you should read the article before you comment on quotes lifted from it. The article says:
At first glance, the trend might appear to be a typical brain drain or a way for U.S. companies to hire foreign labor while skirting political obstacles related to the H-1B visa immigration controversy. But executives on both sides of the Pacific say the hiring is more of a massive talent search aimed at a new generation of engineers being churned out of China's schools.
"We are putting our design centers where the talent is," Intel CEO Craig Barrett said when asked about the chipmaker's research centers in China and Russia. "We'll just chase the best talent."
Though penurious by U.S. standards, the engineer's salary is a goldmine in a country where the average city dweller makes $4,300 or less. Those with advanced degrees generally earn substantially more but are still a bargain compared with Westerners, which means the labs in China will continue to grow.
"Fudan, Beijing, Tsinghua--they are all famous universities," said F.C. Tseng, deputy CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. "Less and less people are going to the U.S. for study."
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:2)
The problem is that "the talent" is moving to the US, and a couple of high tech shops opening up will not change that.
It's more than a couple. Read the article. Anyhow, you could say the same of India a few years ago. People who leave will get experience and often will return to the fertile, less competitive markets they left behind.
The only obstruction to CHinese moving to the US are immigration limits, so "the talent" left in China is likely to consist largely of those who weren't able to get out.
Of course. Nobody has any other reasons for staying in China. Nobody would stay for family, or patriotism, or because there are big, untapped opportunities, or because the cost of living is low.
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:2)
I have no idea what you are talking about,.. because it never happened. They never really let anyone in, the European's proclaimed to slice up the "Chinese Melon". Kaiser Wilhelm used to talk of the Huns and their attacks on the east and China, saying his attacks on the mainland would be more fearsome. No Chinese will forget for a thousand years, to paraphrase.
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:3, Informative)
It wasn't until after WWII that we received any notice at all...
After the Civil War we still had a currency system with exchange rates in every state! That wasn't all that long ago. The Chinese Emperor's had doors which opened for him before entering or leaving the room!
China is a marvel for invention and puts the world to shame.
Re:*cough cough sputter splurt* (Score:2)
No, the US entered the 19th century with the largest merchant fleet in the world and a credit rating higher than most (if not all) of the major European powers at the time.
In the late 18th century we sent the Navy and the Marines to North Africa to take care of some pirates that were pissing us off. So there we were with a military presence in the Mediterranean. Don't you think that was looked upon by Europeans as a bit iffy? Why didn't they interfere? Because they didn't want to screw up their trade relations with the US.
Re:Nothing for USA to worry about! (Score:2)
It's already leaving. It doesn't matter that a lot of companies lose a lot of money dealing with the language barriers, uneducated and not overly competent programmers (remember, the IITs are an exception, not a rule), and logistics problems. All the managers see is that it looks good on paper and go for it.
Re:Nothing for USA to worry about! (Score:2)
I have heard a lot of negative thing about outsourcing programming to India (mostly dealing with human-to-human communication difficulties), but I suspect it will be become easier and more popular, assuming they don't get in a nuclear war with Pakistan.
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:2)
The nuke threat from Russia was never gone. Just because the Soviets were replaced by a democratic gov't doesn't mean the weapons dissapeared. They still have over 1000 warheads.
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:2)
yes, the Chinese are commies. So what? Communism sucks, but thats their problem, not ours. I dont think they want us dead. Are they a competitor to us? Of course. When your #1 economically (which we are), everyone is a competitor.
Yes, the communist party is getting more rich, but sooner or later, democracy will take over in that country and the commies will get their butts kicked out. Look at South korea and Taiwan. They both used to be dictatorships, but in the past 10-20 years they become pretty democratic. Eventually i think China will too.
Communism and Nukes (Score:2)
MAD (mutually assured destruction), while barbaric in concept, does seem to work nicely. Proof you ask? The Soviets, even during the blackest moments of the cold war, never launched a ICBM at us, knowing that the USA would retaliate with a massive counter strike.
The Chinese do not have the ability in any way to neutralize our nuclear forces, and for them to use their nukes would result in the effective destruction of their own country.
While the Chinese government and society are quite different from Western government and society in thought, morals, etc, I think they are logical enough to see the utter absurbity of using their nukes against the US.
Sources:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slb
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slbm/ssbn-726
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:3, Informative)
They are C-O-M-M-U-N-I-S-T-S
China now allows entrepreneurs in the "communist party". They are moving employees and businesses from the state sector to the private sector as quickly as possible. They are experimenting with village elections. In other words, they are trying to shed communism without imploding as the USSR did.
They want us D-E-A-D
Oh really? I've met hundreds of Chinese people and none of them seem to want us dead. I guess they hide their hatred well.
Why the HOLY FUCKING HELL are we selling them shit?
Mostly we are buying stuff from them, not selling to them. After all, we have money, they make cheap stuff.
ht after the USSR went down the tube and the nuke threat was gone we should have bombed the living hell out of them.
I'm just going to quit now. You're obviously not worth talking to.
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:3, Interesting)
several ways. By 2010 pentagon force projections
estimate that they will have more nuclear warheads
targetted in the US than will Russia. The US is
legally bound to the defense of Taiwan against
attack. Because they abort their female fetuses
in large numbers (and female infanticide is endemic)
they have a large surplus male population at
cannon-fodder age. Their economy is growing at 9%
annually while the US economy is shrinking. They
have the benefit of the balance of trade, which
gives them increasing cash reserves, and a consequent
ability to manipulate capital markets.
Calling the CCP "Communist" is like calling
scientology a religion -- it's a gross abuse of
the denotative meaning of the term. The CCP
is a collection of warlord factions not unlike
the KMT in 1910, or any of a hundred other
examples from Chinese history.
The CCP may well be the most powerful organized
entity on the face of the earth today, and it
is utterly ruthless. It has imposed an hereditary
caste system on the Chinese people, utterly
crushes any sort of labor organization, in fact
maintains a gulag system of millions of literal
slave laborers, forces hundreds of thousands of
abortions on unwilling women every year, and has
a history of wild oscillations in policy that
result in mass starvation, brutalization, and
dehumanization.
Really, it's not very unlike the U.S. government,
except that it's violence is directed inward,
against the peasants and workers and intelligentsia,
instead of outward, against swarthy people who
have oil. Both systems represent an intense
concentration of power under the domination of
one autocratic ruler. Both systems use political
parties to exclude meaningful dissent. Both
systems manipulate law to funnel funds into the
hands of crony feudal barons. Both systems
exercise strangling control over the mass media
to preclude meaningful democracy.
But the Chinese nukes are pointed at *me*, while
the U.S. nukes are pointed *away*, so I prefer
to see the U.S. hang on to its global empire
for a few more decades, please.
Oh, and we are selling them shit. Such as VSAT
technology (Hughes/Loral) and missile technology
(McDonnel and TRW), thanks to the millions funnelled
by the "People's Liberation Army" into the
Clinton/Gore campaigns.
The chinese people are wonderful, and the
chinese culture is amazingly deep and beautiful,
as is the language. But the chinese state is
perhaps the single greatest source of human
evil on the face of this planet, and as such
it should be given all the respect one gives
a rabid predator. That dragon is not a mascot
or a pet. It breathes fire, and it is waking
up from a long sleep.
"Religious Right Does it Again" (Score:2)
So it'll basically be like America right?
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:2)
So it'll basically be like America right? Why are you still afraid of Communism?
I bet you still think that the people in China are "uneducated", yet you live in the country with almost the worst educational system in the world!
Get over yourself.
Re:Once again, let me REPEAT myself (Score:2)
They may leave things out or discourage certain lines of thought - but they teach physics, they've long been intellegent people and there is progress there.
Re:China Aims More ICBMs At US (Score:2)
ROFLMAO!
You seriously need to subscribe to Janes Defense or something. POLAND has a better trained and equipped military than China. Numbers are not everything, and the PLA doesn't even have much on us in that department either.
Western Europe, Israel, and Turkey round out the top militaries on the planet after the US. The Russians have degraded quite a bit in the last decade, but Putin is working on correcting the decline.
Derek
Re:Humm (Score:3, Interesting)
2. The govt doesn't feed and clothe people. The market does. See capitalism.
3. With a globally integrated economy, any country will be affected if any other major economy falters.
Remeber that in the 1950s and 1960s Russia had more people and as strong of an economy as the United States, by the 1970s the parity started to shift in favor of the United States, by 1982 it had fully shifted in favor of the US.
USSR. achieved growth through massive forced mobilisation of labor. Growth in USSR eventually faltered because limits to mobilization were reached and no real productivity gains were achieved. This has little in common with what's going on in China now, which is a country in transition to a market economy.
Re:Chinese proxy server (Score:2)
Nah. I'm browsing this site from China right now. Geez there's a lot of misconceptions about this place! And a lot of people in this discussion showing their absolute ignorance of anything outside the good old US of A.