China – Perspectives

On the state of the world – North Korea, China & the US [Article]

Scott Adams askswhy North Korea is not China’s problem – and the responses in comment thread are as interesting as his observations on the subject. Here’s one:

I can’t help but think North Korea is to China what Israel is to the USA. I mean…

Israel doesn’t have the support of the United Nations, just like North Korea doesn’t. The UN is constantly condemning Israel (or trying to) and the only people backing them up is the USA. Not too unlike China and North Korea.

Israel probably has nukes, and we turn a blind eye to the possibility. All of their neighbors are terrified, angry, and want something done about it. Everyone else in the world is against this. Not much different from China and North Korea.

The main difference is that Israel is OUR ally, so we think it’s okay and like them anyway. The rest of the world dislikes them and thinks we should get them under control.

Drones, Dalai Lama, & the US Never-ending war [Article

Tom Gallagher asks a very pertinent question on the current push by the US towards drones as the preferred mode of military engagement: “What if China used a drone to kill the Dalai Lama?” how would the world feel about it?

China & US Jobs

During the 2nd US Presidential Debate, Mitt Romney said that China’s currency currency manipulation and intellectual property theft has allowed it to become the largest manufacturer in the world, causing the loss of 500,000 American manufacturing jobs in the last four years. Anthony Tao defends China: Even now, when China’s per [capita] GDP is still nearly six times less than the US’s, China is just artificially keeping its currency down cause it really wants to stick it to Americans, right? Because there are just so many Americans who dream about working in an iPhone-assembling factory.

Protectionism

The US industry loves to dictate terms to the rest of the world, through its ‘legal’ department, also known as the US Congress. Now that overseas manufacturing (a beast of the US industry’s own making) has beaten them at their own game, they want to change the rules. A recent example: US has slapped higher tariffs on Chinese manufacturers of solar cells (250%). Another example: US agriculture is one of the most subsidized in the world (the recipients of these subsidies being large companies that operate farms, yet they want ‘developing’ countries to stop protecting their food industry.

Can’t compete!

I had a sense of deja-vu this evening.
Very rarely do I make myself comfortable on the couch AND turn on the television.
I did today, & the “news” was on.
A report about how the manufacturing industries in Australia cannot compete with the rest of the world.
The usual suspect, China.
The unusual suspect? India.

What I heard from one of the owners caused me the sense of deja-vu.

“There’s no way we can compete with manufacturing over there. They have the best technology, it keeps their costs down & their quality up. Their government gives the manufacturers subsidies for getting export orders”.

Words I had heard so often growing up in India about the “developed” world.

Seems that the “developed” world has no more room to “develop”. Ironic.