July 16, 2008
Hmmm, China
It turned out that I’ve had to remain in New York (with a side trip to New England) for an extra couple of days, as certain materials I require to meet the challenge of an unexpected development in my current work project were available for purchase (and for rapid overseas shipping) in a town a couple of hundred miles north of here, but that’s another story entirely and unfortunately of a proprietary nature. I have to leave tonight (no further reprieves, sigh), hopefully to finish the job within a couple of weeks – with luck, no more than ten days.
On the bright side, while my time has been severely limited, I’ve managed to squeeze in a few hours here and there to visit several of my favorite blogs, which has made the delay in leaving even more worthwhile.
On the job, one of our (at least, we Yanks and the other westerners, right thinkers all) more prevalent topics of discussion has been Bush’s decision to treat the Olympics in China as though the Communist country were just another nation deserving of equal consideration in an international event of that magnitude.
Our own consensus proved unanimous – China is our enemy, in fact it is the enemy of free countries everywhere and should be both viewed and treated as such.
We have allowed our nation’s economy to become all but intertwined with this enemy, not only by saturating our retail industry with Chinese products, in many ways building a dependency on their affordability, the vast majority of which are inferior in nearly every way to items manufactured here in the United States and many of which present health hazards to Americans, in particular children as so many of those products are toys, but by selling the Chinese billions of dollars’ worth of treasury paper.
I wonder what would happen if China were to decide to take back Taiwan at this stage of the game, and their premier quietly told POTUS that “if you interfere, we will dump all our U.S. Treasury instruments on world markets at once”. The dollar’s already on the fritz and with gas prices up so dramatically (thank you, Democrats), effecting the prices of almost everything else, the kerfuffle in the real estate financial markets and throughout Wall Street, the impact of an assault on the U.S. dollar would be rather telling.
If we continue to treat China as “our friend and valued trading partner”, we will pay a heavy price in the not-too-distant future.
For me, there are mixed feelings here: Being the free and market-based country that we are, it is not in our make-up to tell the private sector who they can and can’t trade with, though in rendering this opinion, I would be amiss if I didn’t point out that we have done exactly that where Cuba is concerned, going on half a century now. After all, if Cuba is our enemy and our business concerns can’t trade with them (mmmmm, a Montecristo accompanying an after dinner cognac…), why in blazes are we trading with China? China is, after all, a hell of a lot more of a potential threat to us than Fidel’s (Raoul’s?) pitiful little regime, since their powerful main sponsor went Chapter 11 more than a decade and a half ago.
The U.S. and the PRC are like matter and anti-matter somehow managing to coexist on the same planet, but this cannot remain permanent; China is a territory-hungry country biding its time until conditions are right for move toward expansion, and by our very nature as the leader of both global democracy and capitalism, the United States is their anti-thesis and by extension, as the Soviets once referred to us, “the main enemy”.
As our leaders have been lulled by Muslim propaganda clouding the true intentions of fundamental Islam, both they and their profits-first-and-last counterparts in the marketplace have allowed our massive commerce with China to cloud their minds against the reality of the remaining communist world power’s ambitions. Daily, emailed bulletins from Internet investment touts sing the praises of private investors on all levels pulling our capital out of the U.S. economy and investing in China, preaching about the exponential gains we could realize by doing so.
President Bush, Congress and the major players in the marketplace need to wake up to the consequences we will eventually face as a result of our being too chummy with Beijing, profoundly bolstering the Chinese economy (and therefore the Chinese war machine) and in effect baring our proverbial neck to one of our two most dedicated and lethal enemies.
http://hardastarboard.mu.nu/wp-trackback.php?p=904
July 17th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Welcome back even if only temporary! China has successfully combined Communist domination of their people with Capitalist economic growth which has allowed them to remain the only real Communist country in the world.
While I do not see them over taking Japan and the US as the top two economic powers in the world I do see them having great influence of US policy because of the fear that they will dump trade with the US which will cause massive financial problesm because of the as you put it, “We have allowed our nation’s economy to become all but intertwined with this enemy.”
They are using the Olympics as a means of putting on a humble and free society type face to the world in order to foll the world and hide the truth of their communist atrocities to bolster their economic standing with every country participating.
I’ll bet that eevery Chinese citizen who has at any time even looked like they might say something about the truth of the real China has already been carted away to some sort of prison or torture facility to keep the populace under control during the Olympics.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Years ago, my liberal neighbor from Canada — he’s got some kind of degree in economics — was issuing the warning cry about what China will do to our economy. A liberal could see it! Amazing!
I have to say, however, that this neighbor probably doesn’t qualify as a true liberal. He’s married to a conservative wife and also has me to listen to all the time.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:11 am
AS far as possible I avoid Chinese products for a combination of patriotism and the fact that they produce shoddy goods. It would hurt us badly for a few months to cut off trade with them but it would lead to long term benefits for both us and the people (not the government) of China.
July 19th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
It’s hard to avoid products for China, though.
Last fall, I went looking for an electric space-heater. The only one I found to suit the problem was made in China. And I don’t trust the wiring, either.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
We have allowed our nation’s economy to become all but intertwined with this enemy, not only by saturating our retail industry with Chinese products..so true and so disheartening!
July 21st, 2008 at 6:09 am
While we wait to replace two severely injured members of my crew, I have taken the opportunity to take another short sojourn in New York (at least a couple of days this time) for a welcome change of pace.
So…
Ken –
I’ll bet that eevery Chinese citizen who has at any time even looked like they might say something about the truth of the real China has already been carted away to some sort of prison or torture facility to keep the populace under control during the Olympics.
This is most likely the case, true to form for eny such totalitarian country. One reason I didn’t select Chinese as one of the languages in my translation thing (upper right sidebar) is that Beijing sometime back installed censorship controls on outgoing Chinese Internet venues, and I figure that there is too strong a chance that anything reaching my comment section from there might be merely input from propagandists, anyway.
It is disappointing that our officials continue to ignore the threat posed by China, for purely commercial reasons, and their record of blatant human rights violations, even current ones (their own citizens, Tibet, etc).
This will indeed come back, in the not-too-distant future, to bite us on the butt.
AOW –
Your Canadian friend sounds like the rare, salvageable kind of liberal.
If only our corporate and political leaders had the foresight and the resolve to see these kinds of problems coming and head them off. And this is a problem that will have bitter consequences.
It’s hard to avoid products for China, though.
This is sad but true. A few years ago, a friend and I were considering setting up an Internet store specializing in purely American made products, researching to find wholly U.S. manufacturers of every size and make drop-shipping arrangements. Unfortunately, our own work schedules were really busy and we never found the time to commit to the project.
Somewhere along the line, and sometime soon, a decision has to be reached: Do we want to outsource all our own manufacturing, or do we want to import 90% of the products sold in America? Doing both as we seem to be doing now is a sure recipe for economic tragedy.
(and I wouldn’t trust the wiring either, even sight unseen)
Shoprat –
If only our government and our “captains of industry” would realize this! I suspect that the honchos here on the private sector side of things, who are infinitely more savvy than their counterparts in the public sector, have already weighed the consequences but see themselves making enough millions off the bottom line that they will not have the same worries, in the event of any economic collapse, as the rest of the population.
The way billionaire Bloomberg runs New York, single-mindedly helping make the city tougher and tougher for the average wage earner and/or small business to survive in, is indicative, to a large extent, of the incumbent mindset of his fellow travellers.
Angel –
“Made In China” seems to have become the most prevalent label in the U.S.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Seth, I couldn’t agree with you more! You can take a stand for human rights on your website by going here and getting the code:
http://action.uncensor.com.au/dop/
July 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Ooops, left out the rest of my point on my reply to Shoprat’s comment:
…of the incumbent mindset of his (Mayor Bloomberg’s) fellow travellers: They all apparently feel that being mega-rich, they have nothing to worry about if and when the rank & file citizen goes into total financial meltdown.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
Gayle –
Thanks!
I’ll have the code in place in time for the 30th.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
According to http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/pipa_market.html
the Chinese are even more fond of free markets than we.
Success story?
July 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
As the start of the Olympics approaches, Beijing is under a huge mass of smog. Where is Al Gore in condemning China’s care for the environment? Hmmmmm?
July 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
BB –
Money that rolls into China enriches China, including their economic and military strength. What the Chinese are learning, our own complacent “captains of industry” and politicians are somehow unlearning.
We’re already paying dearly, and as we’ve apparently lost the ability to learn from mistakes, things will only become worse.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071803356.html
AOW –
Our country’s in-house leftists seem to make a practice of refraining from criticizing their own kind.
August 6th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
We need to shut down China by demanding the country stop importing their junk and return the jobs back to the US… that is they key to stopping China’s dangerous growth and militaristic threat to our health and prosperity. That simple.
Were is Al is a great question Always and Seth I also disagree with Bush’s kiss up tot his communist bastion as I disagreed with the Olympics rewarding that hell hole the privilege of hosting the games, lowering their prestige greatly with this decision permanently. I reacted with protest withholding donations I have annually contributed which sadly hurt the athletes but a statement has to be made.
I too will add that code to my site Gayle…..
Good luck Seth and keep up the fine work, stay safe/
August 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Ray –
We have come a long way in the wrong direction, I think. We (the U.S.) let down our defenses by entrusting our primary sovereign enemy with the keys to our economy while giving them the tools to strengthen their military capabilities, which will undoubtedly be focused on us one day.
Bush treating the PRC as a friend while they are anything but is like the old song about the “gentle woman” and the snake, with the U.S. being the gentle woman. When we get fatally bitten, the Chinese will shrug and say, “What did you expect? We are your enemy, remember?”
Speaking of Algore, I was reading an article today about the way the MSM is criticizing T. Boone Pickens for his ventures into research & development of alternative energy sources as being “profit motivated”, while completely ignoring Gore’s own lucrative capitalization on more expensive, economy unfriendly “green” alternatives. Go figure.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:07 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
August 13th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Alex –
Welcome, and many thanks!
November 7th, 2008 at 4:48 am
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