The New Chinese Economy

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Please excuse the tardiness of this posting, I've been carrying the subject article around for over a month - neither one of my scanners is working. The subject is a LA Times editorial by Niall Ferguson entitled, "The man-eater of Asia's tigers". The editorial discusses the explosive growth of the Chinese economy (growing FOUR times faster than the US between 1990 and 2002, China's GNP will pass Great Britain's this year, and Germany's in 2007). The question is how will this growth mesh with China's Communist government and economic system? I'm betting the money will win - the downfall of the Soviet bloc was economics. Any comments?

Anyone interested in the editorial, email me ([email protected]) and I'll bring a copy to class.

[Anonymous]

A few thoughts on the Article Randy mentioned. First, China's economic growth is remarkable, but not entirely unexpected. It was only a matter of time until the incentives for growth appeared in China. We spent many years trying to turn China into a capitalist state (well at least a semi-capitalist state) you should watch what you wish for as we now have a rival of major proportions to deal with and one which Westerners do not well understand. We have this foolish notion that the world plays by the same rules that we do. Like the old saying "Beware of waking a sleeping dragon."

Second, there has been many reports of a lack of interest in environmental concerns in the headlong development. The Three Gorges Dam being one example of not taking all matters into consideration before going ahead with development. Another that came up in the past few days is the benzine spill after the industrial plant explosion, in the North suhuuing down a city's wqater supply for days. It seems like they handled it as well as possible but we shall see if they were honest with the threat assessment. U.S. companies rarely are!

Lastly on the Environmental front, Air polution! The Chinese have been accused of gross pollution from industrial and power plants. They might well want to be concerned with the explosion of vehicles on their roads.

I wonder if the Chinese have made the mistake we often do of thinking that rapid growth of the economy is self sustaining and unending. If they do not factor in the limits that any market must face they will be in for some very troubling times. War has too often been the way governments seek to end these troubles at home...let us hope they are prepaired for market cycles.

[Anonymous]

Friday, December 2, 2005

In today's LA Times was an editorial titled "Comming Clean in China." It deals with the benzene spill Nov. 13th and the need to communicate clearly when problems exist. China promised to be open about these issues after the SARS outbreak in 2003, seems some officials in the provences didn't get the word. They tried for several days to hush up the explosion and spill. It is expensive to make environmental booboos, as the toxins flow down river, in this case to the North into the Armur River in Russia the Chinese are sending water and Activated charcol to the Russians as they will be without water for several days while the bulk of the spill passes them by. Risudual effects have not been calculated as yet, but will likely be costly as well. (this latter part from articles in Section A of the times today and from online news.)

Any of you who have been to China in the past few years, DO you see a willingness to deal with pollution and environmental concerns increasing?

[Anonymous]

I do not think they are ready or want to deal with pollutions yet. They want to catch up with the rest of the world, especially Japan, and are focused on the advancements without giving any thoughts to the side effects. They are using any means possible, even taking the land from the people by force. They even jailed a man who protested against the government for taking his land.

[Anonymous]

In today's paper was an article quoting the Chinese interior minister who said that they were growing sofast tht polution was getting out of hand and if they didn't deal with it now they would havea disaster in the future. Perhaps the Chinese will be able to get control of their polution now rather than waiting like the US does.

But I suspect they will hold that the premature death of a portion of their population is not entirely a bad thing and to institute polution controls would weaken their ecomomy.

[Anonymous]

Chinese language classes a nationwide trend
The Associated Press
VENTURA, Calif. - Three Ventura County area school districts will offer Chinese language classes, joining a nationwide trend designed to give students an edge as China emerges as a major player in the world economy.

The Conejo Valley, Oak Park and Las Virgenes school districts may be offering Chinese in high schools as early as this fall.

"Individuals who speak Chinese will be quite marketable in business and government," said Richard Simpson, deputy superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

School districts nationwide have been expanding language courses beyond the usual Spanish, French and Latin. Among the languages that are being recommended: Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Hindi.

Earlier this year, President Bush called for more schools to start teaching Chinese, Arabic and Farsi, among other languages, as part of his National Security Initiative. He will ask for $114 million to fund that effort.

Although there's plenty of support for teaching Chinese, finding teachers is difficult. Native speakers may know the language but not have a teaching credential.
The Oak Park and Las Virgenes districts may share a teacher because they're so hard to find.

The Los Angeles Unified School District started offering Chinese 15 years ago with about 100 students. Now there are about 400.

"I think the interest in Chinese is growing. A lot of our parents want to have Chinese taught to preserve their language and culture," district director of high school programs Bud Jacobs said.

[clay dube]

Perhaps you saw the Associated Press article about the newest Ikea in Beijing. I've attached it. Can you guess which portion of the article most surprised me?

In a moment I'll put up a couple of photos of the Shanghai Ikea.

[clay dube]

I took these photos earlier this week. I wish I could have photographed inside the store. The shopping was frantic and there was a bit of spectacle as well: Chinese women in Swedish garb singing Swedish folk songs.

[clay dube]

Another image

[Anonymous]

Hi, Clay

I wish you could give us more information, such as:
How long one has to wait in line to pay, at the register.
How do people carry larger furnitures home.
Do they have the same return policy as they do here?

Reza

[Author]

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