Exports and Imports Equals Jobs

May 28, 2010

When rumors say that China is going to sell Euros or cash in on US Treasurys, stock markets tend to panic. Then China denies the rumors as they did recently. “Europe has been and will be one of the major markets for investing China’s exchange reserves,” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange says. Source: 24/7 Wall St

It would not serve China’s interests to hurt Europe or America’s economies since China exports more than 200 billion Euros worth of mainly industrial good to Europe, which means jobs in China. Europe also exports more than 80 billion Euros in goods to China, which translated into European jobs.

Overall, China imported $922 billion  dollars worth of products from the rest of the world last year while exports declined to an estimated 1.19 trillion.

Although exports to the U.S. fell in 2009 by 12.2% to 296.4 billion, China’s imports only went down to 69.6 from 69.7 billion dollars from the prior year so America improved its trade deficit with the PRC by 15.4% in 2009. This means jobs were lost in China but not as many jobs were lost in America from what America sells and exports to China.  Source: China Trade Statistics 2009

See Jobless in America and Angry at China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China and North Korea

May 27, 2010

Due to the latest tension between North and South Korea over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship by North Korea, China has been asked to step in and help. However, China’s response has been for the “relevant parties” to “calmly and properly handle the issue and avoid escalation of tension.” Source: Politics News

If China is reluctant to be sucked into the latest North Korean conflict, what could be causing this response? One reason might be that China has a history with Korea going back to the Tang Dynasty in 688 AD, when there was an alliance with Silla, a Korean state.

North Korean National Musical Troupe currently visiting China performing “Dream of Red Mansion” (adapted from Chinese classic novel).

Then it could be because Chinese culture, written language and political institutions have had an influence in Korea since the 4th century and in the 14th century, Korea came under the influence  of Confucian thought influenced by Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism).

China’s reluctance to put public pressure on Pyongyang to step off the warhorse might be because the Chinese feel it would be like pressuring a family member. A 1,700-year old relationship might have more weight than the one China has with America that isn’t even forty yet. However, measuring that weight may also depend on the trillion or more China has invested in America.

Punish North Korea or Not?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His third book is Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé, a memoir. “Lofthouse presents us with grungy classrooms, kids who don’t want to be in school, and the consequences of growing up in a hardscrabble world. While some parents support his efforts, many sabotage them—and isolated administrators make the work of Lofthouse and his peers even more difficult.” – Bruce Reeves.

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

 

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, cultural differences, politics, Taoism | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s god Culture Gone

May 27, 2010

For millennia, China’s emperors were considered the Sons of Heaven and worshiped as such.  When referred to as the Son of Heaven, a title that predates the Qin unification (221-207 BC), the emperor was recognized as the ruler of “all under heaven”. 

After Imperial China ended, Sun Yat-sen established a brief Chinese republic soon brought to an end by competing warlords, who plunged China into anarchy and violence. It wouldn’t be until 1928 that Chiang Kai-shek would become the victor and dictator of China and reestablish some order.

Mao won China in 1949 and stayed in power until his death in 1976. Mao has been called the modern emperor since he lived in the Forbidden City and ruled for twenty-seven years.  After Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping and his supporters decided they didn’t want to have another god-like figure ruling China, and the Communist Party added amendments to the Chinese constitution creating term limits and an age limit. 

Mao's Tomb

Mao is still revered in China.  His tomb was built in Tiananmen square and his body is preserved beneath the tomb in refrigeration.  Visitors may pay a small fee to visit the tomb and possibly see China’s modern emperor on display behind bulletproof glass with attending guards.

Learn more about China’s Modern Dynasty

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Food Safety in the People’s Republic of China

May 27, 2010

A friend sent me a piece about tainted supplements in the United States.  One paragraph grabbed my attention.

“In recent years, a vast majority of supplement suppliers have located overseas — principally in China. Nearly all of the vitamin C and many other supplements consumed in the United States are made from ingredients made in Chinese plants. Those plants are almost never inspected by the FDA because the agency is not required to do so, has little money to do so and does not view the plants as particularly risky.” Source: New York Times

Chinese farmers harvesting bok choy

China has an agency that is similar to America’s FDA. It’s called The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and was founded in 2003 as part of an effort to improve food safety. Today, there are about ten government departments and ministries under the State Council responsible for food safety in China. (Information about China’s SFDA)

Although China’s SFDA is relatively new compared to America’s FDA, China appears to be taking food safety seriously compared to weaknesses discovered in America’s FDA. 

Evidence that China is serious about food safety happened on July 10, 2007, when Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the SFDA was executed by lethal injection for taking bribes from various firms in exchange for state licenses related to product safety.

In fact, until the 1906 Food and Drug Act, America did not have an FDA (Source: FDA Early History), and recently the Union of Concerned Scientists revealed that hundreds of agency scientists had been pressured to approve a drug despite reservations about safety.   

Discover more about China’s Eating Culture

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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2 Comments | America, China, Chinese food, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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