Americans doing Business in China – Part 2/16

February 22, 2012

Note from Blog host — an example of East meets West through business and trade: General Motors and Ford captured four spots among China’s best-selling passenger cars in 2011, with the Buick Excelle commanding top spot with sales of 253,514 units. Source: Inside Line.com

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Guest Post by Bob Grant — publisher/editor for Speak Without Interruption, an international online magazine.

I have been traveling to China since 1998 and had a business and personal relationship there since 2003. I have a business that is based on these relationships built up over the years—they continue today.

I am not a young man—but even at 64, I know that the relationships I have made there are once in a lifetime treasures. I have found China and its people to be nothing like they are portrayed in the media.

I will—as best I can recall — write about specific experiences and places, I have visited. Unfortunately, the original computer that I had when I started my China business fried its hard drive, and although I was warned, I never backed up my material so I have lost many excellent photos. However, I have enough remaining pictures to tell a story or two.

One of our US government officials reportedly made a comment with the word “retarded” in it.  There was also an attempt to make a joke using “Special Olympics” on a TV show in the past.  Why do people say the things they do?  Why have I said some of things I have said?  When I have made comments at the expense of others, I thought either it was funny or it made me feel important in some perverse way.  As I have gotten older, experience has taught me to think before I speak—at least a little more than I did in my younger years.  What someone says as a casual statement—or an attempt to make a joke—can offend others on a multitude of levels.

There are a little over 1.3 billion people in China from the figures I have seen.  I have had people say to me, “With that many people, how do you tell them apart?  They all look alike.”

After having an association with specific Chinese people since 1998, I take great offense when someone says something like this to my face or within earshot.  To me, they do not all look alike.  They may all have similar physical features but I see each person I have met in my business dealings as a singular and unique individual just as I would feel about anyone I met throughout the world.  As you meet people—speak with them—get to know them, I think everyone has personal features, mannerisms, personalities that make them different from other people in the world.

In terms of my feelings for China, and its people, it is only based on those who I have met personally.  As I view it, there are values that I have found all Chinese possess—the reverence of  family and respect for their elders.  I wish these values were more evident in the US.

With 1.3 billion people milling around China, how can they have these values when there are so many of them?  I once worked with a product that was to replace the toxic cleaner Nitric Acid.  In most instances, the shipping tanks in the ocean liners have to be cleaned out after they are emptied.

They send “Chinese People” into these tanks to spray them out.  One contact actually said, “There are so many Chinese that when one dies from being exposed to the Nitric Acid there are a million more to take their place.”  It was all I could do to keep my hands from going around his neck or punching his lights out — being older at the time, I felt he was not worth the hassle.

I believe the respect for family—and elders—in China is not something just confined to my small group of acquaintances there.  I think this is something that is countrywide, and I feel this is a virtue beyond description.  During one of my visits, my friend and primary associate invited me to a party to honor his new young son.

We held this event in a large, private room within a very nice restaurant.  There were many people there, and as I have written regarding other situations, I was again the only non-Chinese in the room.  I felt completely at ease and extremely honored he would invite me to such an important “family event”.  The photo above shows me with my associate, his wife, his mother, and his new young son. I did, and still do, feel like part of their family.  To me they remain friends, family and associates, and they “certainly” do not all look alike to me!

Note from Blog host – If you plan to do business in China, I recommend visiting the China Law Blog first.

Continued February 23, 2012 in Americans doing Business in China – Part 3 (a guest post) or return to Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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 Note: This guest post first appeared on February 12, 2010

1 Comment | America, business, capitalism, China, economy, expatriates, expatriots | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Americans doing Business in China – Part 1/16

February 21, 2012

Before I started putting this series of posts together, I read an ABC News piece by Bill Weir on “A Trip to the iFactory: ‘Nightline’ Gets an Unprecedented Glimpse Inside Apple’s Chinese Core” — (Note: clever play on words.)

Weir’s piece is a long one but there are some telling points I’m going to share before I launch into a series of guest posts from an American that did business in China successfully for a number of years. Each one of these guest posts stands alone but provides a glimpse into another person’s experience doing business in China.

However, in 2010, Apple was crucified in the Western media due to a number of suicide at Foxconn, which is the Taiwan owned company that assembles/manufactures about 90 percent of Apple’s products. If you were not aware of it before, many Taiwanese do business in China and Foxconn is an example.

In his piece, Weir said, “They (the suicides) went up during a three-month span in the spring of 2010, when nine Foxconn workers jumped to their deaths. A total of 18 Foxconn employees took their own lives, or tried to, in recent years and given the company’s massive size, it is a suicide rate well below China’s national average. But when people started jumping in a cluster, Woo tells me that Tim Cook rallied a team of psychiatric experts for advice. They suggested nets, on the chance it might save impulsive jumpers.

“But Foxconn wasn’t Apple’s only problem. The company says they stopped a supplier named Wintek from using a toxic chemical to clean iPhone screens after 137 workers were injured…

“Apple says they have been ordering audits of its suppliers since 2006, and since 2007 have been publishing the sometimes disturbing results…

“It is a Monday after a Chinese holiday, and since many overworked migrants will just stay home, the people who lined up before dawn know that the chances of getting an assembly line job are better than average. And in a country of 1.3 billion, where jobs are scarce, getting there first matters; especially for their families back in the village, where most of their paycheck will end up…

“Starting salary is around $285 a month or $1.78 an hour. And even with the maximum 80 hours of overtime a month, the Chinese government considers them too poor to withdraw any payroll taxes…

“We mostly found people who face their days through soul-crushing boredom and deep fatigue. Some complained of being overworked, others complained of being under worked and almost all said they were underpaid…

“We do have labor unions at Foxconn … but it’s not a freely elected labor union yet. I expect to see that in the next year or two, they will become more like a collective bargaining union, and they will be freely elected. In fact, I see that some legislations in more progressive provinces (of China) would require labor unions to be sitting on the board of companies…”

The exclusive full report from ABC’s “Nightline” will air Tuesday, February 21 at 11:35 p.m. US ET/PT. This link to Hulu is where much of the full episodes of “Nightline” are posted for online streaming the day after the original broadcast.

Continued February 22, 2012 in Americans doing Business in China – Part 2 (a guest post)

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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6 Comments | America, business, capitalism, China, economy, expatriates, expatriots | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Tracking a Cyber Bully’s Deceit and Propaganda through an IP Address

February 21, 2012

I find it difficult to believe that a disabled American vet calling himself Chicomaniac would be posting comments from a remote location in China’s poorest province. However, that’s where two comments from this second cyber-bully assault (in recent months) may have come from.

I deleted the two comments from the posts they were intended for and added them to the appropriate location on this Blog – where the first cyber-bully attack is posted.

In fact, if you compare Chicomaniac’s two comments with those from the first cyber-bully assault, you may recognize similarities in the writing style and use of language, which is why I have posted them as a comment on the same page under the heading of Another Cyber Bully. If you visit this page, you may scroll up to see the comments from the first assault. This second cyber bully may be a copy cat.

To discover a complete profile of the average cyber bully, I suggest visiting Bully Online.org – Stalking.

Bully Online says, “The stalker exhibits a familiar pattern of behaviour. Stalking often starts as a result of rejection; rejection rage and abandonment rage motivate the stalker to seek revenge through a predictable pattern of stalking behavior. The stalker, usually a loner and socially inept, becomes obsessed with their target and bombards them with messages, emails, gifts, or abuse. The stalking behaviour can last for years and the intensity of abuse increases over time. The abuse, initially consisting of psychological violence, often escalates and culminates in physical violence…

“The Vengeful stalker is the most dangerous type whose mission is to get even and/or take revenge. Mostly male, he has a grudge and he’s going to do something about it…”

Chicomaniac said, “As a disabled vet I would like to add that the wrong guys made it out of ‘Nam and I hope when your time comes those who believe in America and what We stand for are allowed to have a chat with you.”

In an attempt to identify this cyber bully, I conducted several IP searches and traced the location to where those comments may have originated, and it turned out to be an organization that calls itself Xin Xin Ling located in northwest China.

The coordinates for the IP address were at Latitude 35 and Longitude 105 located near Lanzhou between Dingxi and Tianshui in the Ningxi Hui Autonomous Region northwest of Xian in a desolate region.

“This sparsely settled mostly desert region lies in the vast plain of the Yellow River in the north, which has been irrigated for centuries. Over the years, an extensive system of canals was built. Extensive land reclamation and irrigation projects have made increased cultivation possible.” Source: Wiki-Ningxia

Chicomaniac’s IP address was 118.194.218.153. The host, Yin Yin Ling, also used the same IP address, and I used My IP Test.com to trace the location.

To learn more about the people that live in the region, I did a bit of research and learned that the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region covers an area of 51,800 square kilometers.

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is the unique provincial Hui autonomous region in China, and it had a population of 6.1265 million in 2007, among which, about 1.5 million were from the Hui, Muslim ethnic group — therefore, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is often called the “Province of Islam” and “Province of Muslims” by foreign travelers.

I learned that among the Hui, local activists have not called for complete separatism or absolute independence, but generally express concern over environmental degradation, which may explain the motivation behind the comment that mentioned Bosshard.

In addition, I traced Bosshard’s IP address [207.204.249.151] to California at an address off Oscedia Lane, Whitfield Ct., and George Ct. near Adam Roger’s Park in San Francisco at Latitude 37.7312 and Longitude -122.2836.  Bosshard’s host is Reliable Hosting.com. Bosshard may be a conservative, evangelical Christian that spent some time in China.

This is what I discovered about Chicomaniac.  He or she may live in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China and might be a Muslim. There may be a connection to one of the Islamic separatist movements in China and/or with a group that is concerned about environmental pollution.

I doubt if Chicomaniac is a disabled American veteran that fought in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.  However, maybe he or she is a disabled Chinese veteran that fought in Korea, Vietnam, India, Tibet or against Uyghur separatists in Xianjiang.

The reason I say this is that a disabled American veteran would have his or her medical care through the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as I do, which is only available in the US and its territories but not in China. The VA provides patient care and federal benefits to veterans and their dependents.

Chicomaniac also said, “ps Archie Bunker inc. just like they told you on the chinadaily forums, shorten your prolonged missives they do nothing but put us to sleep.”

I recall that the only person that said this was the first cyber bully , and he wrote it on this Blog.

I’ve never left a comment on the China Daily Forums. In fact, I cannot recall leaving any comments on any Blog forums in China.  In addition, Archie Bunker was a character in a TV sitcom that went on the air in 1971 and went off the air in 1983.

Archie was a complex character. Along with his overt bigotry and ignorance – he had a paranoid fear of Black Power; Communists, and the Mafia. He was also portrayed as hardworking, a loving father and husband — basically decent and, rather than being motivated by genuine malice (as cyber bullies are), was merely a product of the era and working-class environment in which he had been raised.

Most Americans at least 35 or older should have known these facts.

I suspect that Chicomaniac was born after Archie Bunker went off the air and/or may never have seen the show. He may also be disappointed that Bosshard’s comment appeared in the previous series of posts several times, which focused on global environmental soil and water pollution instead of specifically on China.

If you decide to compare the two cyber bullies, you may find them at Another Cyber Bully.

I wonder what members of Al-Qaeda say about the United States on Internet forums. I doubt that there is much of a difference between them and this Chicomaniac. After all, Al-Qaeda’s goals are to destroy anyone that does not agree with them using any means possible.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Contaminated Water and Soil is a Global Problem – Part 6/6

February 20, 2012

RUSSIA

The CIA Factbook says of Russia’s ‘Environment – current issues’ that “air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric plants, and transportation in major cities; industrial, municipal, and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and seacoasts; deforestation; soil erosion; soil contamination from improper application of agricultural chemicals; scattered areas of sometimes intense radioactive contamination; groundwater contamination from toxic waste; urban solid waste management; abandoned stocks of obsolete pesticides”


Toxic Dzerjinsk

The CIA says Russia’s land area covers 16,377,742 sq km. Arable land covers 7.17% of that area while permanent crops cover only 0.11%  with irrigated land covering 43,460 square km.

As one of the most polluted cities in the world, “Dzerzhinsk, Russia’s toxic groundwater contamination  has reduced the average life expectancy to 42 for men and 47 for women.” Source: World Resource Institute

Pollution Issues.com says says, “An area of Karabache, Russia, where soil has been poisoned by high concentrations of lead, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, and cadmium.”


The City That Kills It’s People

Wikipedia says of Russia’s environment and water, “While Russia possesses vast mineral and energy wealth, this does not come without some price both to Russia and to the greater globe. Particularly, oil and gas extraction exacts a heavy cost to the health of the land and people. Drilling waste water, mud, and sludges are accumulated, annual volumes have been estimated at 1.7 million tons of chemical reagents contaminating 25 million cubic meters of topsoil.”


Crude Oil Pollution Exposure Kills Whole Families with Cancer in Russia

Country Data.com says, “Russia devotes about 10 percent of its land to agriculture, but land quality is declining. Erosion carries away as much as 1.5 billion tons of topsoil every year. In the past twenty-five years, Russia’s arable land area has decreased by an estimated 33 million hectares, with much of that loss attributable to poor land management. Experts fear that agricultural land management may deteriorate further under Russia’s new land privatization as individual farmers try to squeeze short-term profit from their new property

“In Russia an estimated 74 million hectares of agricultural land have been contaminated by industrial toxic agents, pesticides, and agricultural chemicals. Considerable land also is lost in the extraction of mineral resources. Unauthorized dumping of hazardous industrial, chemical, and household waste takes land out of production. Flooding is a problem near the Caspian Sea and in Stavropol’ Territory, where the construction of reservoirs has removed land from use.”

________________________

This comment was originally posted at Discovering Intellectual Dishonesty – Part 6 on January 31 at 23:34 by an anonymous reader called Bosshard.

Deceit upon deceit?

Dear author, what we find most annoying in the behavior of others are those same behaviors of which we are equally guilty. You appear to dislike: lies, half truths and manipulation.

Regarding water-

You have much to learn.  Boiling water is good for killing bacteria and the like but does nothing to stave off the ill effects of heavy metals like copper, lead and the like. According to the BBC, at least 10% of all Chinese land is contaminated with heavy metals, which are not rendered inert by boiling. Thus, boiling water in China does no good when these elements are present.

When you made your comment, were you engaging in ““willful deception and a refusal to play by the rules?” when you state that boiling Chinese water is an anti-dote?

And an aside, do you personally drink the same water as the folks in Guizhou or Gansu, or do you purchase bottled water, a thing many of them cannot do?

As for your forgone conclusion that the need for water is greater than that of religion, I would disagree. Freedom of religion is paramount to many souls, just ask the Tibetans who will take their own lives in order to achieve such an end. If I were forced to give up my religion for water, I would not do so.

Please do not pretend to know the mind of the masses when yours may not be as open as you may believe.

This site has much information, but the author, like the Jesuits of old appears to have conjured up a China that he wishes us to believe in. The brutal reality of the communist regime  and havoc it brings to its people can best be understood by reading books like Empire of Lies, The Beijing Consensus, Poorly Made in China, The Party, and a host of others.

I will not return to this comment nor website but would like to offer this question:

If you have lived in China, and all of your readers, then you truly know the truth of this place. And if you truly know the truth of this place, then do you think it’s right to knowingly deceive the people about it?

God bless and keep all His children safe and informed.

_____________________________________________

Note from Blog Host: And when China announced that 10% of its agricultural land was contaminated with heavy metals and the CCP plans to do something about it, the critics (such as Bosshard) condemn and criticize.  It is a shame!

 

Return to Contaminated Water and Soil is a Global Problem – Part 5 or start with Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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5 Comments | America, China, environment, India, science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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Contaminated Water and Soil is a Global Problem – Part 5/6

February 19, 2012

INDIA

The Arlington Institute says, “Given that India does not regulate water usage, it should come as no surprise that there is also little regulation on pollution and even less enforcement of what regulations do exist. Millions have been spent on pollution clean-up, but no one knows where it went (most likely into the pockets of corrupt government officials) because no changes have been seen.


Contaminated Water Sickens Villagers in Eastern India

“In 2005, a government audit indicted the Jal Board for having spent $200 million on pollution clean-up achieving essentially no tangible results. A combination of sewage disposal, industrial effluents, chemicals from farm runoffs, arsenic and fluoride has rendered India’s rivers unfit for drinking, irrigation, and even industrial purposes.

“New Delhi alone produces 3.6 million cubic meters of sewage every day, but, due to poor management less than half is effectively treated. The remaining untreated waste is dumped into the Yamuna River…


India Water Pollution

“Every river in India is polluted to some degree. The water quality in underground wells violates the desired levels of dissolved oxygen and coliform, the presence of which is one measure of filth, in addition to having high concentrations of toxic metals, fluoride, and nitrates.” Source: World Bank Report on Water in India.

“India is facing a looming water crisis that has implications not only for its 1.1 billion people, but for the entire globe. India’s demand for water is growing even as it stretches its supplies. Water infrastructure is crumbling, preventing the government from being able to supply drinking water to its citizens. Pollution is rampant due to unfettered economic growth, poor waste management laws and practices.”


India’s sanitation crises

The CIA Factbook says, India’s land surface covers 2,973,193 square km. Arable land covers 48.83% of this area and permanent crops cover 2.8%.

The CIA says, ‘Environmental – current issues’ are, “deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing population is overstraining natural resources…

“Little economic reform took place in 2011 largely due to corruption scandals that have slowed legislative work…

“India has many long-term challenges that it has not yet fully addressed, including widespread poverty, inadequate physical and social infrastructure, limited non-agricultural employment opportunities, and insufficient access to quality basic and higher education, and accommodating rural-to-urban migration.”

________________________

This comment was originally posted at Discovering Intellectual Dishonesty – Part 6 on January 31 at 23:34 by an anonymous reader called Bosshard.

Deceit upon deceit?

Dear author, what we find most annoying in the behavior of others are those same behaviors of which we are equally guilty. You appear to dislike: lies, half truths and manipulation.

Regarding water-

You have much to learn.  Boiling water is good for killing bacteria and the like but does nothing to stave off the ill effects of heavy metals like copper, lead and the like. According to the BBC, at least 10% of all Chinese land is contaminated with heavy metals, which are not rendered inert by boiling. Thus, boiling water in China does no good when these elements are present.

When you made your comment, were you engaging in ““willful deception and a refusal to play by the rules?” when you state that boiling Chinese water is an anti-dote?

And an aside, do you personally drink the same water as the folks in Guizhou or Gansu, or do you purchase bottled water, a thing many of them cannot do?

As for your forgone conclusion that the need for water is greater than that of religion, I would disagree. Freedom of religion is paramount to many souls, just ask the Tibetans who will take their own lives in order to achieve such an end. If I were forced to give up my religion for water, I would not do so.

Please do not pretend to know the mind of the masses when yours may not be as open as you may believe.

This site has much information, but the author, like the Jesuits of old appears to have conjured up a China that he wishes us to believe in. The brutal reality of the communist regime  and havoc it brings to its people can best be understood by reading books like Empire of Lies, The Beijing Consensus, Poorly Made in China, The Party, and a host of others.

I will not return to this comment nor website but would like to offer this question:

If you have lived in China, and all of your readers, then you truly know the truth of this place. And if you truly know the truth of this place, then do you think it’s right to knowingly deceive the people about it?

God bless and keep all His children safe and informed.

Continued on February 18 at  Contaminated Water and Soil is a Global Problem – Part 6 or return to Part 4

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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Leave a Comment » | America, China, environment, India, science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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