China is Not Red White and Blue – Part 2/2

May 10, 2011

Ai Weiwei was warned by representatives of the lawful government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to stop his illegal activities (according to Chinese law).

In such cases, it is common to receive an invitation to tea, which may not be refused, where the person responsible for what is considered counter-revolutionary activities (or another crime against the state) is told to stop or face the full might of China’s law.  China is not like Hitler’s Germany where the Gestapo showed up without warning and carried citizens off to be roasted or gassed by the millions.

The facts speak for themselves. Ai Weiwei refused to cooperate, and he violated Chinese law. Now he is locked up.

CNN doesn’t mention Ai Weiwei may have been in violation of the 1982 Chinese Constitution, which says in Article 28, “The state maintains public order and suppresses treasonable and other counter-revolutionary activities; it penalizes actions that endanger public security and disrupt the socialist economy and other criminal activities, and punishes and reforms criminals.”


US Marines Marching

The PRC is not hiding anything except where Ai Weiwei is locked up and the details behind his crime. Even in the US, the authorities are often denied the right to talk about an accused criminal and the facts behind a legal case to the press.

I’ve read in the past where some Western critics say that Chinese law is difficult to interpret and has loopholes that the PRC may use to the Party’s advantage.

Since when was any law in any country easy to understand?  If you aren’t an American lawyer, how easy is if to understand the US legal system, and doesn’t the US have loopholes that the wealthy and corporations take advantage of not to pay taxes in America? President Ronald Reagon did not pay any tax one year, and he said loopholes in the law allowed it.

Compare the language of the 1982 Chinese Constitution to the US Constitution and anyone may see the differences.

In addition, Article 53 of the Chinese Constitution says, “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China must abide by the constitution and the law, keep state secrets, protect public property and observe labour discipline and public order and respect social ethics.”


PRC Troops and Flag Ceremony

An amendment to Article 13 was revised to say, “Citizens’ lawful private property is inviolable” and “The State, in accordance with law, protects the rights of citizens to private property and to its inheritance” and “The State may, in the public interest and in accordance with law, expropriate or requisition private property for its use and shall make compensation for the private property expropriated or requisitioned.”

In fact, nowhere in the CNN piece does it explain that no one owns land or houses in China as they do in the US. It’s more like a lease with the right to pass that property on to someone else in the family after death.

What happens in the US if the property tax isn’t paid? Does anyone really own the house and land they live on?

In part one I mentioned that China’s flag wasn’t red, white and blue. Instead, it is red and gold.

The red of the Chinese flag symbolizes the communist revolution, and it’s also the traditional color of the people. The large gold star represents communism, while the four smaller stars represent the social classes of the people. In addition, the five stars together reflect the importance placed on the number five in Chinese thought and history. Source: World Atlas

Maybe Ai Weiwei forgot which flag flies over his country or he is blind.

Return to China is Not Red White and Blue – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is theaward-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

2 Comments | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, cultural differences, legal system, politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China is Not Red White and Blue – Part 1/2

May 9, 2011

The last time I looked, which was a moment ago, the US flag was red, white and blue with 50 stars and 13 stripes; many in the US love football, baseball, basketball, mom and apple pie and eighty percent of its citizens are Christians. The founders were men such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.

The Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the US Constitution were written for the United States of America.

If you are an American, do you have a copy of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? I do. Have you read it and if you have, how much do you remember besides ‘the Pursuit of Happiness’, which many in the US want the US government to pay for these days?

China may start with the letter “C” as California does, but it is not part of the US, and its founding fathers were men such as Sun Yat-sen, Mao, and Deng Xiaoping and about 3 to 7% of Chinese are Christians while more than 60% belong to no religion.

CNN ran a piece on its CNN Wire service of a Chinese artist and citizen of the People’s Republic of China, (PRC). His name is Ai Weiwei.  The title of the piece was, “China says Ai Weiwei is being held for economic crimes“.

If you read the entire CNN piece, you will discover that the artist was taken into custody in route to Hong Kong. The piece quotes his wife and mother, who both believe he is innocent and he was arrested and locked up because he refused to listen to warnings that he should stop his “reckless collision against China’s basic political framework and ignorance of China’s judicial sovereignty to exaggerate a specific case…”

Ai Weiwei is also one of China’s best-known artists. He helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic. Ai Weiwei is more than an artist. He is also a democracy activist and a critic of his government. The US Constitution protects US citizens when they criticize the government.

However, the Chinese Constitution does not offer the same protections. In fact, most countries don’t. In Saudi Arabia, woman cannot work or drive and criminals are often executed by beheading—a practice once common in China but no more.

In fact, the American CIA has taken advantage of foreign laws such as those in Saudi Arabia and Egypt when terrorists have been sent for torture and questioning without the due process of law as guaranteed in the US (not outside of it).

Continued on May 10, 2011 in China is Not Red White and Blue – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, legal system, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Beating Cancer with Chinese Medicine

May 8, 2011

While watching Oprah with my wife recently, Pam Grier, known for her Foxy Brown role, was a guest on the show.

Grier has been a major African-American actress from the early 1970s.

She says, “People see me as a strong black figure, and I’m proud of that, but I’m a mix of several races: Hispanic, Chinese, and Filipino. My dad was black, and my mom was Cheyenne Indian. So you look at things beyond just race or even religion: I was raised Catholic, baptized a Methodist, and almost married a Muslim.”

In 1988, Grier was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given a few months to live. There was nothing Western medicine could do to save her.

During Grier’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Thursday, February 3, she said, “My physician said, ‘Western medicine has done all it can, I recommend that you go to Chinatown. You’ll meet these practitioners and you’ll listen to them.’ ”

She started making regular trips to Chinatown in Los Angeles.

In Attitudes Toward Health in China, I wrote, “The focus in China is on prevention — to plan your lifestyle around healthy habits. That’s why early in the morning in China you may find many older Chinese outside exercising using the graceful, poetic movements of Tai Chi to insure health and longevity.”

In Health Care Without Drugs, I wrote, “The history of acupuncture goes back over 8,000 years. One would think if it didn’t work, this medical practice would have ended long ago.”

The use of herbal medicines in China has been traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, late Bronze/early Iron Age, about 2,500 to 3,000 years ago.

In fact, the World Health Organization reports that about 80% of people worldwide use herbal medicines for their healthcare.

All of these facts of Eastern and/or Chinese medicine beg for a question. Why do Western drug companies reserve the right to use the word “cure” and no one else may use it legally?

“As many of you [may not] know the word “cure” is reserved for use of the [Western] medical/pharmaceutical industry only. To use this word in the West is to risk prosecution.” Source: Hulda Regehr Clark, Ph.D., N.D.

“The word “cure” is reserved exclusively for pharmaceuticals; it can never be used with herbs or other nutritional therapies.”  Nick Adams, the Health Ranger at Natural News, says, “I find that to be an interesting double standard.”

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

4 Comments | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, health care | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Chinese tourists Buying “Made in China” in the US – Part 2/2

May 7, 2011


I’ve been in the Number One Shanghai department store off Nanjing road and seen Chinese consumers taking TV’s from the box to insure they work.

Recently, my father-in-law and his wife were up at four in the morning walking to the Apple Store a forty-minute walk from our Bay Area house.

To buy an iPad 2 in America, they were willing to get up that early and wait in line for several hours until the store opened to buy this new Apple product.

When I asked why not buy the iPad 2 at one of the Official Apple Stores in Beijing, I was told  if you buy something in the US even if made in China, the buyer can be assured of the quality.

There is some truth to that. My father-in-law’s wife arrived with a new camera bought in China.

The camera stopped working the first week she was here so she bought an expensive Sony and loved it because it worked just as promised and kept on working.

It would seem that Chinese manufacturers have a long way to go to earn the trust of the Chinese consumer.

Meanwhile, sixty million Chinese tourists are leaving China annually and buying “Made in China” outside of China then taking those purchases home.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Start with Chinese tourists Buying “Made in China” in the US – Part 1 or discover Chinese Gold from Dead Tibetan Caterpillars.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, business, capitalism, China, Chinese middle class, economy, tourism | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Chinese tourists Buying “Made in China” in the US – Part 1/2

May 6, 2011


Shaun Rein, a CNBC contributor, reported, “China is on the verge of overtaking Japan as the world’s largest consumer of luxury good, spending $13 billion, or 22 percent of the world total, in 2010.”

However, In Who Buys Guccis and Omegas in China? Not Just the Billionaires, Rein says, “Only 40 percent of the $13 billion worth of luxury items sold to the Chinese last year were transacted (bought) in the country.”

Reign says that is because it is 30 percent cheaper to buy luxury products in another country due to taxes and tariffs.

There is another reason why many Chinese tourists buy “Made in China” in other countries.

While my Chinese father-in-law and his wife were visiting in the US, I learned why Chinese buy in the US — quality.

If you read the China Law Blog, you may know that in China there are several levels of quality that do not exist in the US.  When buying anything in China, there is always a risk you may end up buying a fake or the real thing but of a lower quality.

From what I have read at the China Law Blog, it seems there is no way to tell which level of quality you are buying when in China.

That doesn’t mean “Made in China” is always of a poor quality. The language of the contract between the foreign buyer such as Apple and the Chinese manufacturer is important.

In fact, most of the products Apple sells globally are assembled in China and many are manufactured there too (Apple has manufacturing facilities spread around the world but assembles most of its expensive electronic items such as the iPad in China).

This explains why the Chinese in China often if not always make sure a computer or a TV (along with other merchandise) works before buying and taking it home.

Continued on May 7, 2011 at Chinese tourists Buying “Made in China” in the US – Part 2 or discover the Copy Cat Middle Class in China.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, business, capitalism, China, Chinese middle class, economy, tourism | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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