The Economist on China – Seriously – Part 1/4

January 10, 2011

The wind is blowing and it is raining. When I started writing this post, the Internet and phone had been out for several days. I thought the storm had caused it, but it turned out vandals broke into several junction boxes and cut the lines to thousands of homes. It took several days before being reconnected.

Until you lose your connection to the Internet, you do not realize how much your life has been taken over by the virtual beast.

I have The Economist’s (TE) December 4th issue in front of me. It has a fourteen page, six-part, special report on The dangers of a rising China.

Don’t read much into that title. After reading the report, you will realize the danger comes more from the US than China. One sentence says, “The best way to turn China into an opponent is to treat it as one.”

There’s a message in this sentence the US government should heed.

In fact, as China expands into the world economically and militarily, what happens in the future is up to America more than China.

In Half a cheer for China, which comes before the 14 page report, TE quoted Antonio Chiang, a political analyst and former editor-in-chief of the Taipei Times, as saying, “The point of no return (for Taiwan rejoining the mainland sometime in the future) has already passed”.

Chiang believes that President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration’s goal is to unify with China. If this happens, this will not go over well in the US after selling billions of high-tech weapons to Taiwan.

After all, if Taiwan unites with China, all of those US weapons may belong to China.

This topic will be continued in Part 2. Meanwhile, learn of the 2/28 Massacre in Taiwan

______________

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.

2 Comments | America, China, cultural differences, politics, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

E-readers Sprouting in China

January 9, 2011

The first time I visited China in 1999, we visited Book City in Shanghai. It was the largest bookstore I’d seen—ever! Book City has about seven stories with elevators and escalators, and at each floor I waited in line to get on the next escalator.

It was that busy.

Bookstore owners in the US must dream of such traffic.

Most of the books were by Chinese authors and written in Chinese. One small segment on the fourth floor (I recall) carried books from the rest of the world and most were in English.

Since then, bookstores owned by private companies (not state owned) sprouted like mushrooms but today, as in the US, those brick and mortar bookstores may be struggling to survive.

The Independent in the UK says, “Hard times for traditional books as China’s digital publishing industry grows. Pity the poor paperback. The days of the traditional book in China are numbered, according to figures just released by the central government, it seems more and more people are now turning their attention to digital forms of publishing.”

And the Chinese are buying e-readers with a passion. Recently, hundreds lined up and some waited for days to buy an Apple iPad as you may witness in the embedded video.


Apple launches iPad in China

In fact, the market for e-readers is so hot in China, PC World reported in March, “The Amazon Kindle can now count itself among devices such as the iPhone being unofficially sold in bustling Chinese bazaars, marking the growing popularity of e-readers in China.… The Kindle 2 was on sale for US$380 and the DX for US$630.”

The Economic Times says, “In 2009, the number of e-books sold in China reached 3.82 million, and in the first half of 2010 amounted to over 20 percent of the world’s total.”

It you have never been to China, you should not be surprised.

China has had a thriving publishing industry for more than a thousand years and now more than 90% of the population is literate.

After all, the Chinese invented paper and the printing press.

Amazon.com is also selling books on-line in China but they have serious E-Commerce competition in China Dangdang Inc., a Beijing-based online book retailer that had 42% of the transactions in China in the third quarter this year, while Amazon only had a 19% share.

Discover Harlequin Romance Invades China

______________

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 » | business, capitalism, China, economy, media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Separation of Church and State – Part 3/3

January 8, 2011

It is a fact that the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

However, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the 1st Amendment erected a “wall of separation” between the church and the state

James Madison said it “drew a line,” but it is Jefferson’s term that sticks with us today.

The phrase is commonly thought to mean that the government should not establish, support, or otherwise involve itself in any religion. The Religion Topic Page addresses this issue in more detail.

However, because Thomas Jefferson advocated a separation between church and state, he drafted a bill in 1785 designed to end any attempt to provide taxes for the purpose of furthering religious education.

Jefferson’s bill was passed making it the law of the land. His bill has also been challenged more than once in the Supreme Court and was upheld.

In Everson Versus Board (330 US 1 [1947]), the US Supreme court in a  close 5-4 vote ruled “The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws, which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another.… Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Again in 1971, in Lemon versus Kurtzman (403 US 602 [1971]), the US Supreme Court ruled “In the absence of precisely stated constitutional prohibitions, we must draw lines with reference to the three main evils against which the Establishment Clause was intended to afford protection: sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activity.…  the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.”

I’ve written before that the Founding Fathers despised democracy and created a Republic to protect Americans from the democratic mob.

Now, what the Founding Fathers fears has come to pass. The US has now become a democracy and the mob has been revealed and they are evangelical Christians — that segment of the population that helped vote George W. Bush into the White House for his second term.

The wall that Thomas Jefferson established to protect US citizens from the tyranny of religion has been breached and nations such as India, Russia, China and all Islamic countries have taken notice.

Although China’s Constitution was written in 1982, it is obvious that China’s leaders took care to protect China from the same tyranny that now threatens the US and the globe.

Return to Separation of Church and State – Part 2

______________

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, China, cultural differences, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Separation of Church and State — Part 2/3

January 7, 2011

The Federal government has no business using taxpayer dollars to spread organized religion around the world.

Cobourg Atheist lists 25 countries with limited or no freedom of religion.

Cobourg says, “It’s fairly clear that Muslim countries are the most common offender – in fact I don’t think any Muslim country is missing from the list!”

Two of those 25 countries, China and India, have about a third of the world’s population. Islam holds another 1.6 billion bringing the total to more than half.

With Russia on the list, more than half the world’s population is being pressured by a very small minority in the US that has decided it knows what’s best for the globe.

It doesn’t help that almost 80% of the US population are Christians. That makes this issue appear suspicious.

However, it is only a small segment of those Christians that are responsible for what it happening and they are ignoring the history and cultures of the countries on Cobourg’s list.

Only in a nation with the “hidden” Soul of a Church could this happen.

What is happening in the US has happened before and is mentioned in the embedded video where you will discover that much of Islam was spread by war. Study the Timeline of Islam to see how many wars were fought that spread the Islamic religion.

It appears that the United States has decided to travel the same path.

Since 1998, the U.S. Department of State has had an Office of International Religious Freedom with the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy.  This office releases a report each year on the global state of religious freedom with information on every country on the globe.

In 1998, the US passed legislation titled the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (H.R. 2431) and an amendment in 1999 (Public Law 106-55).

Nations so designated are subject to further actions by the United States including economic sanctions.

Could the clause “subject to further actions” have been the real reason behind the Bush administration manufacturing false evidence to launch a war in Iraq — not to build a democratic nation but to introduce a strong Christian influence in the Middle East?

In Part 3, we will see why it is illegal for the US government to use taxpayer money to support or otherwise involve itself in any religion.

Return to Separation of Church and State – Part 1

______________

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, China, Christianity, cultural differences, Islam, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Gwyneth Paltrow Popular in China

January 7, 2011

With Country Strong, Gwyneth Paltrow’s popularity in China may mean a busy box office in Chinese theaters.


Gwyneth Paltrow – Country Strong – CMA Awards 2010

However, Facts and Details says, “Many foreign films never make it to China. The guidelines on content are very strict: No sex, no religion. Nothing to do with the occult. Nothing that could threaten public morality or portray criminal behavior—in other words, the basic ingredients for many successful films. Those that are allowed to be shown often have key scenes deleted.”

The China Daily reported how Paltrow asked Beyonce for singing tips while Country Strong was in production. She told Access Hollywood, “I kind of asked my girl singer friends for advice. I asked Faith Hill a lot of questions – and Beyonce actually too.”

Why would China Daily be reporting this of Paltrow if Country Strong hadn’t been approved for Chinese audiences?


Gwyneth Paltrow’s solo in Infamous

In fact, Paltrow’s belief in Chinese medicine may help see Country Strong, with some cutting, appear in Chinese cinemas.

About five years ago, Gwyneth attended a premiere in a backless gown revealing a collection of symmetrical, purple dots that graced the skin of her back. Those marks were a sign of “cupping” and sent a flurry of photographs around the globe and even prompted her friend Oprah Winfrey to explore this ancient (medical) practice on her show.

“It feels amazing and it’s very relaxing, and it feels terrific,” Paltrow told Winfrey. “It’s just one of the alternative medicines that I do instead of taking antibiotics.”

“I have been a big fan of Chinese medicine for a long time because it works,” Paltrow said.


Gwyneth Paltrow sings Bette Davis Eyes

Facts and Details reports of popular Hollywood movies in China, in 1994, The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford, became the first American feature film to be shown legally in Chinese cinemas. Titanic was also a big box office hit. Pearl Harbor was the second highest grossing film ever in China.

Then in 2006, Chinese sensors approved Miami Vice and left a steamy love scene with Collin Farrell and Gong Li largely intact.

In July 2009, Transformers 2 became China’s biggest box office hit replacing Titanic.

Discover Looking Like Jessica Alba in China

______________

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, China, cultural differences, family values, government, media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »