Charity and Philanthropy Sprouting in China

October 5, 2010

Now that China is the 2nd largest economy on the planet, the responsibility of helping the needy has come of age.

Today, China has about 875,000 multi-millionaires – 55,000 are billionaires, the highest number after the United States.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are visiting Beijing to have dinner with China’s wealthy and share their passion for giving.

So far, two of China’s super rich have accepted the invitation and the central government is encouraging others to attend requesting that all of China’s billionaires donate at least one million yuan annually to charity. Source: Wall Street Journal

It is estimated that there are more than 1,800 charitable foundations across China but most are not very transparent and this breeds suspicion and distrust.

To solve that problem, Actor Jet Li’s charity is one of the co-founding organizations behind a new China Foundation Center with goals to increase the transparency of Chinese charitable groups.

The Chinese may turn to the U.S. to see how America deals with charity theft, which has been a big problem with smaller charities.  Although larger charities are closely watched by the U.S. government, smaller charities often lack the financial controls to prevent theft. Source: MSNBC.com

It isn’t that the Chinese are unwilling to give. The China Daily reported that China’s top 100 philanthropists have donated $3.3 billion dollars since 2005.

After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, individuals donated $8.9 billion, the highest level in China’s history.

The China Law Blog also had a post that said in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, so many in China donated blood that there wasn’t enough room to store it all showing the world that when China’s government cannot handle a crises, the Chinese people will step in.

See When the Generals Laughed to discover what Chinese military did soon after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Farming the Sea’s Wind

October 5, 2010

China’s goal to go green in the Middle Kingdom moves forward due to the wind and the sea along China’s long coast, which runs about 9,010 miles or 14,300 km.

“China has the largest wind resources in the world, and three-quarters of them are offshore,” Barbara Finamore, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Beijing office, told Scientific American.

China has an estimated offshore wind power potential of more than 750 gigawatts, far greater than the country’s land-based wind potential of 253 gigawatts. Source: UPI.com

Wind Daily says that China will be launching four offshore wind-power projects soon with a total installed capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

There’s an advantage having China’s government when it comes to cleaning the environment and creating green energy.  In the U.S., the first potential offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts took nearly a decade for approval and still faces potential regulatory and judicial obstacles.

While the U.S. struggles to get clearance for its first offshore wind farm, the world’s largest offshore wind farm started producing energy September 2010 off the British coast with 300 megawatts, which is enough electricity to heat about 200,000 British homes. Source: Reuters.com

In China, the first offshore wind farm is near Shanghai and started supplying power to the city in July, 2010 with between 200 and 300 megawatts expected by the end of this year. Shanghai plans building 13 more offshore wind-power plants by 2020. Source: Offshore Wind.biz

Learn more about China Going Green

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – Part 2/2

October 5, 2010

The Al Jazeera commentator started by saying that relations between China and the West are complex not least by the way the West views China’s human rights record.

Among the major issues is the Tibetan struggle for independence, treatment of political dissidents and restrictions on the media and the Internet.

The commentator opened the second half with Andrew Leung in Hong Kong asking him to define the relationship between China and the U.S.

He replied that the relationship is mixed.  On one hand, many countries are awed by China’s economic rise.  He said that China was a reluctant world power because there are so many problems inside China that must be dealt with and that China cannot afford to be globally aggressive.

Then the commentator turns to Ze Xia, the Falun Gong reporter, who wastes no time mentioning that China controls the media and says the New Tang Dynasty TV signal has been cut off and censored in China.

She calls on the West to force China to change.

Note: What Ze Xia doesn’t say is that the Chinese media is part of the central government—the media in China is not independent as in the West, and what does the Falun Gong reporter want the West to do—start a war? Click here to discover more on global censorship.

Again, the commentator cuts the Falun Gong reporter off and turns to Bruce Reynolds at the University of Virginia, who says the worst thing the West could do in China was to apply pressure.  He says that will not play well with the Chinese leadership or the Chinese people, who are very proud and nationalistic.

Reynolds says he is confident that in the next thirty years, many of the problems Ze Xia, (of the Falun Gong) points out will be resolved. He calls for patience.

Andrew Leung concludes the panel with a positive outlook on how much China has changed in the last thirty years.

Discover more facts about the Falun Gong at Kaiwind.com and/or return to A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – Part 1

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – Part 1/2

October 4, 2010

In 2008, Al Jazeera broadcast a program about China celebrating three decades of market-oriented reforms with a look at how the global financial crisis was affecting the world’s second-largest economy.

At the time, average annual income was almost $3,000 compared to $55 dollars in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping launched the economic reforms that transformed China.

The Al Jazeera commentator introduced the panel of experts.

Andrew Leung was a FMR Hong Kong Government Official, who said that China, unlike other countries, must produce twenty million new jobs a year just to stay even. He then explained that China’s huge stimulus package on infrastructure development was the only way China was going to put people back to work during the global economic crises.

Then the Al Jazeera commentator introduced Ze Xia, as a Chinese journalist working for New Tang Dynasty TV in America.

NOTE: Al Jazeera does not say that New Tang Dynasty TV is part of the Falun Gong religious cult that has been banned in China.  Before the commentator cut her off, Ze Xia managed to criticize China’s on several issues.

The commentator quickly cut to Bruce Reynolds at the University of Virginia, who was a former editor of The China Economic Review

Reynolds countered the Falun Gong reporter’s tirade by saying we are only talking about a labor force of perhaps 100 to 140 million workers in export-oriented factories along the seacoast.

He then said that China’s entire labor force was more like 700 million and the export sector was only one part of China’s economy. Those workers who lost their jobs will migrate back to the rural areas they came from.

Andrew Leung agreed with Reynolds and predicted that it would take a year or so for China to smooth out the impact of the global economic crises.

The camera did not return to Ze Xia, the Falun Gong reporter.

Visit China Economy Watch for up-to-date information on 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.

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Where the Communist Party finds New Recruits

October 4, 2010

“I think it’s worth remembering that China has parties other than the Chinese Communist Party (e.g. the CPWDP), although (of course) this does not make China a ‘multi-party state’ in the sense of the term. But observing how the CCP interacts with these other groupings can be revealing.” Source of comment from: Sino-Gist

My Response, There is also the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF).  I wrote about that at Women’s Rights in China.

Then there is the China Youth League and other representatives from various democratic parties, which must be referring to the CPWDP, and patriots and democrats without party affiliation; (c) representatives of people’s organizations; (d) representatives of the People’s Liberation Army; and (e) representatives of minority ethnic groups with a population of over 1 million each. Source: China.org

Another segment of the population where the Party finds new members, are freshly minted millionaires and billionaires of China’s successful capitalists.


Many of these representatives may not belong to the Communist Party or have voting rights, but they do have a voice. 

Just as most Western corporate business is conducted on a golf course, in China these nonvoting members express themselves at meals and banquets in conversation with voting members.

These non-voting members are sort of like lower management in a corporation who take advantage to express their opinions and suggestions, which may be heeded by a voting member of the party.

Non-party members, who are of a like mind, will be noticed and possibly asked to join the party, which is an invitation few in China would reject since it means joining the ruling Party of more than 70 million.

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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