Oil Greases a Shift in Global Power

June 6, 2010

Recently, I have written posts about China’s hunger for oil and energy. I also wrote a series about China’s need for electricity to build a middle class in rural China.

The DVB reported that the China National Petroleum Corporation has started building a trans-Burma crude oil pipeline to carry an estimated 240,000 barrels a day from Burma’s west coast to Kunming, the capital of China’s Southwestern Yunnan province.

China's Yunnan Province in green

While some may criticize China for working with a repressive government like Burma, it makes sense that China is doing this. After all, China has no choice but to do what it can to improve the lives of 750 million rural Chinese. To achieve this, they are working globally to provide China’s people with a higher standard of living while struggling to clean up an environment that is heavily polluted.

All one has to do is look at America’s history with dictators to see the dirty deeds that the US did in the national interest.  China has a “national interest” too and now they have the money to make things happen, as the US has for the last six decades.

_____________________

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.

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

1 Comment | business, China, Chinese middle class, environment, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Move Over America, the BRIC is Coming

June 6, 2010

McCombs Today says that during 2001, Goldman Sachs predicted Brazil, Russia, India and China (known as the BRIC) would dominate global economic markets in the 21st century. China, for one, has set goals to clean their environment, build a colony on the moon and technologically match the US military.  It helps that China has become America’s banker or should I say landlord.

History demonstrates that powerful nations often act arrogant and bully others. America was no different after World War II when much of Europe and Asia’s infrastructure and industrial capacity had been destroyed.  For about five decades after the war, the U.S. was the best source of manufacturing which grew a middle class who lived better than most kings and emperors from earlier times. From such riches came an attitude that American democracy and capitalism was superior to any other system.

Goldman predicts by 2035, China will be the world’s largest economy and India will be tied with America for second place.  This prediction is because 42 percent of the world’s population lives in the BRIC countries, which have 22 percent of the world’s land mass and 24 percent of global gross domestic product.

Soon, other nations will listen carefully When China Speaks

______________

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, economy, environment | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

No Room for Arrogance

June 6, 2010

In Global Voices, I read that a successful, well-known Chinese film director, Ning Hao, got in a fistfight with a foreign man, who wanted a swimming pool lane to himself, in what Ning described as an already crowded Chinese public swimming pool, which is understandable in a country with 1.3 billion people. I’ve been in crowds in Shanghai, Beijing and Xian that resemble river currents where I’m a drop of water.

I suggest that you click on the link to Global Voices and read the narrative, which is in English and Chinese and leave a comment.

Reading that post reminded me of my first trip to China in 1999 when I was told that it was okay for foreigners to go to the front of the line. That bothered me then and still bothers me since my parents raised me to be polite and wait my turn.

The piece in Global Voices demonstrated an arrogant attitude that should have died with 19th century Western Imperialism.  However, the chances are that this rude, self-centered foreigner probably behaves like this everywhere—even the country of his birth. Rude, arrogant people are usually that way no matter where they are.

Think, When in Rome, Do as the Romans

_______________

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.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, cultural differences, expatriates, tourism | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Festival of the Hungry Ghost

June 5, 2010

Although this festival is not celebrated in mainland China as it once was, the Festival of the Hungry Ghost was a time when ghosts that cannot rest were appeased so they would not turn from wondering ghosts to malevolent demons.  By remembering dead family members and paying tribute to them, it is believed that they will not intrude on daily life or cause misfortunes or bad luck.

One legend says that Mu Lian told his mother he wanted to be a Buddhist monk and left home.  Years later, he returned to discover that she had died. He knew that his mother had done bad things in his life and was probably in hell.  Since his mother had no one to feed her, she had to be hungry so he offered food to her hungry ghost but the food didn’t reach her.

To solve the problem, Mu Lian was told by his Buddhist master to become a vegetarian and perform spiritual deeds. After following this advice, on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, he saved his mother from hell and she was no longer a hungry ghost.

See Honoring the Dead

_____________________

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.

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | Buddhism, Buddhist, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Taoism | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Bringing the Pollution Home

June 5, 2010

Business Insider reports that China may soon restrict exports for rare-earth minerals that are used in hybrid car batteries, computers, cell phones, flat screen monitors and high tech weapons that the US military depends on to fight wars around the globe.

It’s about time that the United States and other countries that uses these rare earth metals builds their own refining capability.  Until now, they have bought from China, the only supplier on the planet.  However, China has announced plans to curb pollution and greenhouse emissions dramatically. One strategy is to offer huge rebates to Chinese who buy plug-in hybrids or all electric vehicles meaning China will be using what they refine.

Recently, China also expressed concerns about some of the minerals crucial to green technologies since extracting and refining them pollutes and causes serious damage to China’s environment. That means the US and other countries will have to build refining capabilities to extract and refine rare-earth metals at home instead of in China’s back yard.

See Cornering the Plug-In Hybrid all Electric Car

_____________________

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.

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | China, economy, environment, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »