Similar “Oily” Interests

February 24, 2010

China’s hunger for oil is not equal to America’s gluttony but it is getting there. Meanwhile, America and its allies blame China for the stalemate over stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

This is my confession. I’m seeking God’s forgiveness for my sins. Every American who drives a car is an accessory to a crime—9/11.  The more oil, gas or diesel consumed, the more guilt.

There are two parts to this sin.

The first stage for this crime took place during America’s Cold War with Communism. If you haven’t seen Charlie Wilson’s War, rent it.  Americans were the mad scientists who created the Frankenstein, the metamorphosis of the wolf men—the demons we call al-Qaida.

The Taliban, who supported al-Qaida’s goal to eliminate all Western Cultures and create a Caliphate—a throwback to another era, learned their Islamic Fundamentalism from Saudi Arabia’s dominant faith, Wahhabism. Oil money paid for the Wahabi schools that Saudi Arabia built around the world.  These schools teach fundamentalist Islamic principles that grow future terrorists recruited by al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Saudi Oil Wells

And who feeds Saudi oil to their SUVs, cars, trucks, eighteen-wheelers and coast to coast freight trains and jet planes?

When China blocks action against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, because the Chinese people love American food and buy GM, Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota, isn’t their hunger the same?

See America Doing Business in China

1 Comment | America, business, China, economy, environment, government, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Who is Doing the Talking

February 24, 2010

I wrote about China’s assault against pornography in an earlier post, and I liked the concept. Now, I’ve discovered a discussion on the topic. After I read the comments/complaints, I wondered whom these people were and what countries they lived in.

The site is called Global Voices Online—Maybe it should be Global Vices.  Could this be a campaign by the pornographers to drum up support so they can stay in business without trouble?  After all, if one of the Chinese mother’s blocks their smut, they will have to work harder to sneak past the censors.  Some of this grumbling was funny, some of it made sense, and some made no sense. If you read the comments, tell me what you think?

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, government, parenting | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Riding the American Bucking Bronco

February 23, 2010

China is making bids on slices of the American pie. Beware, Americans love to take risks and business, banking and real estate bubbles are bursting in the United States like a GM assembly line.

The China Price is all about China buying up American companies like the IBM brand name or companies like Maytag, an American icon.  The Asia Times reports that China’s ownership of US Treasuries is moving close to a trillion U.S. dollars while spending close to another thirty billion in merging and buying American Companies.

Will China suffer the same Wild West Blues that Japan suffered in the 1980s when the Japanese went nuts buying property in America before that bubble burst? From what I’ve read, Japan is still recovering from the losses and those that hung on are suffering even more from the recent real estate crash.

No one has tamed the Wild West yet, and I doubt China will succeed  where so many have failed considering the American love affair with credit cards.

See Doing Business in China

Leave a Comment » | America, business, China, economy | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Roughed Up

February 23, 2010

“The police arrived, the guards apologized, and the reporter left without filing charges. Then the policeman told the reporter, ‘You’re free to do what you want, but this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand.'” So wrote Michael Grothaus for an RSS feed in a piece about “A Reuters employee who was investigating Apple’s legendary secrecy visited Foxconn’s walled city-like facility in Guanlan, China, and was reportedly roughed up by security.”

iPod

Well, yea. The competition is fierce in China for lucrative contracts.  If Foxconn has a contract with Apple and that company loses the contract amounting to millions if not billions of American dollars, it makes sense that their security would be tough on any suspected industrial, high-tech spy. Their jobs even with low pay and long hours are better than no job and poverty. Why put up with a snoop?

If the Foxconn security didn’t take the job seriously, Apple might take their business to another country. How many people would have lost their jobs if that happened?

holding a cup of hot coffee

Consider that China has one lawyer for every 13,000 people compared to the United States, The Litigation Nation, with more lawyers than any other country—one for every two-hundred and sixty-five people and spilling hot coffee on yourself is grounds for going to court.

See Doing Business 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. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

1 Comment | America, American culture, business, China, Chinese Culture, economy, media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Risks on the Road

February 23, 2010

I’ve learned that the Chinese don’t restrict gambling to lotteries, dice or cards.  They also gamble on real estate along with any venture that might turn a profit.

Most Chinese are born entrepreneurs. I’ve read that the Chinese invented paper money and added credit to banking a thousand years ago during the Sung Dynasty. The Chinese are masters at doing business and that’s probably why my wife, who is Chinese, warned me not to do business in China. Do not misread my words—I don’t mean Westerners shouldn’t work with the Chinese. Read my piece on Doing Business in China or what Bob Grant has to say on the topic.

However, it was during a trip to the shores of the Westlake in Hangzhou where I learned how far Chinese drivers are willing to take risks to earn quick dollars. 

Traffic in China. This is mild!

On a drizzly, cold evening, we hired a three-wheeled motorcycle to carry us to the lake where there is a paved walkway along the shore.  It was raining but we had umbrellas. The driver decided traffic was too slow on the right side of the road so he drove onto the walkway where a police officer appeared from the shadows, blew a whistle and waved him off.

Then the driver drove down the wrong side of the street with a wall of traffic headed toward us. We were sitting on a seat behind the driver of a three-wheel motorcycle.

There was a bus in the lane we were in and the bus started to flash its lights.  Our driver did not blink, and the bus swerved out of the way.  All the cars behind the bus went around us too as if our driver were Moses parting the Red Sea.

We reached the lake alive, and the driver went in search of another paying customer.

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

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »