Catching Up With Supercomputing

June 2, 2010

 China is not standing still or playing by Western rules, which are designed to let the West win. Instead, China is moving forward claiming solar power, wind power, high-speed rail, future footprints on the moon and a host of other titles.  Soon, China may be adding the supercomputing record to that list.

The New York Times reported that a Chinese supercomputer was recently ranked as the world’s second fastest machine. China is serious with science. To make this happen, China is graduating more top rated scientists, technicians and engineers than America.

Cray Jaguar Supercomputer

Although the world’s fastest computer is the Cray Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, China may soon take that title as well.  China has a microprocessor that has been designed and manufactured in China and should be out near the end of 2010. A number of experts in the field say this new Chinese microprocessor may be the machine that will claim the title of the world’s fastest computer.

In fact, China is no stranger to innovations. Centuries ago, China invented the printing press, paper, the compass, the crossbow, gunpowder and the multi-stage rocket.

See One Step from the Global Gold Medal

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Love, Business and War

June 2, 2010

What happens today will be history tomorrow. With that in mind, I copied this opening quote from what Willi Paul wrote for Sustain Lane.com, “By stealing our technology, copying our products, forcing us into a trade deficit, manipulating their own currency and then buying our debt, the Chinese may win the long-term war of globalization.” Paul’s rant goes on with examples of how the Chinese are unscrupulous spies and thieves.

Western Opium destroying Chinese lives

If America and the rest of the Western world are in a trade war with China, the Chinese did not fire the first shot. In the 18th century, the powerful Qianlong Emperor rejected proposed trade and cultural exchanges with the British Empire and said the Qing Empire had no need for goods and services the British could provide.

The Western powers did not like being told “no”, so during the 19th century two Opium Wars were fought with China to force the door to trade and Christianity open—I recall that Japan was forced to trade with the West too, which resulted in the bombing of Pearl Harbor leading to World War II.

In fact, those trade wars started by Western powers with China in the 19th century aren’t over yet and the rules of fair play do not apply to love, business and war.

See The Reasons Why China is Studying Singapore

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Chinese Work Ethic

May 30, 2010

At the turn of the century, Jack London visited China (1904-05) and saw how hard the Chinese worked. He surmised that Westerners, living in ignorant bliss, had no understanding of Asian cultures and were far too confident of their superiority to realize that their days of world power were severely numbered. He urged that Westerners make concerted efforts to meet with Japanese and Chinese to understand each other better as equals. Source: History News Network

Jack London with his wife

In fact, I’ve met highly educated Chinese who came to the US and couldn’t get jobs in their field of study. Did they give up and lay around complaining how unfair life was?  No. They became handy men or worked in construction for far less than what a Latino, illegal immigrant worker earns. These same Chinese, with strong family values, also save money to send their children to college.

Sir Robert Hart, who lived and worked in China (1854 – 1908) and is considered the Godfather of China’s modernization said the same thing Jack London would say decades later. In the 1880s, he predicted that within a century China would be a super power again.

Sir Robert Hart in China

The Chinese work ethic is also reflected in Article 42 of the PRC’s Constitution.

“Citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right as well as the duty to work. Using various channels, the state creates conditions for employment, strengthens labour protection, improves working conditions and, on the basis of expanded production, increases remuneration for work and social benefits. Work is the glorious duty of every able-bodied citizen. All working people in state enterprises and in urban and rural economic collectives should perform their tasks with an attitude consonant with their status as masters of the country. The state promotes socialist labour emulation, and commends and rewards model and advanced workers. The state encourages citizens to take part in voluntary labour. The state provides necessary vocational training to citizens before they are employed.”

Who built the Great Wall of China?
Who built China’s Grand Canal?
Who built the first emperor’s tomb and all those Terra Cotta Warriors?
Who took a country in 1950 that produced 0.005 kilowatts of electricity and built more than a hundred modern cities in less than three decades with plans to build 400 more—something historians say has never happened in the recorded history of humanity?
Whom has the only viable space program left on the earth with plans to go to the moon and beyond?
Who built America’s Western Railroads during the 19th century?

To learn more see All About Balance

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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. 

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1 Comment | America, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, family values, government | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Intel in China

May 28, 2010

When you hear Americans complaining about China stealing jobs, here are a few facts to know.

Chinese consumers buy computers. In fact, there are more Chinese using the Internet than the entire population of the United States. That’s a lot of Internet surfing. Source: Internet World Stats.com

For that reason, Intel’s President and CEO, Paul Otellini said, “China is our fastest-growing major market and we believe it’s critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth to better serve our customers.”

Intel is one of the largest foreign investors in China and is opening a wafer fabrication facility in Dalian, Liaoning Province.  This added investment in China will cost $2.5 billion bringing Intel’s total investment to $4 billion. The last new fabrication plant Intel built was in Ireland in 1992.

Intel now has over 6,000 employees on assembly and test research and developing in 16 cities in Mainland China. Intel also has a facility in Bangalore, India. Source: Intel

In the United States, Intel has over 20 different locations. In Oregon alone, Intel has invested $22 billion and employs 15,500 Americans with an annual payroll of $1.5 billion. Source: Intel

Learn more about Chinese Stereotype Alive and Rotten in America

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Exports and Imports Equals Jobs

May 28, 2010

When rumors say that China is going to sell Euros or cash in on US Treasurys, stock markets tend to panic. Then China denies the rumors as they did recently. “Europe has been and will be one of the major markets for investing China’s exchange reserves,” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange says. Source: 24/7 Wall St

It would not serve China’s interests to hurt Europe or America’s economies since China exports more than 200 billion Euros worth of mainly industrial good to Europe, which means jobs in China. Europe also exports more than 80 billion Euros in goods to China, which translated into European jobs.

Overall, China imported $922 billion  dollars worth of products from the rest of the world last year while exports declined to an estimated 1.19 trillion.

Although exports to the U.S. fell in 2009 by 12.2% to 296.4 billion, China’s imports only went down to 69.6 from 69.7 billion dollars from the prior year so America improved its trade deficit with the PRC by 15.4% in 2009. This means jobs were lost in China but not as many jobs were lost in America from what America sells and exports to China.  Source: China Trade Statistics 2009

See Jobless in America and Angry at China

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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