When the Generals Laughed

March 6, 2010

In the Western media, we often hear about America’s leaders and their concerns for the size of China’s military.

Look at these facts and decide why China has a large military. Then you will know why Chinese generals laughed when they heard about the concerns of America’s leaders.

China’s military often has important roles in disasters like the earthquake that struck Southwest China, and the military must deal with violent, internal strife in Tibet and with Islamic extremists in Xinjiang province. It is no secret that there are Cantonese who, after two thousand years, still want to break from Beijing. There has also been unrest in rural China due to the slow pace of lifestyle improvements there.

Soldier carrying injured Chinese girl after major earthquake

America’s total active military equals almost 1% of the population with close to three million men and women in uniform. America has a dozen aircraft carriers, more than fifteen-hundred navy ships, and almost twenty-three thousand military aircraft.

China has less than .25% (that is less than 1% if you missed the decimal) of its population in uniform—a quarter of America’s ratio with about three million troops. China has one aircraft carrier and a navy that is less than half the size of America’s. China’s airforce has about twenty-five hundred aircraft—a ten to one ratio in America’s favor.

Nuclear Weapons—America has 10,000 and China less than 400.

China’s defense budget was about sixty-billion in 2008 compared to more than five-hundred billion spent in the United States. America is spending closer to seven hundred billion this year while China is cutting defense spending due to the world’s economic crises. The Chinese plan to put the money cut from the defense budget into the private sector. Do you think something like that will ever happen in the United States?

Source: www.Globalfirepower.com

Discover Basic Health Care in China

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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.

His latest novel, Running with the Enemy, was awarded an honorable mention in general fiction at the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival.

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4 Comments | America, China, government, media, military spending, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Smoking Gun

March 5, 2010

The smoking gun I’m writing about in this post is complements of American tobacco companies earning huge profits in China. Isn’t the market-economy great?

Chinese child smoking

“Antismoking advocates often complain about smoking levels in Canada but our problems pale beside those of China, where it is estimated that 300 million people already smoke and more are being encouraged to do so by Western advertising. To its credit, the Chinese government is taking steps to discourage smoking as it prepares to host the 10th World Conference on Tobacco and Health in 1997. By 2025, smoking-related disease is expected to kill 2 million Chinese a year.” Source: CMAJ-JAMC

Big Tobacco in China

Yes, smoking is a problem in China. When we go out to eat, there will usually be people smoking in restaurants.  In cities, we use the subways, and I haven’t seen or smelled anyone smoking there.

When we travel in China, we often stay in a Jinjiang Inn, a chain of reasonably priced, modern, clean hotels that serve a complimentary breakfast. There are hundreds of Jinjiang inns in most if not all of China’s major cities. This chain caters primarily to the Chinese middle class or Asian business people.  Most foreign tourists stay in more expensive, upscale hotels.  We prefer the Jinjiang Inn.

However, even when we request a smoke-free room or floor, we often will smell drifting cigarette smoke coming from other rooms.

Bob Grant talks about the Chinese smoking in his guest post.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

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2 Comments | America, business, China, health care, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

No Political Machine

March 5, 2010

This post is a response to a politically conservative American, who also sounds like a Christian fundamentalist. He made an ignorant comment about China in an on-line discussion at LinkedIn.  He said that China’s government was a corrupt, political machine.

My response follows.

You do not know what you are talking about when it comes to China. Prove that the central government in China is a corrupt, political machine. Throwing out blanket statements that stereotype serves no purpose but to rile ignorant people (and America has plenty of those) who are too lazy to learn.

China's central government in debate

The government in China has seventy million voting members in one political party, and it is far from a machine.  Take all of America’s political factions and shove them in one political party and you do not have a machine—what you have are different points of view that often do not agree. Chinese cities and provinces are controlled by different political factions just like the blue and red political map that we see on TV/Internet during national elections in the United States. If the Maoists return to power, God help the capitalists in China like GM, Ford, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart, etc.

Corruption exists in China just as it does in America, but there are also honest, hard working, moral people in China’s government. But the market economy coupled with good old-fashioned capitalist greed is difficult to control. Does America’s government control greed in America?

Contrary to popular, public “opinion” in America, the Chinese central government does not control every aspect of life in China. The Chinese people are very independent and when the government isn’t watching, most people do what they want to do in their personal lives and in business even if what they are doing is against the law.

Most of the power in China is decentralized as it has been for millennia.  The provinces and major cities do what they want even when the central government in Beijing wants something different.

If you want to understand the role of China’s government start by reading this piece:  China shifts gears with smaller defense increase. And remember, anything published in the Western media may not get the story right but there is something to learn here. China’s central government must respond to the needs of most people—not to individuals but to families and communities. If unrest spreads, the government could fall.

There’s an old Western saying, “The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.” 

If a national-political machine exists, it is the American Republican Party. Where is my evidence for making such a bold claim?  Since President Obama moved into the White House, the Republican Party has voted as if they were one person directed by one brain.

It may also help to read Deng Xiaoping’s 20/20 Vision  to understand what happened after Mao died.

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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, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Not All Factories in China are Sweat Shops

March 5, 2010

Originally Published at Speak Without Interruption on February 15, 2010 by Bob Grant — publisher/editor for Speak Without Interruption. Posted on iLook China, 3/5/10 at 08:00

As I write about my personal experiences in China, I again want to note that they are strictly that—my “personal” experiences.  I am certain there are people, who have visited China who could contradict everything that I have, or will write.  The products I imported perhaps did not lend themselves to the typical “Sweat Shop” stereotype in terms of the factories that produced them.

However, I never saw or visited any factory that, in my mind, would fit that definition.

If the factories were not what I would call “modern”—they were certainly clean.  The employees (factory workers) wore uniforms at most places I visited.  They seemed proficient in their work and the products produced, and for the most part, were without quality problems—certainly no different from products produced in other countries.

There are more photos at Speak Without Interruption

Most of the factories tended to be in Industrial Parks that were quite large.  Usually, the factories were a “small city” into themselves.  There was housing provided for the employees on the factory grounds along with areas for recreation.  I don’t suppose there was another way of doing it, but I saw a lot of laundry hanging from outside the housing units plus commercial apartments buildings I saw throughout China.

Most factories had certifications that were either the same or similar to those held by US factories.  I saw elaborate R&D sections in most of the factories I visited.  The office space was usually as modern and pleasant as any I had visited in the US.

A ritual that I truly enjoyed was at every meeting when hot tea was served. Sometimes the owner or general manager had tea to make in their office and other times it was brought in.  However, I can’t recall a meeting where tea was not offered.

Being a non-smoker, another ritual I did not enjoy was in almost every meeting I attending most of the parties present smoked.  I heard a figure once that 85% of Chinese men smoked. I can attest that this is probably a good estimate.  Once inside the office or meeting room, the smoke became quite thick and uncomfortable for me; however, I was their guest and felt I could put up with the discomfort in the course of conducting my business affairs.

I have fond memories of my factory visits and discussions. I think the fact that I came to China, and met with the factory personnel aided my business immensely versus doing business in name only.

If you enjoy this piece by Bob Grant, you may want to read “A Contradiction of Times” at http://wp.me/pN4pY-bT

 

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

Printing Books in China

March 4, 2010

I read a post about printing books in China at Chicken Scratchings, and this was my response.

If American’s stopped buying products made in China, Americans at home would lose jobs.  Since Wal-Mart has more than ninety percent of their products manufactured in China, Wal-Mart might go out of business or shrink (which might be a good thing).  But many low wage people that work for Wal-Mart in the United States would be unemployed like American autoworkers.

Most Chinese products are manufactured for American companies.  Some of Apple’s products are manufactured outside the country like iPods in China. Try to buy a car, any car, that’s 100% manufactured in the United States.  Does it matter where the jobs go?  They are still gone. People in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, etc. are manufacturing goods that are sold in the United States. China isn’t the only country that does this.  Yet China seems to get all the blame.

Many products may be built in other countries but an American puts them on the shelf, sells them and gets paid for it.

To understand the situation better, I recommend reading China’s Cheap Price Structure at  http://wp.me/pN4pY-2R
and/or Doing buisiness in China at  http://wp.me/pN4pY-2Y

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

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