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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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Keeping the Rare Earths in China

October 1, 2010

At one time, it must have seemed like a good idea to allow China to process 90% of the earth’s supply for rare earth oxides/metals.

After all, rare earths are dangerous and costly to extract and the extraction methods used in China are highly toxic. The Economist reports that there have been horror stories about poisoned water supplies.

The thinking around the world must have been, “Better that China wrecks its environment than us.”


The Other Side of the Story

These rare earth-based metals are important in manufacturing sophisticated products such as flat-screen monitors, hybrid and electric-car batteries, wind turbines, aerospace alloys and high-tech weapons, which the U.S. needs to fight wars.

Then China became angry when Japan arrested a Chinese fishing boat captain whose trawler collided with a Japanese patrol boat in contested waters.

What China did to force the Japanese to do what China wanted caused the rest of the world to sit up.

China shut off the supply of rare earths to Japan.

A report from Reuters by Julie Gordon says this caused companies that depend on rare earths to struggle to secure a supply. It also woke up the rest of the world—a lesson learned that you don’t keep all the eggs in a basket that you don’t own.

See Hitting Endless Home Runs

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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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

David – (Discovering that The World is a Global Market)

September 30, 2010

Guest post by Bob Grant
First published at Speak Without Interruption on September 22, 2010. Republished here with permission.

 The world is a global market – those businesses that don’t believe this, or embrace it, will go by the wayside.

In 2002, I was an independent manufacturer’s rep and one of my customers said that I should look at branching out – representing products “outside” of the U.S.

I thought this was good advice, so I first started looking in Europe.  For many reasons – after trying many companies and products – I decided that Europe was not for me. 

I then looked and visited Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. 

I settled on China because I felt that was a country that could best provide me with the products I needed to succeed. 

Once I settled on a product category, I then knew that I needed one key person inside China to make it all come together and become successful. 

It took me a year to find that person and his name is David.  Without David, I would not be where I am today and I am forever indebted to this young man.

Bob Grant with David’s family in China.

David and I had some very productive years together. 

Then like most things that are successful – there was a down turn.  This was due to the world economy and actions taken by both the Chinese and U.S. Governments. 

Through no fault of our own our business died. However, David has stuck with me and I with him.  We are now working on new projects that we both hope – and feel – will get us back some of the volume we have had in the past.

I never had a son and David became that son to me.  He and his family have also adopted me as part of their own. 

It saddens me when I read statements about China and its people that just are not true.  I can only testify to my own experiences and connections inside China but I would not trade the relationships I have made for anything. 

David and his family are a key part of my life and forever will be – regardless of what the governments of our respective countries might say and do.

See more of Bob Grant’s guest posts – start with Not All Factories in China are Sweat Shops

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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

Different Results for Different Propaganda Campaigns

September 20, 2010

The concept for this post came from an exchange of ideas with A Modern Lei Feng.

On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Then in March of that year, President Kennedy signed an executive order that authorized the Peace Corp Act, which resulted in some controversy. (A Peace Corps History)

If history is any sign, many of the laws passed after Kennedy’s premature death did the opposite. Instead of Americans helping the country, the country ended up helping Americans.

LBJ’s Great Society program to aid urban renewal and a wide-scale fight against poverty turned millions into wards of the government and added billions to America’s current deficit. (two views of LBJ’s programs may be found at Free Republic.com and a New York Times Opinion Piece)

Then in 1963, a public relations campaign – similar to what Kennedy called for in his 1961 speech – was launched in China.

It was called the “Learn from Comrade Lei Feng” campaign.

Lei became the symbol of nationwide propaganda; the youth of the country were encouraged to follow his example. Source: Wikipedia.org

In essence, the campaign to learn from Lei Feng was to read Chairman Mao’s books, obey Chairman Mao’s words, and be Chairman Mao’s good soldier.

Maybe Mao borrowed the idea from Kennedy.

See China’s Great Leap Forward

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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

Business is a Global War

September 18, 2010

Like war, running a successful business is a challenge. To win, you cannot be merciful and give your competition the edge in price or quality.

If you read or listen to the media or Blogosphere in the U.S., it sounds as if China is the only country that is unfair in business.

However, there’s much that goes on most Westerners never hear or admit.

For example, the U.S. might be China’s biggest customer but that only represents about 18% of what China sells to the world.

In fact, Suite 101 listed a decline for Chinese 2009 global exports, which was estimated to be $1.19 trillion (in U.S. Dollars), and China imported $922 billion worth of products from other countries, down 18.5% from 2008.

Matthew Knight for CNN reported that Business is war, learn from the battlefield….

It seems that a few U.S. businesses may be listening and learning – at least the survivors, who are too busy counting profits.

According to the China Law Blog, several U.S. companies that manufacture in the U.S. and export to China dropped prices as high as 70% when a Chinese company started to compete by selling similar products.

When that happened, the Chinese companies had trouble competing because the prices of the U.S. equipment were dropped well below the prices set by domestic manufacturers in China.

After all, isn’t all fair in love, war and business and to the victor the spoils.

When U.S. once manufactured and sold more than 90% of U.S. cars globally, we didn’t hear GM, Ford or Chrysler complaining about the competition because they were the winners – now some Americans complain. 

Isn’t that the same as being a bad sport?

“It is a well-known fact that 80% of small businesses fail each year in the United States…. One key reason is that many people…have no idea what they’re getting into”. Source: Googobits.com

See Doing Business in 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 this Blog, 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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