ABC News reported, “Some 98 percent of the clothing purchased in the United States is imported from abroad. Just two percent of clothing bought in this country is manufactured on U.S. soil.”
Plunkett Research.com says, “China’s textile and clothing exports soared from $16.89 billion in 1990 to $206.74 billion in 2010 (China doesn’t sell products only to the United States—it sells to the world). According to the World Trade Organization, India is a distant second in this category, at $24.12 billion in 2010 (up from $4.71 billion in 1990). Other nations in the top ten for global apparel and textiles exports in 2010 included Turkey ($21.72 billion), Bangladesh ($16.92 billion), the United States ($16.96 billion), Vietnam ($13.50 billion), the Republic of Korea ($12.58 billion), Pakistan ($11.78 billion) and Indonesia ($10.97 billion).
Note: In 2011, China exported to the world US$1.897 trillion and imported US$1.664 trillion…
Recently US politicians discovered that the uniforms of the U.S. Olympic team’s opening ceremony were made in China and protested publicly (after all, it is an election year and surveys show that 44% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of China). Source: Politico.com
“I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said when asked by ABC News today, “If they have to wear nothing but a symbol that says USA on it, painted by hand, that is what they should wear.” Source: ABC News
An American Company, Ralph Lauren Inc, provided those uniforms for the US Olympic team. USA Today, reported Ralph Lauren’s response to Motor-Mouth Harry Reid.
Ralph Lauren’s corporate headquarters is in New York City. However, its products are sold worldwide and they are made…
In 1977, a discovery was made in China—a complete set of chime bells were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi, who lived during the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC). These chimes were older than the Qin Dynasty’s famous Terra Cotta warriors (221 to 206 B.C.) were.
When the chimes were discovered in Hubei Province (located in Central China), a plot of land was being leveled to build a factory. The Red Army officer in charge of the work had an interest in archeology.
The officer discovered that the workers were selling the ancient bronze and iron artifacts they were digging up. He convinced local authorities there might be an ancient tomb buried below the site.
When the tomb was unearthed, a set of chime bells was found. These musical instruments were an important part of ritual and court music going back to ancient times. An American professor in New York City even called these chimes the eighth wonder of the ancient world.
The sixty-five chime bells weighed about 5 tons.
No other set of chimes like this had been discovered in China before and this set was in excellent condition.
A project was launched in 1979 to duplicate four sets of these chimes. More than a 100 scientists and technicians were recruited. In 1998, twenty years after the discovery, the project was completed. One of the sets was sent to Taiwan as a gift.
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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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An interesting interview with Brittany Hite about how she went to China and eventually landed a job with the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. If you are planning on a career in journalism click on the link then after you reach Hite’s Blog click on the link to the interview.
I recommend it if you plan to have a career in journalism and are not there yet.
This is one of those learning moments that cannot be taught in a classroom.
In the interview Hite says, “Journalism is one of those subjects that just can’t be taught in the classroom — the only way to learn is to get out there and start doing it.”
Global Issues.org reported on War, Propaganda and the Media: “When it comes to propaganda for purposes of war, for example, professional public relations firms can often be involved to help sell a war… Media management may also be used to promote certain political policies and ideologies. Where this is problematic for the citizenry is when media reports on various issues to not attribute their sources properly.”
For example, to sell the Gulf War in Iraq in 1991, John Rendon, the founder of a Washington PR firm, told the cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1996, “I am a politician, and a person who uses communication to meet public policy or corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior and a perception manager…”
In varied ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover, and deception, and psyops [psychological operations].
“In March 2005”, Global Issues said, “the New York Times revealed that there has been a large amount of fake and prepackaged news created by US government departments, such as the Pentagon, the State Department and others, and disseminated through the mainstream media.”
In addition, smear tactics often used to discredit, stain or destroy the reputation of someone are increasing in sophistication. With the increasing popularity of the Internet, and search engines such as Google, smearing is taking on additional forms and techniques.
In fact, negative campaigning through the media in America was launched by two lifelong friends, John Adams (second US president–1797-1801) and Thomas Jefferson (third US president–1801-1809), when they ran against each other for the office of President of the United States.
CNN.com says, “Things got ugly fast. Jefferson’s camp accused President Adams of having a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
“In return, Adams’ men called Vice President Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.
“As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.
“But the key difference between the two politicians was that Jefferson hired a hatchet man named James Callendar to do his smearing for him. Adams, on the other hand, considered himself above such tactics.”
Jefferson’s tactics won him the White House but his hatchet man, Callendar, went to prison for slandering John Adams.
Fast forward to December/January 2005, and a piece in the American Journalism Review, which said this of Dirty Politics, “These political campaigns are corroding our electoral process. Who wants to participate in character assassination, Orwellian “doublethink,” dreamland oratory, and outright lies and inflated claims?… The news outlets that used to educate voters are no longer independent (and presumably neutral) sources of impartial information.”
I close this series of posts with the following questions—comparing the media in China and in America, how much of a difference is there in how the people get their news? Either way, can you trust what you read and hear? Is there a difference between a politician, a government official or corporate employee?
In China, the government owns the media and sensitive news is censored. In the US, politicians and the government-manipulate news fed to the media, which in turn manipulates the news to support the political beliefs of the corporate bosses that control the corporations that own the media.
In both countries, the Internet Blogosphere is a free-wheeling madhouse of opinions and news, which may be correct but there is no guarantee. In the end, American and Chinese citizens will believe whatever they want no matter what they read or hear from the media/government.
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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