Danziger’s “The China Price”

December 1, 2010

The Huffington Post published Jeff Danziger’s The China Price (see it here), a political cartoon that appears to be blaming China for America’s problems.

In Danziger’s “The China Price”, Uncle Sam is holding a box that says “Made In China” and there are seven flags on a string leading from the box to a shelf full of boxes that all say “Made in China”.

However, each flag on that string has a different reason that explains what has happened to cause America’s decline.

  1. One comment by Dan1902 said, “It is called Defeating America without having to FIRE a shot!!!”
  2. The second from fpie was more accurate but too long to copy.
  3. The third by johnnymainstreet repeated the common stereotypical complaint about US corporate greed being the fault.

The first flag hanging from the string says, “Loss of US Jobs,” which is true since US jobs have been lost to China.

However, more jobs were lost to Canada and Mexico due to NAFTA, and some jobs went to India and other countries as outsourcing, while eleven million have gone to illegal immigrants working hard for low pay in the US.

Many other jobs were lost as the world rebuilt industries after World War II and started to compete when manufacturing returned to Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and to other European and Asian countries devastated by wars such as Vietnam.

China cannot be responsible for the fifth flag either, which says “US Schools Decline”. 

China has had nothing to do with the fact that many of America’s children have had their self esteem inflated so high since the 1970s that most don’t see the need to study or read. After all, success is guaranteed. Everyone is perfect. Every dream will come true if you can think it.


This video clip contains profanity!

In fact, China did not force 35% of US university graduates to study psychology while less than 5% earned degrees in engineering, technology or the sciences.

If Danziger is making a statement with his political cartoon that all seven of the flags on that string are the fault of American short sightedness, greed and selfishness, he is a genius saying America must stop taking its global position for granted.

Learn about Sinophobia and the Nation With the Soul of a Church

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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

China’s Economic Landscape Taking Flight

November 29, 2010

In June 2010, Al Jazeera reported how Chinese workers demanding improved conditions at Foxconn, a Taiwanese owned company operating in mainland China, brought about changes leading to mandatory workdays off and raises in pay that doubled in October, last month.

One former Foxconn worker says there is a big difference between his generation and their parents, who worked harder for less.

He says the younger generation is never satisfied with the status quo and is always pushing for a better life. That’s why this young man left Foxconn for a better paying job.

Qin Huai Zhou, general manager of Star Interspace Door Co, says the relationships between bosses and workers have changed too.

When you need to keep special and talented staff, you must recognize them with more money and respect.

In fact, that’s what happened at a Honda plant in southern China where the workers staged a strike shutting down car production around the country leading to a 35% pay raise.

Harry Fawcett, an Al Jazeera reporter, says that this success was due to the size of China’s working population, which has peaked leading to a shortage of workers along the coast.

Another factor was politics.

Lee Chang-Hee says, “Ten years ago the government response would have been harsh.”

Now, the government wants to address income distribution because they see if income doesn’t improve for workers, there will be no more sustained economic development in China.

To avoid what happened to Japan, the goal is to transform China’s economy from one that depends on exports to an internal economy driven by a large middle class.

Learn more about China’s Middle Class Expanding

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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

China in Africa – Part 2/2

November 29, 2010

Richard Behar, the American reporter, starts out by answering a question from an e-mail that came in about sweatshop, slave labor in Africa. 

Behar says that African consumers can buy cheap goods—that’s the good news.

The bad news is that most developing countries need light manufacturing industries such as textiles to develop, and China is making that almost impossible for African countries.

Riz Khan turns to Dr. John Afele and mentions something Behar wrote in China Storms Africa that claims what China is doing is a replay of imperial colonialism.

Dr. Afele says he sees this as an economic situation and if it is economic, than Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat, is right that economics is not like war and can be a win-win situation.

This is not a time when Africa has no voice, Afele says. This time the world is watching so I do not think we are going back to an era of colonialism. There are international organizations to help that didn’t exist during colonialism.

Then Khan turns to David Shinn, the former US ambassador to Ethiopia, who is now a professor at George Washington University. The question has to do with countries like America that are reluctant to do business in Africa due to Africa’s negative international image.

Shinn replies that the perception of Africa for American businesses is negative. However, he does not think China is bothered by that image.

Referring to Behar’s claims of colonialism rearing its ugly head, Shinn says this infers political control and that is not part of today’s equation. Colonialism is not happening.

Turning back to Behar, Khan brings up the perception of corruption of businesses in China.

Behar uses Mozambique as an example saying that within five years the best wood will be gone as the trees are cut down. He says the same thing is going on in the Congo with copper. (I ask, How is this corruption?)

Shinn responds by saying the upside (or win-win situation Afele mentioned) is that China offers Africa long term, low interest loans that were only being offered by the West with political strings attached.

China doesn’t make the same demands the West does.  (What no one said is that China was also a victim of colonialism for more than a century starting with the Opium Wars.)

Return to China in Africa – Part 1

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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

China in Africa – Part 1/2

November 28, 2010

Al Jazerra explores topics about China seldom heard in the Western Media. Riz Khan, the host of this program, moderates a panel of global experts discussing China’s role in Africa.

If this is a topic that interests you, I suggest you read Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild for a balance and comparison.

Khan says that between 1998 and 2006, Africa’s exports to China increased 2,126% while exports only increased 139% to the European Union and 402% to the US.

Due to China’s incredible modernization growth rate, China has become dependent on resources from Africa, South America, Australia and Southeast Asia.

Some critics, which is to be expected, complain that China is robbing Africa of its natural resources and ignoring human rights violations and other humanitarian concerns.

However, supporters say that due to this trade with China, economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have grown an average of six percent a year since 2004.

Khan’s program explores if China is exploiting Africa or creating opportunities for economic growth.

Khan’s guests are Richard Behar, an American reporter, who wrote China Storms Africa. He says China is doing both good and bad at this time, and there is no way to predict the outcome. He feels China is copying what the West already did.

From Brussels comes Dr. John Afele, author of Digital Bridges, Developing Countries in the Knowledge Economy. 

Dr. Afele says there is a difference. African governments opened to China. China did not invade Africa as the West did in the 19th and 20th centuries. China was invited in.

From Washington D.C. comes David Shinn, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia, who is now a professor at George Washington University.

Shinn says the US buys more oil from Africa but China buys more minerals and hardwood timber. All of the major players in Africa have the same interests—resource extraction and selling goods to Africans.

Juliana, a caller from Paris, asked, “Why is China being demonized?” She mentions that all Western countries did this. She points out that the differences are that China’s interests are for good because China’s focus is to invest in Africa.

Richard Behar replies that no one is demonizing China here.

Then Behar spends time criticizing China by slipping in the standard complaints from a Westerner’s point of view.

I suggest you learn more about Oil and Death in Africa to discover more on this topic.

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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

Heroin Abuse in China’s South

November 28, 2010

There is a price to live in a “free” world with human rights that extend to every citizen — even hard-core criminals.

Besides violent crime, one of those challenges is illegal drugs.

For example—in the United States, The DEA reports that Mexican drug cartels are making a bigger push to organize their black market activities in the United States, Europe and neighboring Latin American countries. Source: United States Border Narcotics Intelligence

In fact, the US Justice Department says, “The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world.”

Between 1950 and 1976, China had little crime and had eliminated illegal drug use.  The traffickers were executed and addicts either rehabilitated or shot.

That situation has changed.

Since the early 1980s, due to China’s economic boom to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty, some parts of the country are battling social problems, including soaring rates of drug addiction.

One of the worst affected areas is China’s southern province of Yunnan, an entry point for heroin.

Yunnan’s border is easy to cross from the infamous Golden Triangle. In Yunnan, a fix of heroin costs about the same as a US chocolate bar.

To deal with this challenge, Chinese authorities send heroin addicts to a drug rehabilitation center at the provincial capital of Yunnan province, which is where the largest drug rehabilitation center in the world is located.

The heroin addicts spend two years in a strict rehabilitation program to help kick the habit. However, once released, many return to addiction.

Today, China’s government says that there are at last seven hundred thousand heroin users in China.

This invisible downside comes with more freedom and economic success.

To learn more about crime in China, see Crime and the Law – Thirty Years 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 iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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

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