A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – Part 2/2

October 5, 2010

The Al Jazeera commentator started by saying that relations between China and the West are complex not least by the way the West views China’s human rights record.

Among the major issues is the Tibetan struggle for independence, treatment of political dissidents and restrictions on the media and the Internet.

The commentator opened the second half with Andrew Leung in Hong Kong asking him to define the relationship between China and the U.S.

He replied that the relationship is mixed.  On one hand, many countries are awed by China’s economic rise.  He said that China was a reluctant world power because there are so many problems inside China that must be dealt with and that China cannot afford to be globally aggressive.

Then the commentator turns to Ze Xia, the Falun Gong reporter, who wastes no time mentioning that China controls the media and says the New Tang Dynasty TV signal has been cut off and censored in China.

She calls on the West to force China to change.

Note: What Ze Xia doesn’t say is that the Chinese media is part of the central government—the media in China is not independent as in the West, and what does the Falun Gong reporter want the West to do—start a war? Click here to discover more on global censorship.

Again, the commentator cuts the Falun Gong reporter off and turns to Bruce Reynolds at the University of Virginia, who says the worst thing the West could do in China was to apply pressure.  He says that will not play well with the Chinese leadership or the Chinese people, who are very proud and nationalistic.

Reynolds says he is confident that in the next thirty years, many of the problems Ze Xia, (of the Falun Gong) points out will be resolved. He calls for patience.

Andrew Leung concludes the panel with a positive outlook on how much China has changed in the last thirty years.

Discover more facts about the Falun Gong at Kaiwind.com and/or return to A Panel Discussion on China’s Economy – 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

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

Where the Communist Party finds New Recruits

October 4, 2010

“I think it’s worth remembering that China has parties other than the Chinese Communist Party (e.g. the CPWDP), although (of course) this does not make China a ‘multi-party state’ in the sense of the term. But observing how the CCP interacts with these other groupings can be revealing.” Source of comment from: Sino-Gist

My Response, There is also the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF).  I wrote about that at Women’s Rights in China.

Then there is the China Youth League and other representatives from various democratic parties, which must be referring to the CPWDP, and patriots and democrats without party affiliation; (c) representatives of people’s organizations; (d) representatives of the People’s Liberation Army; and (e) representatives of minority ethnic groups with a population of over 1 million each. Source: China.org

Another segment of the population where the Party finds new members, are freshly minted millionaires and billionaires of China’s successful capitalists.


Many of these representatives may not belong to the Communist Party or have voting rights, but they do have a voice. 

Just as most Western corporate business is conducted on a golf course, in China these nonvoting members express themselves at meals and banquets in conversation with voting members.

These non-voting members are sort of like lower management in a corporation who take advantage to express their opinions and suggestions, which may be heeded by a voting member of the party.

Non-party members, who are of a like mind, will be noticed and possibly asked to join the party, which is an invitation few in China would reject since it means joining the ruling Party of more than 70 million.

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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

Understanding the Party that Rules China

October 3, 2010

People tend to distrust and fear that which they do not understand, and the roots of American Sinophobia go deep.

The 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was directed solely against Chinese. Today, the Chinese in America are still often treated as if they are outsiders.

The Washington Post published a piece in February 2010 on “Polls show growing American resentment and fear of China.”

In fact, it doesn’t matter how anyone feels about China. China is here to stay. For more than two millennia, China has demonstrated an ability to burn and rise like the phoenix to be reborn again.

That’s why Richard McGregor’s book, The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers is vital for understanding what is going on in today’s China.

McGregor not only shows how the Party works, but why the Party fears  losing control and helplessly watching China revert back into the pre-revolutionary chaos and anarchy which almost destroyed the nation when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists ruled the mainland.

As an organization with more than seventy million members, the Party has a grip on every aspect of government, from the largest, richest cities to the smallest villages. It also presides over all official religions, the media, the military and large state-owned businesses.

The picture that emerges is of a creative, adaptable, self-aware and resilient social network that is alert to the internal and external dangers it faces and has proven able to respond to challenge with remarkable agility, creativity and effectiveness.

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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.

1 Comment | America, China, Communism, cultural differences, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The China, U.S., Sudanese Triangle of Oil and Death

October 2, 2010

Most of what I hear about China in Sudan from the Western media makes China look bad, because they are supporting Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the ICC (International Criminal Court).

After reading an extensive post about this at China Matters, my opinion changed.

I learned that in 2000, President Clinton was opposed to any kind of rapprochement with Sudan and spared no effort to further isolate the African-Arab country at both regional and international levels.

Then G.W. Bush became president and reversed U.S. policy toward Sudan, an oil-rich country.

China Matters reproduced a 2006 post called “The Twisted Triangle” that had a wealth of detail about the Bush administration’s “forgotten” courtship of Omar al-Bashir.

In short, America was competing with China for access to Sudanese oil and the Chinese won the chess game.

Curious, I turned to Western media sources to see what they were currently saying about China in Sudan.

In an August 2010 Reuters piece, China was portrayed as uncooperative.

Then the Telegraph in the UK says that China’s stake in Sudanese oil has made China Mr. al-Bashir’s only friend among the leading powers, while human rights groups have called for an oil embargo on Khartoum.

Without mentioning what President G .W. Bush’s administration did in Sudan, the Telegraph concludes by saying that America formally banned its companies from investing there and European firms avoid the protests that would accompany any involvement with al-Bashir’s militant Muslim regime.

Did America put that ban in place before or after the Bush administration lost the chess game over Sudanese oil to China?

See China’s Oil Hunger Grows

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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.

4 Comments | America, business, China, Islam, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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