China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 2 of 9)

July 1, 2010

In 1978, Deng was elected leader of the Communist Party beating the Maoists.  His goal was to have China’s economy catch up with the West within 20 years. “In this new age we will focus our efforts on modernizing industry, agriculture, technology and national defense to transform the country by the end of the century in a Chinese way.”

The first challenge was to grow food for China’s starving peasants. During Mao’s failed programs, millions had died. At the end of 1979, peasants in Anhui had started a private farming system. In one year, food production had increased three fold.

Deng was happy to support whatever worked, but local party bosses resisted change after 30 years of Maoism. There was a saying, “We’d rather have the weeds of socialism than the fruits of capitalism.”

Deng surprised the Maoists by giving his blessing to the farmers of Anhui, and by 1981, Anhui was feeding itself. They said, “We’ve been liberated. It’s not like in the past when peasants were rounded up like an army.”

The next step was to modernize China’s industry and that meant China had to work with the United States. Deng also wanted and ally because of threats from the Soviet Union.

Return to China’s Capitalist Revolution Part 1 or go to Part 3

_________________________

 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.

1 Comment | America, China, Chinese history, Communism, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 1 of 9)

June 30, 2010

When Chairman Mao died in 1976, he left China in chaos due to the Cultural Revolution. Under Mao, who led the revolution and built the People’s Republic, millions had starved and died (due to poor decisions, droughts, floods, crop losses and a complete embargo by the United States). Deng Xiaoping, who overturned Maoism and taught the Chinese to love capitalism, succeeded him but not without a struggle.

Today, China has transformed the lives of many of its citizens and is challenging the world.  This BBC series is the story of how Communist China learned to love capitalism.  It is also the story of Deng Xiaoping—a survivor often punished by Mao, who refused to quit.

Unfortunately, for all the success Deng had in transforming China into a modern nation, his reputation was stained by what happened during the Tiananmen Square incident. During the demonstrations, Deng, who had been a military man most of his life, was faced with a choice between his modernizing instincts and his commitment to national stability to the party he had served for seventy years since 16.

By bringing wealth and stability to China, Deng defied those who said capitalism could not succeed without Western style politics.  He often said, “Our system has its advantages. We can make decisions quickly.”

If you enjoyed this, see The Roots of Madness or go to Part 2 of China’s Capitalist Revolution.

_________________________

 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.

1 Comment | China, Chinese history, Communism, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Boogeyman Books and Fear Sells

June 30, 2010

Out of curiosity, I crawled Amazon looking for books bashing China. The first one was Americas Coming War with China, published in 2006.

Martin Sieff, the National Security Correspondent for UPI had this to say, “America’s Coming War with China is a thoughtful, even-toned, deeply disturbing book. Ted Galen Carpenter has long been one of the wisest, most far-seeing foreign policy voices in Washington. His quiet, careful documentation of an on-rushing, potentially catastrophic confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan, which can still be avoided, but may not be, is far more troubling than the hysterical claims from other sources that brand China as an inevitable, mortal enemy of the United States. This is clearly one of the most important books on U.S. foreign policy in years. It is essential reading for everyone who cares about the peace of the world.”

Now, a dose of reality. China has more troops in uniform but look at the weapons.

America’s military expenditures for 2009 were almost 700 billion (4.3% of GDP) and China spent less than 100 billion (2.0% of GDP).

Not counting Afghanistan and Iraq, there are about 100,000 US troops in Asia, 40,000 in South Korea, and more bases in countries that ring China like Japan. Source: Global Research

The US has 11 aircraft carriers and 1,559 navy ships
China has 1 aircraft carrier with 760 navy ships

China has about 240 nuclear warheads
The US has more than 5,000 active with another 4,500 retired

The US has 18,000 military aircraft
China has 1,900. Source: Global Firepower

Here are a few other titles to help stay awake and afraid in the dark.

  • Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States, 2006
  • The Coming Conflict with China, 1998
  • Red Dragon Rising, 2002
  • Hegemon, China’s Plan to Dominate Asia and the World, 2000

See When the Generals Laughed

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse,
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. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | America, China, military spending, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Making China the Goat Again

June 29, 2010

China’s currency policies continue to ruffle feathers.  Robert E. Scott writes in the Huffington Post that US lawmakers must force China to raise the value of the yuan by 40% so jobs will materialize in America.  He claims that China is responsible for 1 million displaced jobs and must be punished economically with high tariffs if they don’t comply.

What he doesn’t mention are the jobs lost to the subprime mortgage crises, which almost sunk GM and Chrysler along with plummeting real estate prices, a storm of bankruptcies and endless foreclosures—not counting the trillions added to the national debt to bail out banks. 

He doesn’t mention that more than 10 million US jobs go to illegal immigrants who flood across America’s southern border to work for low wages.  He doesn’t mention NAFTA, which took another three million US jobs to Mexico and Canada.

He also doesn’t mention the 20 to 40 million Chinese who lost their jobs and tens of thousands of Chinese factories that closed due to the same subprime mortgage crises that was caused by US Wall Street banking greed and lax government oversight when G. W. Bush was president.

My question is, “Mr. Scott, why are you making China the lone goat for America’s debt crises and job losses?” 

Why not mention all the other low wage countries that manufacture products sold in the US—the list is long. I bought something made in Haiti recently, and it wasn’t art. Does that mean someone in Haiti took a job from someone in the US?

Why not ask Americans to stop buying iPods, iPads, Macintosh, Dell, and HP since most of these products are assembled or manufactured in China or other low wage countries.

Why not ask Americans to stop buying from the likes of Wal-Mart or mention how many Americans have jobs because of high-end American products that Chinese consumers buy.

See A Stable Basket of Cash

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse,
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. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

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

How US Fanatics Lose Jobs to China

June 27, 2010

I read The dragon’s DNA in The Economist last night before sleep, and after waking up, I read a piece in the May Smithsonian about how one born-again man used a minority Christian fundamentalist movement to bring about Prohibition.  If the nation’s voters had been given a choice at the polls, Prohibition would have failed.

Because I read the two pieces close together, I made a connection. The Economist piece is  about a company in China, BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute) and is about China soon dominating DNA research. BGI is about to have more DNA-sequencing capacity than the United States possibly making China the leader in this field.

Meanwhile, in the US, research in genetics is hampered by minority groups similar to the one the Smithsonian talks about in The Man Who Turned Off The Taps. Wayne B. Wheeler, who’s responsible for bringing about prohibition touched every American life, and he did this by using political blackmail—something organized, born-again Christians and the Tea Bag people are doing today.

It is obvious that political minority dictatorships in the US send jobs to China. Instead of China, the US could be the leader in genetic research. Allowing minorities to use political blackmail to achieve political and religious agendas is wrong.  No wonder the Chinese have kicked religions out of China every few centuries and killed those who didn’t leave fast enough.

See Jobless in America and Angry at China

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse,
Award winning author of Hart’s concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | America, business, China, Christianity, cults, Islam, politics, religion, science | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »