Doing Business in China

February 7, 2010

I’ve talked to an American doing business in China who was frustrated with the process while another American like Bob Grant wrote I Like the Chinese People.

 After all, Bill Gates Went to China. It seems many American businessmen are getting along better with the Chinese than the Western media and politicians. When’s the last time you heard something nice about China from the Western media or an American politician?  For some reason, China has become a scapegoat turning the attention of the American people away from the problems we have in the United States.

 In the meantime, General Motors and Ford are doing great in China while they are struggling in the debt ridden United States. The Chinese love American cars. The Chinese also seem to have a passion for McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC and Starbucks.

Starbucks in China

 Wal-Mart is in China too.

 If America wants to get along better with the Chinese government, we should turn businessmen like Bill Gates or Bob Grant into diplomats.

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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. 

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2 Comments | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, economy, politics, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Why China is Studying Singapore – Part 3/3

February 6, 2010

In the 2010, January, National Geographic Magazine, there was a feature about Singapore that said, “the per capital income for its 3.7 million citizens exceeds that of many European countries, the education and health systems rival anything in the West, government officials are largely corruption free, 90 percent of households own their own homes, taxes are relatively low and sidewalks are clean (and safe), and there are no visible homeless people or slums.”

Singapore beach scene

When was the last time you heard the Western media or an American politician criticize Singapore’s government?  Probably never.

There’s a reason for that. Singapore is a strong US ally and an English-speaking city-state.

It makes sense that China should want to model their economic and political system after another country with similar values and a stronger and more stable economy than the United States. The Chinese, like the Singaporeans, save money too. When the world economy collapsed while George W. Bush lived in the White House, China had a few trillion dollars in reserve with no national debt, and the Chinese people work harder and save more money than any other country.

Compare that to the United States and you will know why China’s role model is Singapore—not the United States of America. Now, see what a traveler said about Singapore.

Return to Part 2 of Why China is Studying Singapore

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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, economy, politics, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Why China is Studying Singapore – Part 1/3

February 6, 2010

I have a friend who often says America has the best political system in the world and no other country compares. Then he turns around and criticizes the government when a Democrat is in office.

Let’s look at a few facts. America may be the richest nation on the earth with the most powerful and expensive military, but it is also a deeply debt ridden country with the largest prison population on the planet. Beyond that, there are almost a million street-gang members in our cities. Killings are so numerous that our national media doesn’t report them all. I’ve read that students physically assault an average of five-thousand public school teachers in their classrooms every year. If you want to learn more, read this example or visit Crazy Normal.

And let’s not talk about the drug problems in the US. What is freedom? What happens when we allow so much freedom, that many can’t enjoy it in safety?

Are these reasons enough to explain why China is studying Singapore instead of the United States economic system? When Deng Xiaoping opened China to a market economy, he wasn’t thinking about the United States. I will go into more detail in the next posts for this series.

Go to Part 2 of Why China is Studying Singapore

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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.

2 Comments | American culture, China, economy, politics, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Google Recycled

February 5, 2010

The Western media buzzed about Google being hacked and censored by China. Google threatened to leave China if this didn’t stop.  Obama and Secretary of State Clinton demanded that China fess up.

What’s going on?  It isn’t as if Google is the primary search engine in China. In fact, this claim that they are being hacked by the Chinese may be their way to get out of China without the red face of failure. The truth is that the Chinese haven’t taken to Google like the rest of the world.

After all, “Just like Chinese search engine Baidu trumped Google, online bookseller Dangdang outsmarted Amazon in China with better merchandising skills while Alibaba-owned Chinese auction site Taobao took the lead from eBay ( EBAY – news – people ) by giving sellers a free listing of their goods and charging only for premium accounts.”  source: Alibaba.com News

As I wrote in Honor, Chinese Style, it’s obvious that the Chinese prefer things done the Chinese way and the word is out on the streets in China. The Chinese prefer Baidu over Google.

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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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6 Comments | China, government, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Honor Chinese Style – Part 3

February 5, 2010

In 1935, Lin Yutang wrote, “Face cannot be translated or defined. It is like honor and is not honor. It cannot be purchased with money, and gives a man or a woman a material pride. It is hollow and is what men fight for and what many women die for.

“It is invisible and yet by definition exits by being shown to the public. It exists in the ether and yet can be heard, and sounds eminently respectable and solid. It is amenable, not to reason but to social convention.

“It protracts lawsuits, breaks up family fortunes, causes murders and suicides, and yet it often makes man out of a renegade who has been insulted by his fellow townsmen, and it is prized above all earthy possession.

“It is more powerful than fate and favor, and more respected than the constitution. It often decides a military victory or defeat, and can demolish a whole government ministry. It is that hollow thing which men in China live by.” (Lin Yutang, My Country and My People, Halcyon House, New York, NY, 1938, page 200)

Chinese like Yue Fei and Guan Yu were honorable men and gained much face because of their beliefs and behavior.

When anyone in China reacts to anything, politically or personally, honor plays a big role. It doesn’t matter if one is a member of the Communist Party, a farmer or a factory worker or one of the wealthiest members of the new capitalist elite.

Most Chinese measure what is important in life by a different standard than the rest of the world.

Discover Honor Chinese Style – Part 1

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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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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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