Re: Taiwan "beating" China

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:07:08 -0400, "Ray O'Hara"
<mary.palmucci@xxxxxxx> wrote:

they will reunite, but not until the commies are gone.
the commies are an anachronism. their day has passed, and they aren't even
true commies anymore, they have been morphing towards fascism since the
demise of the gang of four and the passing of the last of those who made
the long march.
education is the bane of totalitarianism. as people learn more and gain more
wealth they begin to want a say.



The problem is that the current communist government in Beijing has
widespread and genuine popularity with the general population, a
popularity that Dubya can only dream of.

Read

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17438997/site/newsweek/

The Sky Isn't Falling in China
The day after the Shanghai stock market fell, we saw again all the
same warnings about the Chinese system and the odds of its collapse.
By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek
March 12, 2007 issue -

For some years economists and analysts have been wondering what it
would take to scare financial markets. Wars, coups, soaring commodity
prices, increased energy costs, unwinding housing markets-nothing
seemed to do it. Last week we got one answer: China. The sharp plunge
in the Shanghai stock market caused jitters around the world. But
while the reaction pointed to the increased importance of China in
global economics, it also highlighted the confusion and
misunderstanding that surround the Middle Kingdom.

When a market has gone up 150 percent since 2006, as Shanghai's had,
one doesn't need to search for grand explanations to recognize that
it's bound to retreat at some point. More important, there is little
linking the Shanghai stock market with the overall Chinese economy. It
simply doesn't play the role that the stock market does in the United
States or Britain. Most Chinese companies raise money through banks,
not equities. Indeed, for the past 10 years, Chinese stocks have gone
down while the economy has boomed. And yet the day after the market
fell, we saw yet again all the same warnings about the hollowness of
the Chinese system, the perils it faces and the imminent possibilities
of its collapse.

It might be time to admit that we really don't understand China. The
country simply does not conform to our most basic beliefs about what
makes nations grow. Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian scholar, has argued
persuasively that clear and strong property rights are the
prerequisite for economic growth. Except that China, the
fastest-growing country in human history, has an extremely unclear and
weak system of property rights. Alan Greenspan has argued that the
rule of law is the linchpin of market economics. Except that China has
a patchy set of laws, unevenly enforced. The Washington Consensus that
the World Bank and the IMF have peddled across the globe claims that
if currencies don't float freely, they will produce huge distortions
in the economy. China has declined that advice and yet prospers. So,
instead of learning from facts and revising theory, we assume that the
facts are wrong, that China is one grand charade.

This paradox is even greater in the political realm. Scholars examine
China's political system-a Leninist party that maintains a total
monopoly on power-and they are sure that it is crumbling. Yet the
regime has defied predictions of its collapse for 25 years. We're sure
that the Chinese people must hate their government, except that the
only polls we have suggest exactly the opposite. Surveys conducted in
the late 1990s by the scholar Jie Chien showed 80 percent support for
the political system. Last year's Pew Survey on Global Attitudes has a
little-noticed question: "Are you satisfied with the state of your
nation?" Less than 30 percent of Americans said they were. China
topped the list, with 81 percent of those surveyed answering "yes."
Perhaps people lie to pollsters in China, but these numbers are
consistent in several polls, and people in China do regularly express
their opposition to corruption, environmental degradation and other
specific policies.

(more)

and

Does Communism Work After All?
By Andreas Lorenz and Wieland Wagner
February 27, 2007
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,465007,00.html

China is securing an ever-bigger share of the world market with the
methods of a planned economy. Competitors and economists alike are
astounded by the country's seemingly unstoppable march to becoming a
global economic superpower. The development has left many wondering:
Does communism work after all?

Boom City Shanghai: President Hu Jintao and his Communist Party are
experiencing explosive success across the country.
Nine men dressed in dark tailored suits meet behind high, Red walls.
Their secret meeting place in downtown Beijing is called Zhongnanhai,
or "Middle and Southern Lake." Once part of the Forbidden City,
Zhongnanhai was a place where emperors, concubines and eunuchs would
spend their days concocting court intrigues. Some of the buildings
from those feudal days are still standing today, joined by functional,
gray and white structures built when the Chinese Communist Party
established its headquarters here.

The nine men -- who constitute the Standing Committee of the Communist
Party's Politburo, the most-powerful political body in the Middle
Kingdom -- meet in the southern section of this refuge. Their discreet
meeting is businesslike. The group's members were not elected by the
people and they are not interested in being observed while governing.
Cameras are banned and there is a conspicuous absence of jovial pats
on the back or ready smiles for the evening news.

None of the members of this sombre squad is known for his charisma.
President Hu Jintao, 64, the head of state and Communist Party leader,
and his eight colleagues are stiff technocrats. Hu, the son of a tea
merchant from Jiangsu Province, holds a degree in hydroelectric
engineering. The others are trained in fields like electrical
engineering, metallurgy or geology.

But the discussions and decisions made here within the ranks of
China's Politburo affect the well-being of 1.3 billion Chinese -- and
increasingly the rest of the world. If the Middle Kingdom were not a
country, but rather a giant company -- let's call it Red China, Inc.
-- then the Politburo would be its all-powerful board of directors.
And if Hu were not a communist official but rather a capitalist
corporate boss, he would find himself inundated with job offers
worldwide. Competitors in the capitalist West can only dream of the
successes he and his fellow communist leaders cum business executives
have achieved.

Hardly a day goes by on which Asia's giant, Red corporation does not
report new and dazzling business figures. And the more helplessly
Western heads of state -- from United States President George W. Bush
to German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- attempt to reform their
traditional market economies, the more enviously the capitalist world
eyes China's frenzied growth, all the while asking itself: Does
communism work after all?

China's speedy ascent to become a global economic superpower is
troubling to many: to the industrialized nations of the West because
they fear for their jobs; to politicians because the global balance of
power is shifting; and, last but not least, to economists because it
is so puzzling to them.

(more)
.

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