An Inconvenient Truth

As you may have heard by now, in 2007, China is set to surpass the US in the emission of greenhouse gases.  This has many implications for the concept of environmentalism, and for the geopolitical landscape.

China takes 4.3 times as much energy as the US to produce each dollar of GDP.  Thus, China, with an economy less than a fourth the size of the US, already emits more.  It is true that China's per capita emissions are much lower than the US due to China's much greater population.  However, the US is not the highest in per capita emissions either.  Small nations like Canada and Norway top that list. 

Now consider the implications of this for the near future.  By 2012, China's emissions will be a clear 20% higher than the US, which is a delta too large to ignore.  The environmental movement has some people (like Thomas Friedman) who genuinely care about reducing pollution.  However, a large subset are merely anti-US, anti-capitalism radicals who seek to mask their agenda within the altruism of environmental concerns.  A beloved non-Western, undemocratic nation being a bigger polluter than the US is simply too inconvenient of a reality for their agenda.  This will split the environmental group into two opposing factions - those who truly seek to curb emissions worldwide, and those who are merely driven by anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism.  This civil war will be interesting, to say the least, and the purging of the phonies could just be the best thing to happen to the environmental movement, making it palatable enough for greater participation from mainstream people. 

Furthermore, this is an example of point 10) in my essay on Why the US Will Still be the Only Superpower in 2030.  China is not prepared for the burdens of being the primary recipient for blame on a major global issue.  As the heat on the US reduces at China's expense, China will find that the upper rungs on the ladder to superpowerdom bring the attachment of heavy weights that make each subsequent rung increasingly difficult to scale.  Getting to the top is just not as easy as it may seem, as China will continue to discover.

Comments

[frankwolftown]

Holy Blog Update Batman! THis site just updated two days in a row. Careful man you might start getting dangerous or noticed. ;-)

[jeffolie]

You can trust the communists and leftists to blame the smog reaching the US from China on the US. China is not green, it is RED.

[Dave]

Very interesting post. This is a great blog!

I'm in the "fast development" camp. Go to a third-world nation and everyone's driving a car that emits blue smoke out the tailpipe. Go to a wealthy nation and people can afford more expensive, better-engineered cars that produce very little emmissions. Same goes for industry - in wealthy nations a power plant can afford to put scrubbers on their smokestacks, factories can purchase more efficient machinery, utilities can buy wind turbines, homebuilders can build more energy-efficient houses, etc. When people enjoy higher living standards they want a cleaner enviromnent to go with it. Wealth creates a desire for cleanliness.

The quicker a nation can get through it's "dirty developing" stage the better. This necessitates economic policies that put the nation on a fast track for GDP growth, and one of the most important ingredients for growth is a laissez-faire approach to commerce. The irony is that many of the environmental/leftist policies which curb a free market creates a slow-growth (or even in the extreme cases a stagnant) economy that takes longer to get through it's "dirty" stage.

[Saul Wall]

The Chinese people have also suffered from the environmental policy of the Communist party. I understand that attempts to stop the expansion of the Gobi desert have been so concentrated on reclaiming it as farm land that the more achievable goal of preventing and reversing desertification has suffered. It is easy to fail when no one can hold you accountable. As a result, some cities spend large amounts of money dealing with sandstorms. And that is without dealing with the respiratory problems brought about by the enlightened pollution standards of a state controlled society. In the evil capitalist West people panic if an industry in the middle of nowhere releases some water vapor while in a workers paradise you can burn God knows what in the middle of a city.

[GK]

Dave,

Absolutely. Thus the goal of environmentalism should be technology, not regulation. Technology to create clean solutions for the 'dirty phase' of a country's development.

India might never have a dirty phase at all, however, as they appear to be turning into an economy of agriculture and service, with only a small manfacturing sector (miniscule compared to China).

[jeffolie]

I think the "dirty phase" is something you just made up.

Without regulations to control pollution, lawlessness run amok by manufacturing and agriculture. I refuse to let China and India off the hook into irresponsible behavior. Damn them, they are corrupt and wrong headed.

The suffering populations have little or no redress for the unforgiveable harm being allowed. The governments are well aware of the physical injuries happening to the people and environments.

Economically, they have an unfair competitive advantage by not having to invest in pollution abatement. China equates with slavery and pollution. I favor tariffs against this immoral behavior and economics.

[Harsh V]

The West has been the primary contributor to environment damage over the last 150 years. To expect China to radically cut emmisions in their growth period is absurd, unhistorical, immoral and un-capitalistic. A better, rational solution would be investing in new technologies in the West and then offering chips in the form of trade incentives along with free emission cutting R&D to China, India. It is this or dont try to solve the problem of climate change.

jeffolie,

"The suffering populations have little or no redress for the unforgiveable harm being allowed."

Stop the 'change the world', irrational exuberance. For an entire sector of the economy to take off and be a source of employment, wealth creation like it has been in China the environment has to be very pro-business. It is because India has all kinds of labor laws that it is not able to drum up that much manufacturing business*. Anyways, let other nations make their own policy. They think they are not harming self interest as they are on top of the risk-reward paradigm. Plus I dont know about you but given a choice to be a poor Indian farmer about to kill myself because of slightly lower food prices or a Chinese factory worker earning very little but enough to feed his family and ensure his child has some sort of education, I would chose the latter.

* Indian manufacturing appears to be on the rise off late. It clocked double digit growth in the last year but is still only a fraction of the services sector.

[Mark Vane]

Hi, Added a new value add to my blog this weekend - a news widget from www.widgetmate.com. I always wanted to show latest news for my keywords in my sidebar. It was very easy with this widget. Just a small copy paste and it was done. Great indeed.

[jeffolie]

"To expect China to radically cut emmisions in their growth period is absurd, unhistorical, immoral and un-capitalistic."

China is immoral. Slavery and pollution abounds. Humans and the environment must not be made to suffer to gain an economic advantage.

China should not be allowed to knowingly injure. The west does not allow child labor because we recognize the suffering is inhumane. China is inhumane. Capitalism needs boundaries and communism needs to be gone from the face of the earth. Historically the Bill of Rights prevents government from abusing the individual. In RED China the individual is abused by slavery. Where is the right to promote the general welfare of the Chineese population? - no where in China.

No rational person can excuse the abuse heaped on the Chineese by reasoning that anything goes during a "grow period". China is horrible.

No one should be an apologist for slave labor and pollution. China be damned.

[jeffolie]

made in China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CzbT1hGwmM

[Harsh V]

"China is immoral. Slavery and pollution abounds. Humans and the environment must not be made to suffer to gain an economic advantage."

China should not be allowed to knowingly injure. The west does not allow child labor because we recognize the suffering is inhumane. China is inhumane. Capitalism needs boundaries and communism needs to be gone from the face of the earth. Historically the Bill of Rights prevents government from abusing the individual. In RED China the individual is abused by slavery. Where is the right to promote the general welfare of the Chineese population? - no where in China.

No rational person can excuse the abuse heaped on the Chineese by reasoning that anything goes during a "grow period". China is horrible.

No one should be an apologist for slave labor and pollution. China be damned."

Take a chill man. Capital has found its cheap labor, now let the two combine to create prosperity for hundreds of millions of people, not to mention the American consumer who saves more so that he/she may finance the next Microsoft. Glorious capitalism.

And if you are that worried about the lives of these goddam well-off Chinese workers go to an Indian village and observe the abject poverty they live under. I am not even kidding you those guys will give a hand and a leg to get one of those Wal Mart jobs. Jesus christ, there are Indian farmers who are killing themselves by the dozen because they are not able to pay off debts due to low crop prices. If you really want to help the third world support the removal of farm subsidies in the West and move outta the way of the Capitalist gravy train.

[GK]

I'll agree with Harsh on this one. We, as Americans, cannot simply be in favor of free markets only when it suits us. That is indeed UnAmerican. That is why I slam those who demonize 'outsourcing'.

We must support the free market throughout. I never liked US farm subsidies, as it punishes US consumers as well as poor farmers worldwide, only to benefit Iowa farmers so they vote for the pork-giving candidate in the Iowa primaries.

Thus, US consumers and Indian farmers both suffer.

[jeffolie]

The Chineese concept of capitalism is corrupt and communist. There is no level playing field when the RED Chineese keep bankrupt state enterprises running full speed.

The BIS said China may have repeated the disastrous errors made by Japan in the 1980s when Tokyo let rip with excess liquidity. "The Chinese economy seems to be demonstrating very similar, disquieting symptoms," it said, citing ballooning credit, an asset boom and "massive investments" in heavy industry.

Some 40 per cent of China's state-owned enterprises are losing money, exposing the banking system to likely stress in a downturn.

It said China's growth was "unstable, unbalanced, unco-ordinated and unsustainable" - borrowing a line from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/25/1182623823367.html

[Harsh V]

"I'll agree with Harsh on this one. We, as Americans, cannot simply be in favor of free markets only when it suits us. That is indeed UnAmerican. That is why I slam those who demonize 'outsourcing'."

But thats the thing outsourcing helps both. It has downward pressure on inflation which is good for the stock market. It has upward pressure on profit margins which is good for employment, investment. Its just great. But I think I am preaching to the choir with you.

"We must support the free market throughout. I never liked US farm subsidies, as it punishes US consumers as well as poor farmers worldwide, only to benefit Iowa farmers so they vote for the pork-giving candidate in the Iowa primaries.

Thus, US consumers and Indian farmers both suffer."

Something that should become more apparent with the rapid inflation in food prices over the last year.

"The Chineese concept of capitalism is corrupt and communist. There is no level playing field when the RED Chineese keep bankrupt state enterprises running full speed.

The BIS said China may have repeated the disastrous errors made by Japan in the 1980s when Tokyo let rip with excess liquidity. "The Chinese economy seems to be demonstrating very similar, disquieting symptoms," it said, citing ballooning credit, an asset boom and "massive investments" in heavy industry.

Some 40 per cent of China's state-owned enterprises are losing money, exposing the banking system to likely stress in a downturn.

It said China's growth was "unstable, unbalanced, unco-ordinated and unsustainable" - borrowing a line from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao."

I take all those points. Chinese growth is too centrally planned and yes corrupt when it comes to those bloated state held enterprises. Thats not good for homegrown entrepreneurship/innovation, which ofcourse engineers awesome long term America style prosperity(mind you there are dozens of Chinese cos outside state managment listed on US exchanges delivering consistent returns to US investors). But that has nothing to do with the fact that over the last decade China has been the manufacturing hub of the world. Even on things like ICs, PCB fabrication the trend has been if you dont move to China, India your margins and your company die. These are facts on the ground buddy. Now noone can predict the future and yes there are structural problems with the Chinese economy especially with regards to their financial structure. But its one bridge at a time with the Chinese. Rapid de-regulation leads to Russia. So far they seem to be pacing things fairly well unlike Russia that tried to change too fast.

And in terms of improving the lives of their people with that population, poverty in the 1970s you just cant hope for something better in the real world.

[jeffolie]

The RED China corrupt capitalism sends us fakes, ignores our intellectual property rights and subjects its workers to horrible working conditions:

IMPORT-EXPORT If you are rich you can sport Prada and Louis Vuitton and Gucci and Fendi and Rolex and Coach and Chanel--otherwise, if federal prosecutors are correct, you could have contacted the 29 "importers, trucking officials and freight handlers" arrested in a bust of a suspected counterfeit smuggling ring. CBS' Bob Orr reported that the alleged knock-offs were imported from China and "destined for the streets of New York." If the fake labels had been authentic the 950 shipments of merchandise would have sold for $700m. Unidentified customs officials told NBC's Pete Williams that "bringing in phony high-end material is actually more lucrative than smuggling drugs."

ABC took a different angle on trade with China. A recall has been announced for 450,000 imported tires for SUVs, vans and pick-up trucks because of the risk of tread separation. The brands concerned are Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS. Lisa Stark (subscription required) told us that 10% of all tires used in the United States are Chinese imports. She reminded us that this recall follows those for pet food ingredients, toothpaste and toy train sets--all with a Made in the People's Republic label.
- Andrew Tyndall 06-27-2007 01:35 pm http://tyndallreport.com/

The RED Chineese undercuts our better quality products with lead based paint toys, poison toothpaste, poison pet food and slave labor.

[jeffolie]

More poison arrives from China today:

Last Edited: Thursday, 28 Jun 2007, 1:22 PM MDT

By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- The US plans to test potentially tainted Chinese seafood imports.

Imports of five species of farmed Chinese seafood will be detained until they can be shown free of potentially dangerous antibiotics, federal health officials said Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it would detain three types of fish -- catfish, basa and dace -- as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing has turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood.

The announcement was only the latest in an expanding series of problems with imported Chinese products that seemingly permeate U.S. society, from its playrooms to its prisons.

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3625366&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1

[GK]

"More poison arrives from China today:"

China has never had to contend with the US Media and Blogosphere, for which China's government and industry will prove to be no match, given their lack of experience with a free and fussy press.

China will get a bad reputation, and thus will achieve either a rapid increase in quality (and thus also become subject to the mercy of free speech), or lose a ton of exports. Thus, the free market corrects anomalies once again.

[Harsh V]

@jeff

Intellectual property rights is a huge problem that the Chinese have to fix. On everything else they have been doing a good job given their position. Disregarding intellectual property rights is the surest way to kill homegrown innovation and send Chinese innovators running to US shores, which is btw great for the US. Yeah there is damage being done to US brands and that hurts US cos but I think the long term damage to themselves is far worse. Disregarding intellectual property will ensure that China stays a third world cheap export nation. They really need to show some vision and maturity here, if they want to compete in the big league.

[jeffolie]

"Thus, the free market corrects anomalies once again."

The free market has little to do with correcting the poison anomalies from China.

US consumer regulations and laws plus government inspectors are to be credited with stopping the poison: lead paint toys, dangerous toothpaste, dangerious seafood. The corrupt Chineese undercut US producers with illegal tactics. Damn the Chineese.

[GK]

The free market has little to do with correcting the poison anomalies from China.

Why? If China gets a bad reputation with the US press and US consumers, people will avoid 'Made in China' products, and Chinese exporters lose business.

China can't avoid the consumer scrutiny that exists in America. They will have to meet these high standards, or lose a lot of business. There is no third alternative. They have no ability to restrict the spread of a bad reputation in the US, the way they could restrict information flow within China itself.

[jeffolie]

The high standard for product safety is set in the US laws and regulation that are executed by US government agencies. There is no free market in China. China did not protect the US public with inspections based on protecting the consumers of its poison products. Without our government intervention China would be poisoning our children, selling 450,000 self destructing tires and foistering bad chemical on us and our pets.

But for the US government China would be injuring us. The free market did not find these Chineese dangers. The free market ignored quality and merely looked at the low prices. The safety and welfare of Americans depends on the modest efforts of the American government, not the RED Chineese nor free market protections.

The concept of the free market does not exist in a vacuum. The demand by the American public for protection against outrageous financial enterprises created needed US regulations and agencies. The damned Chineese feed us poisons that free trade idealists react to after the facts are discovered by American government agencies intervene.

The Chineese pollute and poison the world.

[jeffolie]

"In the slavery scandal, authorities say nearly 1,000 children and adults were abducted and forced to work in brick kilns. Operators beat and starved workers, often with local government protection."
http://my.earthlink.net/article/bus?guid=20070629/468483c0_3ca6_1552620070629160865164

Prices will rise when the RED Chineese have to pay their slaves. There is no free market in slaves in RED China is there?

[GK]

jeffolie,

You still don't get it.

If Chinese goods are consistently poor in quality and safety, the US media will bring visibility to this. Then US consumers will refuse to buy 'Made in China' goods, China will get a bad reputation, and will lose a lot of business UNLESS AND UNTIL they earn back a good reputation for quality and safety.

That is all there is to it. The US free market means US consumers can choose to buy Chinese goods, or choose not to, based on information that China has no power to restrict.

[jeffolie]

You put a lot more faith in the US press than I do. The press does not have inspectors analyzing RED Chineese products.

The corporations doing business in RED China do not release the ingredients made their that go into products for export. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/business/01imports.html?ei=5065&en=fd1b699fcdae6446&ex=1183867200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

The "information that China has no power to restrict" is kept secret and the press does not have access.

It is impossible to know what RED Chineese ingredients are in our cerials we eat for breakfast. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/business/01imports.html?ei=5065&en=fd1b699fcdae6446&ex=1183867200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

RED China stands for slavery, poison and pollution.

[jeffolie]

The labels on most food products we looked at were of little help.

The 2002 Farm Bill passed by Congress mandated country-of-origin labeling for seafood, beef, lamb, pork, fish, fruits, vegetables and peanuts, but the Bush administration has delayed its implementation for everything except seafood until October 2008.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19508453/

[jeffolie]

Chinese-manufactured products ranging from chocolate to gold earrings accounted for more than 60 percent of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's 178 recalls in 2007, Schumer said. Confusing federal regulations and lax safety standards have kept the U.S. government from effectively stopping the import of harmful goods, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCyB.62FyljI&refer=home

[jeffolie]

You don't get it: the free market as it really exists is not protecting us.

[GK]

You don't get it: the free market as it really exists is not protecting us.

I think it does.

Take you, for example. Now, you will probably not buy anything made in China, even if it is cheap, due to the opinions you hold, from things you have read.

Nothing that the Chinese Govt. can do will change your mind. Thus, you are exercising your free-market rights, and they lost your business.

More bad press will cause more Americans to take the actions you have taken.

[jeffolie]

There is not enough "bad press".

The press only reports the tip of the iceberg. And even then, the press only reports injuries and bad RED Chineese products after they have been on the market for a while. The press is reactive not proactive. The is no investigative journalism of the RED Chineese.

The pro RED Chineese Bush Administration turns a blind eye to the harm caused by the damned Chineese. The US is blackmailed by the Trillion dollars in RED Chineese reserves and the trade deficit.

[GK]

Here is some bad press for Chinese food imports just today.

[jeffolie]

The article was not about RED Chineese food imports. Rather it was about how it was difficult to find regular, everyday sundries not made with Chineese parts or outright made in China.

It did not mention the pollution and slavery nor state owned enterprises kept running at a loss. Intellectual property rights were not mentioned.

[jeffolie]

BEIJING -- Nearly one-fifth of products made in China for domestic consumption failed quality and safety standards, the government said, while a state-run newspaper on Wednesday stressed the need to raise quality guidelines to meet international levels.
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/world/BO56477/

[jeffolie]

BEIJING — Fake construction material is jeopardizing the safety of China's newest high-speed railway, a Chinese newspaper says.

An investigation by the newspaper found that large quantities of bogus material had been used in several hundred kilometres of a $12-billion (U.S.) high-speed railway between the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou.

The newspaper, China Economic Times, said the scam by unscrupulous suppliers could lead to cracking in the railway's concrete supports, creating a “great danger” to the railway.

The newspaper report, published this week, has triggered an investigation by the Chinese Railways Ministry.

The report is the latest revelation in the widening scandal over shoddy and hazardous goods in China. The issue has emerged as a global concern, with many countries, including Canada, increasingly worried by the dangers of food and other products from China.

Almost 20 per cent of goods made in China for domestic consumption have failed China's own standards for safety or quality in the first half of this year, a government agency reported this week. The tests focused on food products, fertilizers, farm machinery and common consumer goods.

China has also announced that 180 food factories have been shut down in recent months because their products were contaminated with illegal materials such as formaldehyde, industrial dyes and paraffin wax.

Fake cellphone batteries are another lethal danger. This week, the Chinese media revealed that a number of counterfeit batteries have exploded in safety tests. A man was killed in western China last month when a cellphone exploded in his chest pocket while he was welding. The explosion broke his ribs, and rib fragments pierced his heart. The faulty battery was labelled Motorola, but it was reportedly a fake.

In the railway scam, the China Economic Times reported that the railway's contractors had been tricked into buying large quantities of fake or deficient coal fly ash, a common ingredient in concrete.

The newspaper described the suppliers as “profiteers blinded by greed.” It published several photos of trucks loaded with fake fly ash and factories where the material is produced.

It said the bogus material was discovered in March by a construction engineer, who noticed a blockage in a pipe where concrete was being poured. Such blockages are uncommon, and he suspected it was caused by phony fly ash. The fake material looks identical to the genuine material, and only laboratory testing can tell them apart.

The high-speed railway, designed to carry trains at speeds up to 350 kilometres an hour between two of China's biggest cities, is currently under construction. It is described as the longest and most technologically advanced high-speed railway in China, and it has been praised lavishly by the Chinese news media.

Faced with mounting evidence of hazardous goods, the Chinese authorities have reacted ambivalently. They have announced crackdowns and safety campaigns, but they have also reacted with denials and censorship.

Harsh penalties have been announced in some cases. Yesterday, a former drug regulator was given a death sentence for accepting $307,000 in bribes from two medical companies.

At the same time, however, China has attacked the foreign news coverage of the hazardous products. “I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said this week.

Last week, Chinese censors went through every issue of Time magazine sold in China to tear out and destroy the first two pages of an article headlined “The Growing Dangers of the China Trade.”

The daily propaganda newspaper China Daily accused “foreign protectionists” of using safety issues to discriminate against Chinese products. “Any bias against products with a ‘made in China' tag does injustice to Chinese exports' overall good quality,” it argued in an editorial this week.

[GK]

At the same time, however, China has attacked the foreign news coverage of the hazardous products. “I think it would be better if the media would stop playing up this issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said this week.

See - they have no ability to counter a free press. Thus, when more Americans read the same things you are reading, China loses a lot of export business, until it successfully builds a good reputation (which could take a long time).

Last week, Chinese censors went through every issue of Time magazine sold in China to tear out and destroy the first two pages of an article headlined “The Growing Dangers of the China Trade.”

ah...but they can't do this in Europe, America, Japan, or India, you see. Plus, Time is a pretty high-visibility platform.

Thus, the free market sorts the problem out. China is learning that it can't just make tons of export money without addressing quality, brand, and reputation issues.

No Chinese govt. bureaucrat can force jeffolie to eat something with a 'Made in China' label, due to the free information he has access to. Thus, China loses jeffolie's business, and the business of others who read the same articles. China can only earn it back the honest way, not through force and censorship.

[jeffolie]

Meanwhile over 10000 are injured by just one of their crappy products before the damned RED Chineese withdraw their poison.

The press did not prevent the poison from harming people. The press was reactive, not proactive.

Sales of methotrexate produced by Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have been suspended because it caused an adverse reaction in several child leukemia patients in three hospitals in Shanghai and the southern province of Guangxi, Xinhua quoted the State Food and Drug Administration as saying.

Xinhua quoted World Health Organization statistics saying there have been 12,502 reports of adverse reactions to methotrexate worldwide.

[jeffolie]

China's is powered by zealots who sometimes act like pirates.

[jeffolie]

NewsTrack - Business

Published: July 7, 2007 at 9:13 AM E-mail Story | Print Preview | License

Chinese city bans anonymous web postings
XIAMEN, China, July 7 (UPI) -- A Chinese city plans to ban anonymous online postings after Internet users successfully campaigned to stop completion of a chemical factory.
The ban mandates Internet users must provide proof of their real identify when posting messages on more than 100,000 Web sites registered in Xiamen, the Times of London reported Saturday.

City officials acted after thousands of residents rallied each other through cell phone text messages and Internet blogs to march on the site of a $14 million chemical plant. Construction since has been stopped pending an investigation into environmental concerns, the Times reported.

Xiamen will be the first city in China to officially ban anonymous Internet postings, said Tian Feng, vice-director of the Xiamen Bureau of Industry and Commerce.

Censorship is common in China, where tens of thousands of government workers monitor the actions of China's 140 million Internet users, the Times said.

Dozens of Web journalists and Internet commentators are serving prison terms throughout China for alleged subversion.

[Harsh V]

jeffolie, are you from Taiwan?

[jeffolie]

Long Beach, California which is the 5th largest city in California and just outside Los Angeles.

[HarshV]

Very cool. So anyway, yeah China has some problems but they are fixing stuff. They are just too hungry for success. Wall Street analysts point out a little problem in their business model and the good little Chinese, Indian companies do anything and everything to fix the problem. These guys just want to make money and if their clients threaten to change suppliers then John China inc. will bend over backwards to improve quality. You are being way picky about the Chinese and to be honest bit of a historical, economic noob. Buy some Chinese ADRs or get ur Dad to do that, watch the money grow and use the multibagger profits to pay for a good college education where you can learn some economics, history. Join the global wealth creation machine, dont fight it.

[jeffolie]

The Chineese are corrupt communists. You apologize for them and thus support them.

[jeffolie]

Report: Fake Drinking Water Hits Beijing

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BEIJING (AP) -- China's food safety monitor promised Tuesday to investigate a report that more than half of the water coolers in Beijing use counterfeit branded water.

The water is either tap water or purified water from small suppliers put into the water jugs and sealed with bogus quality standard marks, the Beijing Times newspaper said in a lengthy report Monday.

The newspaper said Tuesday local officials shut down a Beijing bottled water distributing station and seized safety seals and labels bearing the names of local brands.

Beijing's tap water is generally not safe to drink because of the city's aging pipes; boiling water leaves a white powdery residue inside pots and kettles.

Signs in luxury hotels in the capital tell guests that water has been treated and is safe to drink, but most Chinese consider it unsafe and do not drink it themselves.

[jeffolie]

The RED Chineese executed a former director of its food and drug agency,

This was just a baby step and did nothing for the corrupt officials now in office.

[Lawrence]

Hi GK-

First off, apologies for posting a comment off-topic from the thread, here, but I wanted to post where the most recent action was. I just wanted to say I've followed your site here for about a year now, and I really enjoy your topics and articles. I found especially the Human development index to be most interesting and informative. (My field is theology/biblical studies)

I would be interested in getting your take sometime on the current direction of the European economy. I recently relocated to the Netherlands from the USA (ministry brought me here), and I am frankly mystified as to how Europeans are able to function under such taxation and regulation. It is obscene. For example non-food sales transactions in the Netherlands and Germany are taxed at a ridiculous 19%. This includes even the service industry. Just taking your car to the garage usually means triple-digit bills. I won't even mention income taxes. Living here has been quite an adjustment, financially.

Anyway, just a suggestion for a future article. Thanks for keeping a great site. I'll be back. Cheers.

[jeffolie]

Beijing steamed buns include cardboard

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_re_as/china_cardboard_buns;_ylt=AiAhtUWP_FfIoySAaUUrwjnMWM0F

[GK]

Beijing steamed buns include cardboard

OK, that one is pretty bad.

But I don't see how they can force any US consumers to eat those against their will. Bad press would spread quickly.

[sam]

Thanks for the post. I appreciate the graphs and tables you prepare, as they make it easier to understand the issues.

[cheap chanel]

* Indian manufacturing appears to be on the rise off late. It clocked double digit growth in the last year but is still only a fraction of the services sector.

[cheap chanel]

Thanks for the post. I appreciate the graphs and tables you prepare, as they make it easier to understand the issues.

[multibagger stocks]

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