It’s actually much simpler than you would think, China being very thinned skinned about criticism of its leaders and policies. The host of HBO’s “Last week Tonight” John Oliver did it in twenty minutes. How exactly did he achieve that, you ask? Simple, he compared China’s President Xi Jinping to that honey loving cartoon bear …
Tag: China
May 15 2018
Cool On China Trade
Trade sanctions are only for us not for Trump, Trump Orders Help For Chinese Phone-Maker After China Approves Money For Trump Project A mere 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to put a half-billion dollars into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich Donald Trump, the president ordered a bailout for a Chinese-government-owned cellphone …
Apr 25 2018
Syria, Sanctions and Tariffs
We are aware that Donald Trump does not take advice from anyone in his cabinet or inner circle. But when it comes to sanctions, tariffs and red lines, it appears he takes his cues from Russian president Vladimir Putin, Fox & Friends and the voices in his head. When Trump tweeted that he was going …
May 26 2015
US Terrorizes China; China Pulls the Golden Trigger.
by Pluto
All week I’ve been seeing references to this headline:
“China could announce that it holds 30,000 tons of gold to back the Yuan/Renminbi.”
As a Forex trader, the story took me by surprise, even though China has been stockpiling for years, and is the world’s largest gold producer. Also, it’s not like China to pull this trigger so fast. However, in the South China Sea last week, the US started militarily terrorizing China with war ships and fighter jets – and China warned (in so many polite words) that the US planted the seeds of its own doom.
So, maybe that’s what this is all about.
Nov 16 2013
The China Connection and Other Travails of a TBTF Bank
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
JP Morgan Chase is once again under investigation by the Department of Justice. This time for possibly bribing the daughter of the Chinese prime minister with a lucrative business deal to gain preferential treatment on the Chinese markets.
To promote its standing in China, JPMorgan Chase turned to a seemingly obscure consulting firm run by a 32-year-old executive named Lily Chang.
Ms. Chang’s firm, which received a $75,000-a-month contract from JPMorgan, appeared to have only two employees. And on the surface, Ms. Chang lacked the influence and public name recognition needed to unlock business for the bank.
But what was known to JPMorgan executives in Hong Kong, and some executives at other major companies, was that “Lily Chang” was not her real name. It was an alias for Wen Ruchun, the only daughter of Wen Jiabao, who at the time was China’s prime minister, with oversight of the economy and its financial institutions.
While the bank emerged from the financial crisis stronger than it ever was, Moody’s Investors Service cut its ratings of the JPMC and three other banks after deciding the government would be less likely to help them repay creditors in a crisis. JPMorgan was cut to A3 from A2. According to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the yield on JPMorgan’s $2 billion of 3.375 percent subordinated notes due May 2023 slipped 10 basis points to 4.3 percent.
Moody’s said that there was less likelihood of a widespread bailout of banks by the United States government as there was during the financial crisis five years ago and that bank debt holders would be forced to shoulder more of the losses in the future.
But the rating agency said it expected banks would be required by regulators in the United States to hold a higher level of capital, which was likely to result in higher recoveries for creditors in any future bank default. [..]
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the Federal Reserve has been limited in its ability to provide taxpayer money to individual banks, and failing banks would be wound down in a so-called orderly liquidation, in which creditors would bear the bulk of the burden of the losses.
However, some critics have expressed doubts that regulators could handle the liquidation of one or more of the nation’s largest banks in a severe financial crisis.
In the midst of this, somebody at JPMC thought it would be a great idea to hold a Twitter Q&A with the public using the hashtag #AskJPM. The results were extremely amusing but a major PR #FAIL for the bank. Award winning actor Stacy Keech, the voice of American Greed, reads some of the best tweets verbatim.
If you’re a poet and good at writing haiku, Rolling Stone‘s contributing editor Matt Taibbi is offering a Jaime Dimon tee shirt for the best “J.P. Morgan Chase Q&A Fiasco” haiku. Matt will announce the winner Monday.
Sep 03 2013
We are winning the race to the bottom!
You are starting to see a lot of news articles talking about “reshoring”.
“There is evidence here of reshoring because of transportation costs and lead times,” Mr Bergmann said. “The global supply chain allows you to chase lower cost of labour, but the total costs are reflected in the decision on where you produce for a given geography.”
The decline of the American middle class have finally reached the point that American workers can compete against Chinese peasants. Victory is in sight!
With any luck our corporate masters will soon be installing suicide nets outside our factories.
Jun 18 2013
NOT TO BE MISSED!
I have just finished reading questions and answers that were put forth to Edward Snowden. Snowden’s answers are intelligent, most articulate and totally understandable/logical.
I urge you to do a read, as well.
Edward Snowden Q and A: “The US Government Destroyed Any Possibility of a Fair Trial at Home”
The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history answered questions about the NSA surveillance revelations.
June 17, 2013It is the interview the world’s media organisations have been chasing for more than a week, but instead Edward Snowden is giving Guardian readers the exclusive.
The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and source of the Guardian’s NSA files coverage will – with the help of Glenn Greenwald – take your questions today on why he revealed the NSA’s top-secret surveillance of US citizens, the international storm that has ensued, and the uncertain future he now faces. Ask him anything.
Snowden, who has fled the US, told the Guardian he “does not expect to see home again”, but where he’ll end up has yet to be determined.
He will be online today from 11am ET/4pm BST today. An important caveat: the live chat is subject to Snowden’s security concerns and also his access to a secure internet connection. It is possible that he will appear and disappear intermittently, so if it takes him a while to get through the questions, please be patient.
To participate, post your question below and recommend your favorites. As he makes his way through the thread, we’ll embed his replies as posts in the live blog. You can also follow along on Twitter using the hashtag # AskSnowden.
We expect the site to experience high demand so we’ll re-publish the Q&A in full after the live chat has finished.
11.07am ET
Question:
GlennGreenwald
17 June 2013 2:11pmLet’s begin with these:
1) Why did you choose Hong Kong to go to and then tell them about US hacking on their research facilities and universities?
2) How many sets of the documents you disclosed did you make, and how many different people have them? If anything happens to you, do they still exist?
Answer:
1) First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That’s not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it. . . .
I cannot see Snowden as anything but a man with a “nagging conscience,” such that steered him to his decision to reveal certain of his knowledges concerning the NSA activities.
Jul 07 2012
China and Transgender People
Qian Jinfan felt she should be a girl at the age of 3. But she never had a chance to be one until she reached the age of 80.
In June Qian became the oldest Chinese citizen to come out to the media about being transgender…at the age of 84. Despite the efforts of her wife and son to “ground” her, she snuck out of their home to speak to China Daily.
People may ask why I come out as a transgender person when I’m so old, but I ask, why can’t I? Chinese stereotype the elderly as people who can’t do anything but wait for death. But I’ve just entered the best time of my life. I can finally be myself.
–Qian
While some Chinese admire her courage, others have called her “a nasty old man” and “attention-seeker”. Children playing near her house have called her a “monster.” Her family members object to her transition, claiming that she has made the a “laughing stock”.
I won’t reach out to media but won’t hide from them either if they approach me.
I haven’t done anything wrong. My life as a transgender person doesn’t harm anyone. Why should I hide?
–Qian Jingfan
Dec 03 2011
On The Emergence Of China, Or, Zhou Knew This Was Coming
After doing a bit of mountain hiking a few days back, I had a chance to get involved in a great afternoon conversation with the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s Mike Wessel, who also serves as a Commissioner with the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; the conversation was about how we’re doing when it comes to our relationship with China.
As it turns out, the two events went well together, because what I’m hearing from these guys is that we have a great big ol’ mountain to climb if we hope to get back to a level playing field in our interactions with this most important country.
There’s news to report across a variety of issues; that’s why today we’ll be talking about trade, human rights, cybersecurity, poverty and development, and the methods by which you can apply “soft power” to achieve hard results.
The entirely unanticipated result: all of this will reveal the naïveté of Ron Paul when it comes to foreign policy; we’ll discuss that at the end.
Feb 01 2011
The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Comedy Central Presents… Michele Bachmann
Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette
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Dec 23 2010
China, France, USA, Your Food, GMO’s and Wikileaks
Dr. Olivier De Shutter, United Nations Envoy, warns that China’s ability to feed its population is waning:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi…He told the Guardian his main concern was the decline of soil quality in China because of excessive use of fertilisers, pollution and drought. He noted that 37% of the nation’s territory was degraded and 8.2m hectares (20.7m acres) of arable land has been lost since 1997 to cities, industrial parks, natural disasters and forestry programmes.
With climate change expected to increase price volatility and cut agricultural productivity by 5% to 10% by 2030, De Schutter said it was essential for China to wean itself off fossil-fuel intensive farming and adopt more sustainable agricultural techniques, including organic production, and to make even better use of its two great strengths: a huge strategic grain reserve and a large rural population.
He also cautioned against a shift towards industrial-scale farming, which increases economic competitiveness at the cost of natural productivity. “Small-scale farming is more efficient in its use of natural resources. I believe China can show that it is successful in feeding a very large population. ” However, he acknowledged that this may prove difficult in the future as more of China’s 200million farmers move to the cities.
Unfortunately the article in the Guardian UK did not mention the fact that China’s mega- hydro power projects like the Three Gorges Dam are also contributing to massive amounts of loss of the best farmland in the now flooded valleys above the dam site – 62,000 acres – which also forced the resettlement of over a million rural people. http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof…
People who buck the Chinese government and organize protesters over deadly food don’t do so well in authoritarian regimes. Zhao Lianhai, who complained about melamine contaminated milk formulas, that made 300,000 sick and killed at least 6 babies, was thrown in jail in 2009, convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in November for “inciting social disorder.” see HuffPo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/… Zhao’s son was one of the toddlers who became ill with kidney stones after drinking the bad milk. Melamine was the same chemical that was implicated in the 2006 – 2007 American pet food safety scandal and recall, which sickened and killed thousands of cats, when it was used to adulterate imported wheat gluten, and spread from an importer – distributor in Las Vegas, ChemNutra, to all over the country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T… Ground up melamine powder, a by product of coal processing normally used in plastics like laminated flooring, was added not only to increase the volume but to fool the tests done for “protein” content.
What did Zhao do to warrant Chinese jail time while trying to save sick babies ?
he organized a gathering of a dozen parents of sick children at a restaurant, held a paper sign in front of a court and factory involved in the scandal as a protest, and gave media interviews in a public place.
Schutter:
“I’m concerned this will have a chilling effect on consumers who want to complain,” he said. “You cannot protect the right to food without the right to freedom of expression and organisation.”
Dec 21 2010
How to Win Friends and Influence Nations
Reading the news of this past week, it is easy to see why the U.S. strategy in Pakistan is failing. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China was in Islamabad praising Pakistan’s efforts fighting terrorism and pledged to increase trade between the two countries, the NY Times reported.
China has not uncovered any new secret in diplomacy that is allow it such breakthroughs. Really, it almost seems as if Wen is following the advice found in the book 人性的弱点 (The Weakness of Human Nature) or as it is better know, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Consider three of Carnegie’s key principles:
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不要批評，責怪或抱怨 or don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
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獻出你真實，誠懇的讚賞 or give honest and sincere appreciation.
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引起別人的渴望 or arouse in the other person an eager want.