China owes a little over $1.25t of our debt, the biggest of all foreign holders of our debt, but less than 10% and about the same as Japan. http://www.treasury.gov/ticdata/Publish/mfh.txt p.s., China has its own issues...unless it finds a way to grow its middle class and get them to consume more, its economy could collapse...and what happens if we stop buying all that crap they sell us? Honestly, we dont need much of it, right?
Interesting article...not familiar with Michael Pillsbury, or his intentions. I personally doubt we have anything to fear from a bullets and tanks perspective, except perhaps the loss of sales of bullets and tanks... As a side note, having experience teaching at a local public university and recognizing the need for some diversity, I was always surprised by the excessive number of foreign students we let into our schools, at the expense of local residents. There is the historical perspective that these "best minds" from foreign worlds would stay and help the good ole USA, but from my experience in the current environment, more of these students would eventually head back home.
In 1995, Michael Pillsbury, an expert on China who has worked with every US president since Nixon and has, he writes, “arguably had more access to China’s military and intelligence establishment than any other Westerner,” was reading an article written by “three of China’s preeminent military experts” about “new technologies that would contribute to the defeat of the United States.”
Interesting article...not familiar with Michael Pillsbury, or his intentions. I personally doubt we have anything to fear from a bullets and tanks perspective, except perhaps the loss of sales of bullets and tanks... As a side note, having experience teaching at a local public university and recognizing the need for some diversity, I was always surprised by the excessive number of foreign students we let into our schools, at the expense of local residents. There is the historical perspective that these "best minds" from foreign worlds would stay and help the good ole USA, but from my experience in the current environment, more of these students would eventually head back home.
In 1995, Michael Pillsbury, an expert on China who has worked with every US president since Nixon and has, he writes, “arguably had more access to China’s military and intelligence establishment than any other Westerner,” was reading an article written by “three of China’s preeminent military experts” about “new technologies that would contribute to the defeat of the United States.”
Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd. (551), the world’s largest branded shoemaker, fell the most in nine months in Hong Kong trading after the company said it plans to increase factory workers’ compensation in a bid to end a strike. (...)
Workers at the shoemaker, a supplier to companies including Adidas AG (ADS) and Nike Inc. (NKE), continued to strike for a seventh day, disrupting output, spokesman George Liu said today. Yue Yuen, based in Hong Kong, offered to add a monthly living allowance of 230 yuan ($37) at its factories in southern China starting May 1, Liu said yesterday. It also agreed to bring forward to next month a social-security benefit plan originally scheduled for 2015, he said.
Workers have disrupted production in Yue Yuen’s Dongguan factory complex, which employs more than 40,000 people, since April 14 in a dispute over pay, benefits and the right to pick their own union. More than 50 percent of the workers were on strike today, Liu said. China Labour Watch, which estimated the striking workers at about 30,000, said a small number had returned to work, without quantifying it.
Employees were seen coming to the plant, clocking in and then leaving yesterday. Some workers, who asked not to be identified because they or their family members could lose their jobs, said yesterday that they were still on strike.
Rising Costs
The labor dispute adds challenges to Chinese manufacturers faced with disruptions as wages climb and workers demand better compensation. Rising costs have also prompted some employers to move production abroad.
Employees interviewed at the factory yesterday and on April 19 said the company had failed to agree on demands for more pay, a change in contract status and reimbursement for unpaid benefits contributions. Some demanded no punishment for strikers and the right to elect their own union leaders.
At least 80 percent of the workers won’t take the offer, said Xiang Feng, 28, a worker in the factory’s finance department. The company’s plan to raise monthly contributions for social security would make it compulsory for employees to boost their own share of payments, she said.
“Workers may end up with a take-home salary almost unchanged or maybe even lower than before,” Xiang said.
More Demands
The strikers expanded demands after an initial dispute over contributions to government-mandated social security and housing benefits for workers. The local government is fully aware and supportive of Yue Yuen’s proposed plan, Liu said.
Monitoring group China Labour Bulletin said on its website strikers at the Dongguan facility numbered at least 10,000, while Yue Yuen said April 16 that more than 1,000 were striking. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. faced strikes earlier this year in China by workers demanding better compensation. (...)
The story behind what may have been the biggest Internet failure in history involves an unlikely cast of characters, including a little-known company in a drab building in Wyoming and the world’s most elite army of Internet censors a continent away in China.
On Tuesday, most of China’s 500 million Internet users were unable to load websites for up to eight hours. Nearly every Chinese user and Internet company, including major services like Baidu and Sina.com, was affected. (...)
what's all this rot about the USA being the only superpower?
superpower isn't all about military prowess like it used to be...
Although there isn't any standard definition, it has never really been all/only about military prowess. Economical factors play a very important part, as well as projection of power on a global scale (can be military, economic, or propaganda/ideology), along with substantial control. They do all go hand in hand (and rely on each other).
China would meet economic and (perhaps) military criteria, but not in ideology/propaganda or (global) control. As this story shows it has enough worries dealing with domestic control.
1. It unifies the Chinese people. 2. It makes China more equal. 3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development. 4. It makes people funnier. 5. It makes people more knowledgeable (of things like meteorology and the English word haze).
