'The China Syndrome.'

wow,as to the question whether China has mastered the basic manufacturing is a little complecated,because as it can be seen in many news
reports and mass medias they said that the low-price products in China has already became a threat to their own country.
With the scandals of many products many countries have taken actions to stop the products of China.But in my belief that is in20 or 30 years
China can make more high value goods than low-value ones.And by that time China will not be in the us's high-tech backyard,but in the center of it.

China can make what it can make because corporations give away all of their knowledge in the hope of market access, which they will never fully get.

For China(exporter): "The problems are structural, not the result of a few bad apples."- we should learn a lesson from the universality of the promblem.
For US(importer): I think the choose of trade company is important.

The Syndrome of China mentioned in this article sound the alarm to some of the Chinese manufactory.But the competition between the small and medium sized companies who compete solely on cost will select the superior and eliminate the inferior in quality.Then those cut corners like crazy would be out of the market. So the choosing of the trade company would be an important step. AmeriChinaB2B is one of the professional B2B trade marketplaces to facilitate online trades between exporters and importers from America and China.I believe the ACB2B might be help the US importers in finding good suppliers.

China is a complex country. Any one liner will not apply.

If anyone thinks he figured China out, he should think again.

China is big and ancient, it will take time for it to evolve. It will evolve gradually and surely.

Silicon Valley was full of Chinese and Indians in those US high-tech backyard. When those two groups start to make good money in otherside of the global, there will be NO high-tech backyard here.

I worked for several startups in Silicon Valley, and most of high quality engineers I knew--those PHDs, chief archtecures, VPs, Directors and Managers have their own startups in either India or China now.

Sha:

Then why is it that even by Beijing's stats, barely 1/3 of China's overseas college students return?
Freedom, clean environment, etc. cannot be bought.

Indians have more to look forward to in India, but their beauracracy is a huge obstacle and social progress is very slow.

democracy is about enfranchisement; considering the current CCP governance of China has increased the general well-being and living standard of the Chinese population, could you not say that the government actions are indeed undertaken for the people's needs and demands, and that as things go, the Chinese people are being increasingly enfranchised and not defrenchised from the governing system? If so, then China is democratic.

democracy is a concept, and doesn't proscribe to a set system with set procedures, protocols, intricacies, and manners of governance. really, most people who use the term democracy liberally are not well informed on its meaning and don't truly appreciate and understand the foundations of a democracy.

enfranchisement/disenfranchisement:

Hukou system and the inherent disenfranchisement that comes with it. Bad China.

What exactly is the "China Syndrome?" I thought it had something to do with nuclear reactors.

Also, how come nearly everyone who comments on this blog is bad at English?

"Last: Also, how come nearly everyone who comments on this blog is bad at English?"

Blame the British colonialism or they won't be using English in the first place. Yes, I am talking about the Canadians, Americans, and Australians...etc.

one can always point out situations of disenfranchisement in any society and government; taking only one situation i.e. the hukou system, isn't indicative of the larger process.

"Blame the British colonialism or they won't be using English in the first place. Yes, I am talking about the Canadians, Americans, and Australians"

Blame the CCP for adding worthless and hilarious "chinese characteristics" to another language.

Bill,

I agree with you that the Chinese companies are becoming more competitive today with lower cost.

But, Chinese government never claimed itself a manufacturing super power.

The West saw China as an partner for low cost and a competitor---China will take over the world.

It's true. China is a big manufacturer, but it also has a lot of people. China still too big to be considered rich.

Toothpaste was for economic reasons.

If one brand of Chinese toothpaste did not pass the safety standard. It's not reasonable to ban all Chinese toothpastes.

If you recall, three months ago, U.S. pressured China to lower the exchange rate.

Premier Wen JiaBao replied, "any major change in the short run will lead to social chaos in China."

Later, Chinese shoes, Chinese seafood, and Chinese meat were banned in the same month.

Anybody who is concerned about Chinese product should understand the politics behind it.

Jonny

"Blame the CCP for adding worthless and hilarious "chinese characteristics" to another language."
Does it has anything to do with CCP? has it the ability to do so?
One should think use head not arse.

its ok nanheyangrouchuan is probably uneducated. anyone who has attended college recently cannot possibly hate other races so much like him.

"Polls show a majority of Americans believe China has mastered basic manufacturing -- and it's now barreling into our high-tech backyard. That's false. As the product recalls demonstrate, China can barely make low-value goods reliably, much less higher-value ones. The problems are structural, not the result of a few bad apples."

it was an american company that manufactured the bad pet food; they only used chinese raw materials. the toothpaste incident happens; a friend of mine works in an industrial lab and the drugs they make which contain glycerine are frequently tainted with ethylene glycol and they have to purify it. but do they know this? hell no, they're stock jockies not scientists.

nanheyangrouchuan assumes his english is perfect... that dumb turk wannabe

@Jonny

Thank you Jonny. And now i realize why China blocked some imports of U.S. chicken and pork...

that's a counterattack buddy

brigitte,

If you think it is against America, read this http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_4690000/newsid_4695400/4695474.stm

If you are confused why pork price in China, this is has been going on since May, here a Chinese article reported in May, not today, yesterday, or last month.
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2007-05-27/180713087723.shtml

Jonny

brigitte,

The huge trade deficit between China and U.S. is not because China did not have fair trade with U.S., but because U.S. spending its money bombing Iraq and killing Saddam Hussein.

U.S. international trade deficit is $58.7 billion. Restricting Chinese product will hurt the U.S. because many of them are American companies.

U.S. has the largest share in the Chinese market.

Jonny

china has her acute structural problem.
the surplus,most of it come from textile,clothging mill.chinese worker cost blood,sweat but receive less, American importer get great profit through dealing with those mills.and american consumer can not deny that they are enjoying the cheap,good products.
chinese company,and worker are most poor people,they work hardest,receive least ,but they are target of american and their government

this is unfair

Mao once said during the Korean War: an ignorant & arrogant enemy made a perfect adversary! We could not have wished for more! Let the enemies dwell in their virtual world of wishing China all the ills in the world & let us work quietly & delligently to surprise them one after another!

Occidentalism is best expressed by showing off & aweing your adversary all the good stuff which you possess. Orientalism is the art of hiding your virtue until & unless it becomes absolutely necessary to come for that fateful punch.

There are certainly many things that we are capable of that we would rather hide to keep our adversary guessing. Occasionally, we might just conveniently show off our sword (liang jian) a wee bit like shooting one defunctioning satellite off the sky or deliberately allowing Googles to shoot a photo of our `Jing' class submarines parked off Dalian. Oriental mysticism is one virtue even old China hands would not comprehend unless you are born & bred Chinese! Hence, how much we spend on our military (defence budget) & just what we have in our weaponry to counter American & her allies during a potential Taiwan conflict constitutes paramount state secrets. Just don't expect us to reveal to the world such information no matter how much efforts the West tries to pry opened.

Glad to see the Malaysian(s) back to the ring. It would improve the readability of English somewhat, and make at least half the sense of what they have to say.

I agree with mainlander. The more Chinese deny that they have any problem, the whole world will be much better off. We really want China to be complacent, and develop and impose their own rules of the game.

One of the fatal mistakes National Security Advisors made is to under-estimate, as well as over-estimate the dueling partner, let it be “strategic” or “competitive”.

Yet the gravest mistake made so far is to define wrongly who is the real “friend” and “foe”. The real friend is CCP which imposes discipline, and unwritten high moral standards. A foe is a spiritual and ideology vacuum atheist, a shrewd fake Commie and delinquent capitalist.

The most qualified enemy the “evil empire” of Soviet Union unexpectedly collapsed before a duel of nuclear showdown. The least likely stone-aged tribal vagabonds seemingly all clowns, in pajama and thongs armed with China made fake AK47, could have brought down Uncle Sam to his knees.

The lesson is very clear, never to meddle with those people, regardless of how presently poor, having long cultural history and evolution of sophisticated trade & commerce, namely: Jews and Arabs, Chinese and Indians, or geographically people from the Tigris & Euphrates delta, valleys of the Ganges, and highlands of the Yellow river. Perhaps, Richard Herrnstein's the “Bell Curve” should be on the read list, as a guide, for decision makers contemplating next military or commercial forays into these territories.

Back to the topic, it would be naive to assume China could only manufacture low cost, labor intensive products. The majorities, if not all US MNCs, having high-tech JVs in China seldom last for more than two years. In the process, technology is stolen and investment cheated or robed, in a very short period of time, stolen technology will be further improved, and robed investment turned into seed money, multiplying many folds, eventually to buy out unprofitable and bankrupted factories in the West.

Bill, since your neighbor works for Intel, I only wish him good luck. Savvy Taiwanese semiconductor foundries TSMC and UMC both launched IPR infringement lawsuits in China only three months on the ground. If they don't do well, God knows who will!

Lesson is very clear that Uncle Sam knows he is the fastest gun draw in the world, but do not expect a dueling partner will be stupid enough to stand 10 meters afar as told, face to face, and draw at the brink of the eye. This is a matter of “life and death”, not a matter of honor, integrity, and rules of the game. Therefore, chuck out those IPR, WTO, FDA checks, human rights, democracy BS.

I am ready for the China Tsunami. Are you?

mainlander sums up very well here the msyterious tactics and wisdom of the Chinese. Those who don't quite get what I jsut said can read carefully of what mainlander had to say.

The only mysticism and mystery that exists in China is on chop-sockey TV shows. Let all of China believe its magic army of sex starved men can fly through the air, walk through trees and shoot lightning bolts from their fingertips.

What a silly country.

I think Bill Powell is fooling himself. It is not "China" the high-tech collosus that is innovating/designing/marketing Intel processors. China is merely the assembly point (becuase at the moment labour is relatively cheap and has few corporate responsibility strings attached). It is Intel and other Western owned multinationals that are doing the value-added bit. WSJ is on the money (and has read what many savvy CPC leaders say - China is not a high tech superpower and is not on the correct road to being one). Fundamental structural changes in the PRC economy will have to be made (against the wishes of vast entrenched vested interests) before a wave of Chinese firms can really be seen as high tech innovators. That is one of the real challenges facing the CPC.

Silly nanheyangrouchuan, you uneducated yahoo. You don't even know the difference between Turkmenistan and Turkistan.

But I do know the difference between good and bad toothpaste, unlike the ugly, smelly junkyard known as China.

"Back to the topic, it would be naive to assume China could only manufacture low cost, labor intensive products. The majorities, if not all US MNCs, having high-tech JVs in China seldom last for more than two years"

I just wonder if China Tsunami was down in the pub when he/she wrote this comment or is he/she really a alien in the world? Anyone with some basic knowledge of Chinese business will know IBM, Microsoft etc all exist in China for more than two years. As for the Ford and VW, its business in China was more than a decade. Then his/her judgment that none of high-tech JV last more than two years could only reflect his ignorance.

"In the process, technology is stolen and investment cheated or robed, in a very short period of time, stolen technology will be further improved, and robed investment turned into seed money, multiplying many folds, eventually to buy out unprofitable and bankrupted factories in the West"

Now China Tsunami reveals his/her true motivation for the previous comment. He/she is a China-hate who want to distort or even create"fact" to abuse China. All what he/she said has no credibility and just reflect his/her political prejudice

China Tsunami and nanheyangrouchuan are haters divorced from reality. For them the end justify the means, and they will tell lies to spread their hate-filled propaganda and do evil things to accomplish their agenda.

The leader of the uighurs in China, Hasan Mahsum, is the "Osama bin Laden" of uighurs. Mahsum had taken refuge in South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's six Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA), where the Taliban have established the "Islamic Emirate of Waziristan".

This year, Pakistan ordered a deadly military attack against 300 Uighur militants and Uzbeks in South Waziristan, who were suspected of carrying out subversion in China. Only a handful of them survived by relocating to neighboring North Waziristan, where they have allied themselves with the Taliban to fight Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The United States, meanwhile, has paid the Pakistan government $1 billion a year for military operations against the Taliban, especially in North and South Waziristan and Bajaur Agency, where bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are suspected to be hiding.

All of your hate mongers here, please get a life. You all sound just stupid!

does nanheyangrouchuan even know what he posts make no sense?

anonymous:

Do you know who left the used condoms in your underwear drawer?

nanheyangrouchuan should be banned from this blog.

Anonymous, this blog is pretty bad itself, that's why it attracts people like nanheyangrouchuan.

btw, we should keep in mind this is an English blog written by 3 Americans.

nanheyangrouchuan irrationally attacks China from quite a handful aspects without sufficient reasoning, and most of the Chinese here attack him just the same way, it's interesting they all come from the same country, i bet it's nothing but a coincidence.

"nanheyangrouchuan irrationally attacks China from quite a handful aspects without sufficient reasoning, and most of the Chinese here attack him just the same way, it's interesting they all come from the same country, i bet it's nothing but a coincidence."

The above paragraph clearly indicated Webber is also speaking without sufficient reasoning. First of all, who said nanheyangrouchuan is a Chinese? Do you have any evidence?

Secondly, how do you know most of the comments posted here that attack nanheyangrouchuan is Chinese? Just because their pen names read like Chinese? Again do you have any evidence?

Arbitrarily judge that most irrationally comments that attack each other in this blog are Chinese just reflect Webber's prejudice on Chinese

This blog is like a small town. As in any towns, there are a few nuts and idiots like nanheyangrouchuan , John Smith and Tsunami roaming around. We regular townsmen learned to ignore them. But the new visitors are always fascinated and abhored by their strange behaviors. So to all new comers, sorry for the uncivilized display and don't be upset with them. They may be urinating everywhere, but they are harmless.

I love it when people had to resort to name calling. It shows that they have nothing more to complain. That is a good sign for the Chinese government.

slkf:

Smalltown doesn't have tons of faceless "anonymous". And what's so scary about this town is that someone you think you know might turn around and become a faceless "anonymous".

People who are really interested in this topic should read www.ChinaLawBlog.com. (Am I allowed to solicit for another blog here?) They did pretty good stories on this topic and they are professional lawyers which give a very, how should I put it, 'litigative' perspective.

To mainlander: There are a lot of good strategies and planning going on in the government, but I assure you they are all very scientific and are based on a lot of research. Nothing mystical about it. I am sure other governments are all doing the same. Although some might be somewhat distracted with domestic elections but yes, on a whole, government do strategize.

Someone seems to be campaigning for the mayor of this little township. Honestly, I'd rather prefer this type of democratic election than snatching power by the barrel of guns.

I would suggest in the next townhall meeting that, whoever wants to be mayor, to propose a motion forbidding urinating among townfolks.

I think slkf is right, there are lots of different kinds of people here. There is mainlander, slkf, and the large group of people who don't know their own names. These people are just haters of anything non-chinese. I just wonder why they even bother to learn another language. Don't they think that knowing Chinese and all its various dialects are good enough for everyone and has to stoop down to learn a foreign (and western, at that) language ? This is pretty unpatriotic on their part.

On second thought, their defensiveness really make any Chinese proud. They must be foreign spies sent by the evil Americans to infiltrate and corrupt the young Chinese around the world.

I would give John Smith and China Tsunami more credit . Normally I don't object people have a different view but at least have their views based on historic facts and logic reasoning.

several latest comments posted here are really entertaining. Yes Time China blog could be on a par with small town. But I prefer to calling it a shopping street with different authors like Simon, Bill etc write different blogs on different perspectives of China with different styles. Therefore, their blogs could be comparable to different stores. Different commentors here are more like different shops with different shopping interests. Some of them don't care about what the shop offers, what they care is using the "shop" as a media to speak out their anger towards China. Others takes a more defensive approach to debate or even confrontation with previous kind of blokes. While others might take a middle ground approach to focus on what the "shop" has offered.

On the other side, the key reason I would like to call China Blog a shopping street rather than a town hall is because in a town people could decide which shop we could open and close down while in China blog we have no such options

I hope you finally realize this!

I thought your allegation below is pretty serious:

"Now China Tsunami reveals his/her true motivation for the previous comment. He/she is a China-hate who want to distort or even create"fact" to abuse China. All what he/she said has no credibility and just reflect his/her political prejudice"

Why I ignore them, not because of their political stance.

nanheyangrouchuan - most of the time this guy simply is spewing hateful, childlike remarks.

John Smith - he thinks he is funny and clever with the sarcasm, but unfortunately he is the only one who does. Sarcasm that isn't funny is like fingernails on chalkboard -- annoying.

Tsunami - he is just too strange. I pretty much skipped his comments althogether cus they never make any sense.

It's just my opinion, you can judge for yourselves.

slkf:

More likely that the chinese townspeople are all psychos and tsunami, smith and myself are normal visitors from the outside world...hey, that is just like China today!

Although I believe this blog is too one-sidedly anti-China, I join its criticism of China and Chinese many times and had even been called China-hater by other commentators. It's not what you stand for, but how mature your arguments are that counts.

My hope is that this town will be civilized and not be stirred up by remarks from the mentally or intellectually challenged members. Or simply just ignore them.

slkf, I agree.
我告诉大家, nanheyangrouchuan 像是一只没有上犬套的狗. 见谁都会叫两声. 所以 slkf 很对, 不要跟狗吵. 因为人是狗的主人. 狗不会说人话, 只会讲狗语.

Actually if you check a Western newsapaper 100 years ago, you will be suprised how the reporting on China are so much similar with today's reporting.

Do I surprise with so much "Yellow Peril" mayham going on in the Western main media? No. Do I really care how those media thinking about China? Not really. But what I try to do is to clean up lies spits out by those media and give some people like ordinary Americans a perspective that is different from prapaganda fed them from CNN, FOX, BBC, or NYT, WSJ, etc., so when their President pursued a war against evil Chinese, they don't have to jump in the wagon as they did in Iraq or possible Iran.

To Slkf:

Thank you for the information regarding nanheyangrouchuan, John Smith and Tsunami which confirm my earlier suspicions.

One vote from me to vote you as the mayor as the town of China Blog

Sha,

I agree with you completely on their bias. I came to realize something quite profound.

Do you know what's the difference between an American liberal and a neo-con?

A neo-con has the balls to actually do it.

Just imagine what would these bloggers be saying if the Vietnamese and Iraqis had not resist(using language of the US media, committed campaigns of terror on American troops) and let the US military conquer them.

They took many Vietnamese and Iraqi lives with their one-sided stories that fostered so much hate and support for war, and when the situation went sour for American troops, they come out decidedly against war. And then they have the audacity to call for boycott on China for refusing to support a military invasion of Sudan. This is American liberalism for you.

@slkf,

I can go over with you on those issues.

First, don't confuse the real liberial with Democrats politicans. A liberial may pursue an interventionism in the world due to his/her "higher" moral ground just as a conservative doing same thing for his/her "high" corporate profit ground. A liberal can be an isolationist like Union activist, or a conservative like a anti-immigrant activist. Clinton's intervention in Kosovo is not much different from Bush's Iraq. Clinton's foreign policy, is same as Bush Sr.as, "multilaterism if we can, unilaterism if we must." Bush Jr.'s is more like "You either with me or against me". Frankly, there is no much difference between two schools.

Second, West as a whole, not just America, is kind of stupid to play anti-sentiment to an unbelievable level. Here are some good examples:

US--2003, US Congress renamed French Fries and French Toast as Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast. That goes with WW2 renaming of Sauerkaraut(Liberty Cabbage), Dachshunds (Liberty pups), Frankfurters (hot dogs), hamburgers (liberty steaks) and German measles (liberty measles).

New Zealand--at 1974, due to the association with Red China, the fruit was named from Chinese gooseberry to Kiwi. Same as 1998, mad of French nuclear test in Pacific, you have Kiwi Fries.

UK--During WW1, you have German shepherd (Alsatia), German biscuits (Empire biscuits). The most funny thing is the royal family changed the name from Wettin to Windsor. The name of House of Winsor replaced House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Canada--During WW1, the Ontario city of Berlin was renamed to Kitchener.

Germany--In 1915 after Italy entered WW1, No more Italian salad in Germany.

France--During WW1, Vienna Coffee was renamed to Liege Coffee.

You see? This is a popular mentality in the West world. If they consider you an enemy, they will change even a name with it.

Third, China is being hated by one reason only--the West cannot go around blackmail anyone. An oil producing country in Mid East or Africa don't have to send a single drop of oil to the West market to make a living. Any developing country doesn't need to bankrupt its country to get an investment loan from IMF/WB any more.

Last, also all Western values, ideas, systems, etc. no matter good or bad, are hard to find listeners in the rest of the world. Right now the salesman of Western liberial democracy has to carry a gun on the hand, so when other people don't buy it, the salesman has to pull the gun out. But what they still can do? They still can do this cultural and moral superiority of masturbation in its main media. Ordinary Americans can still have no knowledges of dead Korean civilians (no matter the North ones or South ones) of Naplms, or dead Vietnamese, Laoes, Cambodians civilians of Agent Orange, or dead Iraqis cilivans of depleted Urinium . They can still have comforts their dead sons and daughters are scarficed by a noble cause. (Like channeling billions of tax-dollors into Halibuton's profit).

Sha

Thanks for the timely lecture to those young hot blooded zealots.

I am just as cynical as you. Victor rules and defines history.

China Tsunami's rather long post on 17 Jul sounds so rational that I must really sit up & listen, more so listen well/carefully. Congrats! It was a good post. This guy has calibre, unlike John Smith (for all you know, this chap may be just a faked Whiteman. He sounds more like a HK/Taiwanese separatist) who is mediocre, & Nanheyangrouchuan, a mere total trash. If I were the strategic planner, I would have been more concerned with the former rather than the latter 2.

To be able to manufacture good quality, reliable, high tech stuff is a function of :
.experience - this is a long process of trial & error, absorbtion of skills, techniques, valuable related information; cross technical exchanges, mutual learning & emulation of good production practices etc....This process cannot be arbitrarily short-circuited but must be tediously/tirelessly nurtured/cultivated. The Japanese success story on car manufacturing is a obvious case in mind - in the 1950s, the Toyotas & Datsuns (predecessor for Nissans) were so shabbily made that they were billed as `Milo can' vehicles which invariably collapsed completely upon impact, thus surely killing the passengers inside. Now look at what they have become - Toyotas is now the no 1 car manufacturer outstripping the goliaths like GM & Ford!
.monetary input - first, one must start from scratch, from the elementary school, high school through to the technical & tertiary institutions. This invariably involves hugh amount of investment outlays. In a typical management theory on the hiararchy of needs, one must first satisfy one's desire for food, shelter, security, education & then leisure & the rest. When China was so desperately poor then, our immediate basic concerns were the former 2; when we become slightly richer like now, are we able to contemplate the latter. This is definitely one long painful learning journey. Rest assured that there are bound to be ups & downs & it will be hazzardous/bumpy. But for a country which manages to rise from the abject hopelessness/absolutely-failed-state-beyond-redemption of the 1900s to the present status of an ascending superpower in a mere 100 years, nothing is impossible given the iron will/determination of our people. If the Japs/Koreans/S'poreans, who are by the way, mere off-shoots/tributaries of our shared common stock/culture, can achieve thus far, it is only a matter of time before we Chinese will triump over them; only this time, it will be on such a massive scale unprecedented in human history.
.political/economical stability/continuity - these are paramount pre-requisites before everything else can hope to flourish. That is why we must be absolutely patient & not be fooled into believing that we must have these so-called unfretted freedom, democracy, human rights blah blah blah... as so much hyped by these Western press. It does not mean these novel ideas are irrelevant or not good, there are indeed the ultimates that we too very much aspire for in our vast land. Just be careful/alerte that these ideals do invariably carry a heavy price - they will thwart or even derail our fast track to achieving our immediate goal of middle stage of a socialist egalitarian society. We just cannot afford the luxury of incessant debates/arguements/stand-off/even fist-fights like what is happenning in the Taiwanese so-called parliament or the Indian scenario where there are only incessant empty talks upon talks & talks & nothing seems to come to any fruitful materialisation

We very much wish that the world will give us some grace period in order to achieve our goals but it looks like that this is mere wishful thinkings. The storm is indeed building up to thwart/derail our efforts - the present charade of alleged poisoned food stuff, military threats, IPR infringements lawsuits, quotas on textiles/shoes etc, Olympics boycotts, African neo imperialism/colonialism allegations, dumping of cheap goods in developed countries, environmental degredations, carbon foot prints,under valuation of the RMB, support of rouged (just who give you the sole mandate to define others as rouge?)states etc....All these toxic/poisoneous insinuations just do not come out in a vacuum, for these elements existed in a long period of time since the 1980s & why/how come they now become so pertinent/foul are no mystery to us. THE TRUTH IS NOW REVEALED: after finding that THEY can no longer possibly compete with us on their conventional terms, THEY now resort to this twisted scheme in a desperate effort to slow, if not derail our advance towards achieving parity in all fields with THEM. Our own delinquents ( corrupt officials/cheats/immoral merchants,traders/dishonest businessmen/naive democrats/social badhats,scums etc) amongst our midst thus unconsciously/unknowingly provided the added fuel to fan the raging fire storm. As the lyrics of the song, `Decendants of the Dragon' sternly reminds us, I urge our countrymen to polish our eyes & see clearly the impendingb dangers & be prepared to do battle one way or another!

Well, mainlander:

What makes you a REALIST, different from others is you are Western educated, having gone through the unfair Apartheid of affirmative action for only the “majorities”, feeling constant pain of “kick in the a_s”. Just like your idol Prof. Lin Yifu, pretty much cornered having nowhere to turn to, China offers an excellent platform for these “die-hard” patriots. Whether your “patriotic” suggestions being heard or not is another matter. And so is Prof. Lin's.

Your strategy is very classic Overseas Chinese, or regional Asian work ethic – a process of “honest” tireless trial and errors quality improvement. You had cited the Toyota success case. Japanese automobile manufacturing started with an export model called Datsun B210, sells cheap and looks like paper toy in 1971, in a very short 10 years later, US auto-workers smashed an imported Honda in Detroit in protest that Japanese cars had creep into their territories.

An apparently young chap “A Chinese” asked me in this Blog that MNCs such as Ford, VW, IBM, Microsoft et... are doing well and been in China much longer. I might as well take the opportunity to give a history of all these MNCs. The very first Sino-US JV was AMC's Beijing Jeep in 1984. It was a total disaster, and later sold to Ford. VW came to China even earlier in Shanghai, but it was a white elephant of endless pit sucking in huge amount of investments with no return in sight. The Chinese Auto industry only took off eight years ago when domestic demands rose. The Chinese Auto industry has not gone through the classic process you had envisioned. Instead, it had copied (some say stolen) outright to “jump start” in every model and made. For example, a Zhonghua is a clone of BMW. If you make a survey of these MNCs asking who is making money so far, probably very few! Aside from these unethical commercial behavior, it would be even more naïve to believe Chinese are incapable to manage high-tech industries, other than stealing technology and investment.

Those who have gone through prejudice and struggled for success included Dr. Wang An, a Wuxi born, Harvard educated, applied physicist who changed the world of computer by inventing magnetic coil memory and pulse transfer control device. His invention was cheated and stolen by IBM (good jump start for IBM). Dr. Morris Chang, Ningbo born, Harvard/MIT/Stanford educated electrical engineer dedicated his entire professional career with Texas Instrument, until he found new life after retirement establishing TSMC becoming today's the largest semiconductor chip supplier in the world. Another one is Dr. Robert Tsao, Beiping born, MIT educated UMC chairman of the board. Except for pioneer Dr. Wang An who had passed away, the other two have set up shops in China, battling IPR infringement lawsuits with their Chinese partners, but all admitted in 3-5 years China will surpass Taiwan as the number one chip maker in the world. My point here is these are the very same people who were born in China and had excelled in the high-tech world. The list goes on...and on forever.... I believe China today can do much better and faster because they have mastered this trick of “jump start”.

Last but not least, I doubt very much the REAL mainlanders love their “motherland” as the way you do.

China Tsunami:

Glad to see you could have some basic knowledge of MNC in China. But again you like to distort some part of what actually happened in China with you own distorted explanation. Let me explain:

1. Do you know what is a JV? Isn't the investors from the West, no matter America, Europe or Japan, using their so-called advance technology as part of the investment putting into the JV(while Chinese partner invested money,local knowledge)? Furthermore, if these MNC want to have some competitive advantage in the Chinese market, do you think they could not transfer this knowledge to the local staff in the MNC? Then tell me what do you mean steal? What do you mean rob?

2. You mentioned that some of the JV doesn't make profit as quick as local companies, again you attribute this to the "steal" or "rob" technology. One alternative explanation is those early pioneers entered into Chinese with no idea what actually Chinese consumer really want, or their products were too expensive for the mass market while local companies using different strategies to target middle to high end of the market. So there is nothing to do with the technology but companies adopt different strategies.

3. finally let me conclude my comments with some key facts which you did not mention in your comments. For the car, do you who is the biggest manufacturer in China currently, VW. Then tell me how could you say those MNC could not survive in China for more than two years? Tell me how could you say their early investment got no return?

China Tsunami's last line rings so true- I do find, to my utter amusement,lots of local-born Mainlanders lacking the zeal of their ancestors to sacrifice for China. Some are even so naive to the hilt to think that the West is full of roses & thus just cannot wait to get out of China. It's so very sad! I dare bet my last dollar that overseas Chinese from SE Asia love China more than anything in their lives, more so than their adopted countries, which incidentally do not treat them fairly & humanly. The next time that we send our seafaring expeditionns to these south seas, so to speak, make sure we recognise the prevailing local conditions accurately & correctly, so as not to be overly indulged in unnecesary self samaritanism & totally unsolicited goodwill towards these countries-especially Malaysia & Indonesia. An overly kind displays of unwanted goodwill like the bestowing of Princess Hang LiPo to the Malacca Monach during the Malacca Sultanate & the most recent donations of foods & other reliefs to Acheh, Indonesia will not stop them (Malaysia & Indonesia)from their ill-treatments/persecutions or even constant pogroms against their local Chinese citizens. In these instances, we must roll up our benevolent Confucianist virtues & deal with these barbarians as harshly as humanly possible. The historical lesson learnt here is that China must not be shy to tame hostile enemies & wrest as many off-shore outposts as possible, like the Anglo Saxon people taking vast plots of overseas territories & in the process create an automatic 5 solid votes in the UN instantly (US,UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand). In historical hind sight, Malaysia would have been a Chinese majority country which would have made S'pore's current achievements pale into insignificance (it is no secret that S'pore's immensed success are built on the talents/capitals of disenfranchised/persecuted ex Malaysian/Indonesian Chinese immigrants. Lee Kuan Yew's grand father was an Indonesian Chinese. Nearly 60% of S'pore's current mininsters are ex Malaysian Chinese) by comparison if China were to have been stronger during the 1950s just before Malaya got her independence by giving the local Chinese a strong helping hand in wresting political control from the receeding British who already saw the potential threats posed to British interests from the more enterprising but vocal local Chinese. Instead, China withdrew into herself by her involvements in the Korean War, the Cultural Revolution & the Vietnam War, thus allowing the British to grant power to the more friendly, less aggressive & more maleable indigeneous Malays who now rule with the iron-fisted but undeclared policy of disenfranchising the minority Chinese/Indian populations. The rest is now history.

American Federal health officials warned consumers Wednesday to throw away certain cans of American made hot dog chili sauce after the product was linked to botulism in commercially canned foods. The products were made by the Castleberry's Food Co., owned by Bumble Bee Seafoods LLC, based in San Diego. FDA has sent experts to the Castleberry's plant in Augusta, Ga., where the products were canned.

Botulism is a muscle-paralyzing disease caused by a toxin made by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum. The toxin is so potent if they get it on their hands or it sprays in their face, it could make them ill.

Symptoms of botulism include double or blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and muscle weakness that moves down the body, according to the CDC. Eventually, paralysis can cause a person to stop breathing and die, unless supported by a ventilator.

Four people were hospitalized. The victims _ two each in Texas and Indiana _ were seriously ill but expected to survive.

The warning applies to 10-ounce cans of Castleberry's, Austex and Kroger brands of hot dog chili sauce with "best by" dates from April 30, 2009, through May 22, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration said.

mainlander:

Likewise, in China, it would certainly bring a lot of tears to hear those heart-broken stories of over due justice, dating back to the 1910 Penang conference at which Overseas Chinese poured out their life savings to finance Dr. Sun Yat Sen's revolution. 2,000 young lorry drivers together with the entire Chinese community's savings returned to China to finance military war planes & lorries, and the building of Burma highway during the Jap invasion. A memorial park, currently in neglected state, in Malacca commemorating 21 local fine young lads serving the KMT army scarified their lives in fighting the Japanese invasion in China. Seven Penang Chung Ling high school alumni, including the one and only 16 year-old young girl (still alive today), joined the Mao's red army in Yan-an between 1937 to 1947. Chen Ping and his comrades-in-arms fought in Malaysian jungles for ideology now completely abandoned. Floods of intellectuals returned in the early 1950s to contribute to this unknown forefathers' “motherland”. Almost 100% of these “patriotic” returnees were branded as either counter-revolutionary or accused of having overseas connections, a very serious crime then, during the turbulent years of cultural revolution. Tons of investments came in as the country opened up for reform in early 1980s, but only being cheated or robed in no time.......The list goes on and on with many time voids already skipped.

With all these selfless, “patriotic” predecessors before you, I really don't know what to say.

You should consider yourself as the “lucky one” today.

China Tsunami,

There are indeed a painful and shameful chapter in Chinese history around that time which is a pretty sad extention out of 1860.

What we learned from that? A country should adapt its policy out of the operational need in a pragmatic manner and NOT trying with unrealistic "blueprint". Mao's extremist policy was out of such plan that mixing some of Western-bred communist wetdreams and some of old Chinese bad tricks. In such high-emotional charged plan, whoever are not in same pages would end up in some of hellholes. So for me, it is nice to see today's government is as pragmatic as it can, and lacks any of those unrealistic ambitions. I don't mind China has democracy one day, but I don't want to lose a leg for it. Everyone who has a real understanding of democracy probably know that the first pre-requirement is a common identity. If I saw some one (like West) promotes democracy in China while promoting seperate Chinese identity (in case of Tibet and Xinjiang), I know where that fishy smell come from. I don't mind China has the freedom of express, but I want those media really understand how a "real free" Western media do. I also want more human rights in China, but like the process build on a progressive, undisruptive manner.

As long as people understand they don't have to subscribe any non-senses, instead of working on the real issues. It should go a long way.

China Tsunami, the story of government betrayal of its citizens happened in all countries around the world. In that sense, China is not special nor more guilty than others.

"China Tsunami's last line rings so true- I do find, to my utter amusement,lots of local-born Mainlanders lacking the zeal of their ancestors to sacrifice for China. Some are even so naive to the hilt to think that the West is full of roses & thus just cannot wait to get out of China."

not true, at least for me. dont worry. i used to be like that until i actually went to the west and now seriously i want to get out once my degree is done i'm going home.

i'm was born and raised in china. hometown's wuhan, in hubei province. you've probably never heard of it but it's one of the largest cities in china. nice little industrial town. love it there. wouldn't trade it for beijing or shanghai (though honestly those places are much better in almost every way), wouldn't trade it for america (now, some places in america are MUCH worse), wouldn't trade it for anything. attending college in the U.S. currently.

once i get my hands on the plane ticket, i'll just say, hell yes, its time to go back and make some history because there's nothing left for me behind here.

This is a matter of standards, legal enforcement, and perhaps an excessively competitive environment, not a matter of national manufacturing competence.

they've got. You got to stoop pretty low to argue with them, so why bother? Just don't even lower your standards to respond to them.