I may well have promised photographs. I may well have been somewhat hasty with that promise, but they'll come up soon enough.
On a side-note, china is going to send up a female astronaut.
The fact this article is garbage (quoting comments in a BBC article, really? A thinly veiled attempt to impress the world that he can understand chinese) is neither here nor there; the criteria for eligibility are actually quite interesting. Have at least one child, be married, no birthing scars. They're carefully picked to ensure the wholesome image of a family friendly, cuddly, china.
As a side note, everyone has scars. The reason they cite for not having them is they might explode in space. What? It's obvious that isn't a real reason, so it must be for the whole purity of image thing.
As someone pointed out, similar restrictions were in place for the original american astronauts fifty years ago.
That seems to prove just how far behind the chinese really are. Scientifically, they're probably only a few years behind in most areas, but socially they're generations away from gaining parity. I wonder if it's necessary to be within a similar societal structure for technological advancement to evolve on its own. The old communists proved that it's untenable with their model (despite being in the lead,' for a while) so I'm cautious to predict them overtaking anyone in the sciences. Evidently, they're taking over the world economically. They're already the most important country in the world (whether others accept it or not) but they've broken through via means that are designed to stifle innovation, creativity and invention. In this world, they're commodities that are pre-requisites for cutting edge advancement.
It seems to me (some might say luckily) that china will not take the mantle of science and technology superpower, at least while they cling onto faux communism.
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
How to Fix Results
FIXED - Formatting and pictures, I don't know why it did that.
Don't read this if you're a grandparent.
Read this article by the BBC.
Read the whole thing, and now sit back while I demolish it.
First up, an opinion I voiced a few weeks ago that caused upright outrage in the comments section. Check out the post I uploaded here; read the first few lines, become bored, then skip to the comments. The gist is this: a chinese person was claiming that they don't copy others, and their education system is a unique flower uncorrupted by those Japanese dogs, or the damned meddling Western Pigs. (By the way, doesn't that sound like an awesome american football or rugby league team name?)
Then feast your eyeballs on this quote:
.... willing to adopt the best educational practices from around the world to ensure success.
The BBC often get things wrong, as do I, as do the Great Chinese Peoples Republican Party members. (That is probably a real title somewhere in china.)
In this case, the reporter is not wrong. He is so far from being wrong, that he is in fact correct.
Alas, I will undoubtedly be listed to the chinese governments 'behead on sight,' list, which interestingly includes a large number of the BBC themselves. That or they just won't let me into the country.
The thing that makes me chuckle about this situation, is that they see copying as a great national source of embarrassment - as if china hasn't stolen ideas for the last fifty years, and mass produced them on the cheap. As if the entire economic foundation of china isn't based on 'finding,' plans for western developed electronics, then 'appropriating,' their designs for domestic and international markets, at a fraction of the original cost.
There are literally millions of examples, and if really needed, I will take it on my own back to list a hundred of these copies. I will do it, if the internet starts getting uppety again.
(Please don't make me trawl the internet to find that shite.)
So here we are - after a paid up communist party member denies it, the BBC does some hard hitting research and finds that china actually copies people.
And wow, it works. Why be ashamed of that? Communists 0, privileged shanghai schoolkids 1, the rest of the world ??? Results yet to be confirmed.
So moving onto the rest of the article (thanks for persisting through that amazing rant).
Early on in the article we learn that the results are only based on two major cities. Shanghai, the western centric (oh crap, I've lit another bonfire under someones ass with that intimation, haven't I) city of china (and to qualify that, it's western centric compared to the rest of china, as a traditional port for western and asian countries alike. It was also one of the first economic development zones established by the commies, way back when.) and Hong Kong, which was owned by Britain a decade or two ago.
Unsurprisingly, Hong Kong has solid foundations in infrastructure, housing, waste management, education and whatnot, thanks to the influence of imperial rule. What HK has done so well, is take these foundations and apply good, communist work ethic to everything - improving things in a way its ex-rulers could only hope to accomplish.
What I didn't know until reading this article, is that some consider the Shanghai leading light and economic development zone to be elitist.
Don't read this if you're a grandparent.
Read this article by the BBC.
Read the whole thing, and now sit back while I demolish it.
First up, an opinion I voiced a few weeks ago that caused upright outrage in the comments section. Check out the post I uploaded here; read the first few lines, become bored, then skip to the comments. The gist is this: a chinese person was claiming that they don't copy others, and their education system is a unique flower uncorrupted by those Japanese dogs, or the damned meddling Western Pigs. (By the way, doesn't that sound like an awesome american football or rugby league team name?)
Then feast your eyeballs on this quote:
.... willing to adopt the best educational practices from around the world to ensure success.
The BBC often get things wrong, as do I, as do the Great Chinese Peoples Republican Party members. (That is probably a real title somewhere in china.)
In this case, the reporter is not wrong. He is so far from being wrong, that he is in fact correct.
Alas, I will undoubtedly be listed to the chinese governments 'behead on sight,' list, which interestingly includes a large number of the BBC themselves. That or they just won't let me into the country.
The thing that makes me chuckle about this situation, is that they see copying as a great national source of embarrassment - as if china hasn't stolen ideas for the last fifty years, and mass produced them on the cheap. As if the entire economic foundation of china isn't based on 'finding,' plans for western developed electronics, then 'appropriating,' their designs for domestic and international markets, at a fraction of the original cost.
There are literally millions of examples, and if really needed, I will take it on my own back to list a hundred of these copies. I will do it, if the internet starts getting uppety again.
(Please don't make me trawl the internet to find that shite.)
So here we are - after a paid up communist party member denies it, the BBC does some hard hitting research and finds that china actually copies people.
And wow, it works. Why be ashamed of that? Communists 0, privileged shanghai schoolkids 1, the rest of the world ??? Results yet to be confirmed.
So moving onto the rest of the article (thanks for persisting through that amazing rant).
Early on in the article we learn that the results are only based on two major cities. Shanghai, the western centric (oh crap, I've lit another bonfire under someones ass with that intimation, haven't I) city of china (and to qualify that, it's western centric compared to the rest of china, as a traditional port for western and asian countries alike. It was also one of the first economic development zones established by the commies, way back when.) and Hong Kong, which was owned by Britain a decade or two ago.
Unsurprisingly, Hong Kong has solid foundations in infrastructure, housing, waste management, education and whatnot, thanks to the influence of imperial rule. What HK has done so well, is take these foundations and apply good, communist work ethic to everything - improving things in a way its ex-rulers could only hope to accomplish.
What I didn't know until reading this article, is that some consider the Shanghai leading light and economic development zone to be elitist.
Shanghai controls who lives and works in the city through China's notorious "houkou" or permanent residency system, allowing only the best and the brightest to become residents with access to jobs and schools.
"For over 50 years Shanghai has been accumulating talent, the cream of the cream in China. That gives it an incredible advantage," says Ruth Heyhoe, former head of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now at the University of Toronto.
Notice how I prefaced that statement with the word 'some.' That's because I'm afraid of waking up with a horses head in my bed. It's only a single after all, and there wouldn't be much pillow real estate.
The truth is this: china is a third world country.
It also has a behemoth of an economy, built on the back of a billion exceedingly poor chinese.
When you make a million people work, take all their money and pump it into a few cities, population totaling tens of millions, is anyone surprised when they turn out to be extremely strong in any discipline they wish? Couple this incredible economic power with nazi style person management, that is to say; only the blonde haired blue eyed individual (in this case, the best and brightest) is allowed into the city, should they be proud of their achievement, or ashamed at the thousands who die every day in their countrysides from curable diseases, or lack of sanitation or clean water, or AIDS.
Congratulations china, your communist ideals are truly worthy of praise by one and all.
I no longer expect a shitstorm, more of a shitvolcano accompanied by a shithurricane and shittsunami.
I don't even have time to address the claim that the tests are inclusive of migrant labourer children, and the undesirables - despite the vast, vast majority of them being too young for their testing, making their claims false. It's all in the article, read it again.
I don't even have time to address the claim that the tests are inclusive of migrant labourer children, and the undesirables - despite the vast, vast majority of them being too young for their testing, making their claims false. It's all in the article, read it again.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Amazing Fact of the Day
An article published one year ago on the BBC website states that:
"Just two years ago, only 5% of Chinese internet users knew that the government censored the internet," Mr Mao says.
(He's some activist plotting the usage of firewall circumventing software in china.)
At first I thought it was a communication error; he actually meant to say that only 5% of people know how to get round censoring. It turns out that's not the case. The figure seems suspect, but the point stands. How can someone be so stupid as to think that the warning signs saying 'the content you are accessing does not adhere to law and therefore cannot be viewed' (a rough translation) is a normal internet message to receive. What's more, law is subject to the country you live in, so even if you are an alien who has never seen a computer or the internet before, you know this message is based on the country in which you now reside.
Seriously dumb.
It's become better in recent times; some 35% (a different website, a newer report) now know that they're not seeing the real thing.
I think people are also failing to see the non-political reason behind the firewalls existence. There are more people using the internet over there than anywhere else in the world. They are using cloned services of everything we have in the West, the difference being that none of the revenues are heading to american multi-nationals. They stay within china, and help ensure amazing growth by letting none of the profits leak outside of the country. Couple this with the (literally tens of millions of) migrant workers who tend fields and build machines outside of china, who are a constant source of money flowing back into china (via web services accessible outside of china, but with operations squarely inside china) and you have a lucrative source of foreign investment, without the need to pay foreign taxes or have foreign headquarters. If a UK company relied on expats to make money in this way, they would get nowhere as the incumbent group in question is tiny. The chinese seem to perform every task in largesse, however - leading their internet machine to be worth billions, and it will continue to grow at the exponential rate their economy has been.
Wild prediction time - 2011 will be the year the chinese economy stumbles.
2012 will be the year the chinese economy falls flat on its face. Lots of bloodshed will follow.
"Just two years ago, only 5% of Chinese internet users knew that the government censored the internet," Mr Mao says.
(He's some activist plotting the usage of firewall circumventing software in china.)
At first I thought it was a communication error; he actually meant to say that only 5% of people know how to get round censoring. It turns out that's not the case. The figure seems suspect, but the point stands. How can someone be so stupid as to think that the warning signs saying 'the content you are accessing does not adhere to law and therefore cannot be viewed' (a rough translation) is a normal internet message to receive. What's more, law is subject to the country you live in, so even if you are an alien who has never seen a computer or the internet before, you know this message is based on the country in which you now reside.
Seriously dumb.
It's become better in recent times; some 35% (a different website, a newer report) now know that they're not seeing the real thing.
I think people are also failing to see the non-political reason behind the firewalls existence. There are more people using the internet over there than anywhere else in the world. They are using cloned services of everything we have in the West, the difference being that none of the revenues are heading to american multi-nationals. They stay within china, and help ensure amazing growth by letting none of the profits leak outside of the country. Couple this with the (literally tens of millions of) migrant workers who tend fields and build machines outside of china, who are a constant source of money flowing back into china (via web services accessible outside of china, but with operations squarely inside china) and you have a lucrative source of foreign investment, without the need to pay foreign taxes or have foreign headquarters. If a UK company relied on expats to make money in this way, they would get nowhere as the incumbent group in question is tiny. The chinese seem to perform every task in largesse, however - leading their internet machine to be worth billions, and it will continue to grow at the exponential rate their economy has been.
Wild prediction time - 2011 will be the year the chinese economy stumbles.
2012 will be the year the chinese economy falls flat on its face. Lots of bloodshed will follow.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Breaking News: China is Mad.
China recently published its version of the traditional maritime map, for the South-East Asian seas it falls into.
The yanks have now moved to contain China, by befriending all the people that China have pissed off by declaring planet Earth theirs.
Except Vietnam of course.
I'd imagine it would take a lot of empty promises and back-handers to smooth things over with them
Of course China as a collective have nothing to fear.
America couldn't contain a paper bag.
Except Vietnam of course.
I'd imagine it would take a lot of empty promises and back-handers to smooth things over with them
Of course China as a collective have nothing to fear.
America couldn't contain a paper bag.
Friday, 23 July 2010
Good Old China Does it Again.
Not two weeks after the latest spate of forced evictions, the report into the 2008 Tibet demonstration massacre is released.
The chinese government officially killed seventeen people, and unofficially murdered two hundred. A particularly charming murder occurred when a woman was detained for eight days, after tearing down a poster on a police station. Her crime, that of defacing a piece of paper, earned her torture and beatings so severe, that she couldn't eat without vomiting, she was unable to speak, and she had difficulty breathing. She died twenty two days later.
Another fantastic example of human rights comes courtesy of the same event, as people were left to die on the doorsteps of hospitals. Why weren't they treated? All hospitals in the area were told to lock their doors, and accept no-one on the days of the riots.
Classy.
When talking about china, it's often mentioned that america, and indeed the west at large, should force change upon them; presumably through some economic measure. The blind hypocrisy of the west when condemning these acts of violence on the one hand, and supplying them with raw materials and purchasing from them with the other, is not lost on those I talk to.
To understand the reason no-one in the west cares we should look at the latest governmental evictions in Shanghai.
Tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes, not to make way for a fantastical government project, like the thousands who were made homeless by the Beijing Olympics, or the thousands more who were made homeless by the recent Trade fair in the same city.
No, these people have been evicted by Disney. They're building a new Disneyland in Shanghai, and thanks to the american mega-corporation, thousands of essentially harmless chinese people, depending on subsistence farming and basic wage jobs, are moving into destitute tenement blocks to live out their lives in poverty.
Way to go Disney. While Obama condemns chinese co-operation with North Korea, his country funds Billions of dollars worth of investment in the same government he condemns.
Hypocrisy 1 Sanity 0
The chinese government officially killed seventeen people, and unofficially murdered two hundred. A particularly charming murder occurred when a woman was detained for eight days, after tearing down a poster on a police station. Her crime, that of defacing a piece of paper, earned her torture and beatings so severe, that she couldn't eat without vomiting, she was unable to speak, and she had difficulty breathing. She died twenty two days later.
Another fantastic example of human rights comes courtesy of the same event, as people were left to die on the doorsteps of hospitals. Why weren't they treated? All hospitals in the area were told to lock their doors, and accept no-one on the days of the riots.
Classy.
When talking about china, it's often mentioned that america, and indeed the west at large, should force change upon them; presumably through some economic measure. The blind hypocrisy of the west when condemning these acts of violence on the one hand, and supplying them with raw materials and purchasing from them with the other, is not lost on those I talk to.
To understand the reason no-one in the west cares we should look at the latest governmental evictions in Shanghai.
Tens of thousands were forced to leave their homes, not to make way for a fantastical government project, like the thousands who were made homeless by the Beijing Olympics, or the thousands more who were made homeless by the recent Trade fair in the same city.
No, these people have been evicted by Disney. They're building a new Disneyland in Shanghai, and thanks to the american mega-corporation, thousands of essentially harmless chinese people, depending on subsistence farming and basic wage jobs, are moving into destitute tenement blocks to live out their lives in poverty.
Way to go Disney. While Obama condemns chinese co-operation with North Korea, his country funds Billions of dollars worth of investment in the same government he condemns.
Hypocrisy 1 Sanity 0
Friday, 29 January 2010
Yes, England is just as Corrupt and Lie Encrusted, the Difference is; I can see This.
I was going to lead this post with my snookering exploits; but I instead lead with an interesting story.
I use QQ messenger; chinas' direct MSN equivalent. This is legacy software from a past life, but it occasionally throws up interesting conversations. This software isn't used outside of china; bar the abundance of middle-class chinese migrants scurrying around Europe and america. As one of the few English speakers on their network; I'm something of a fascinating oddity for the two hundred million users in china. Let me just say that again. This software has 200 million active users. That's around 1/5th of the worlds pc's, including home pc's, and commercial enterprise computers. Pc's that aren't actually pc's, things such as PVR's are included in this figure. This is, as sobering and literal as possible, the single most popular piece of software in the world; bar windows, upon which it runs. People don't have a choice when it comes to windows though...
Anyway; I'm an oddity on this system, not having a chinese name or login; therefore tons of people add me to their 'buddy list,' and I have a cross-section of the chinese middle classes at my fingertips.
I've asked every person that's added me on QQ,
(I don't understand enough chinese to add anyone, so I'm reliant on curious individuals adding me instead. This will obviously distort the nature of my anecdotal findings, purely because the type of individual inquisitive enough to add a scary foreigner will have had a different upbringing and psychology to someone who doesn't. I only mention this, because it's good practice to be aware of limitations of interpretation throughout. This is something traditional media conveniently forgets, by the way.)
a large number of china related questions. Things such as, 'do you like china?' And, 'do you think Tibet should be separated from china?' Any number of things. Out of the 100+ people who've added me; I've found that roughly zero have ever said anything remotely negative about china.
Anyway, I bring this up now because someone recently added me; and when confronted with the question of whether he liked china, (and some subsequent to-and-fro) he produced this:
'China's modern history is a history of humiliation. The Chinese people bullied by foreigners. Communist Party of China led the Chinese people defeated the aggressors and the Communist Party of China to the Chinese people have been bullied by the end of the day. I love the Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of China also love the Chinese people'
Now; this is quite the line; so I assumed this is an paragraph from a party speech, so inquired as to its' origins. It transpires that the long pause was him writing and translating this himself.
I was intrigued at this point; so pressed onward. After asking whether his government would also be capable of lying, I received this response:
'chinese goverment no lies,'
I use QQ messenger; chinas' direct MSN equivalent. This is legacy software from a past life, but it occasionally throws up interesting conversations. This software isn't used outside of china; bar the abundance of middle-class chinese migrants scurrying around Europe and america. As one of the few English speakers on their network; I'm something of a fascinating oddity for the two hundred million users in china. Let me just say that again. This software has 200 million active users. That's around 1/5th of the worlds pc's, including home pc's, and commercial enterprise computers. Pc's that aren't actually pc's, things such as PVR's are included in this figure. This is, as sobering and literal as possible, the single most popular piece of software in the world; bar windows, upon which it runs. People don't have a choice when it comes to windows though...
Anyway; I'm an oddity on this system, not having a chinese name or login; therefore tons of people add me to their 'buddy list,' and I have a cross-section of the chinese middle classes at my fingertips.
I've asked every person that's added me on QQ,
(I don't understand enough chinese to add anyone, so I'm reliant on curious individuals adding me instead. This will obviously distort the nature of my anecdotal findings, purely because the type of individual inquisitive enough to add a scary foreigner will have had a different upbringing and psychology to someone who doesn't. I only mention this, because it's good practice to be aware of limitations of interpretation throughout. This is something traditional media conveniently forgets, by the way.)
a large number of china related questions. Things such as, 'do you like china?' And, 'do you think Tibet should be separated from china?' Any number of things. Out of the 100+ people who've added me; I've found that roughly zero have ever said anything remotely negative about china.
Anyway, I bring this up now because someone recently added me; and when confronted with the question of whether he liked china, (and some subsequent to-and-fro) he produced this:
'China's modern history is a history of humiliation. The Chinese people bullied by foreigners. Communist Party of China led the Chinese people defeated the aggressors and the Communist Party of China to the Chinese people have been bullied by the end of the day. I love the Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of China also love the Chinese people'
Now; this is quite the line; so I assumed this is an paragraph from a party speech, so inquired as to its' origins. It transpires that the long pause was him writing and translating this himself.
I was intrigued at this point; so pressed onward. After asking whether his government would also be capable of lying, I received this response:
'chinese goverment no lies,'
Not surprisingly it turns out that, 'i hate ur goverment,' was to follow this statement. Having established that this guy loves china, and hates the rest of the world (except america. This puzzles me enormously, but chinese love america, and hate Europe) he then goes ahead and shows me this video. It's worth watching, because you have to travel across the pond for this kind of mindless patriotism. It really is incredible that a human being could come up with it; but then again, it was probably against his wishes.
(I again interject to point out that Europe is the number one purchaser of chinese goods, products and services. america is a paltry third, behind Japan. Considering america hates them, and everything they stand for, one would expect a little more hostility. This isn't the case however, and logic once again deflates in the face of human emotion (see:stupidity))
So having declared china masters of the universe, Tibet rightful property, and all other races (bar america) inferior, he drops this peach into the conversation: 'chinese love peace so china dont take over the world.... All of the world can be happy with life on this earth.... tibet belongs china forever.... The Tibetan people's life is very happy.'
At this point it's merely a pain to raise other factors in this conversation; but I will anyway:
China's modern history is a history of humiliation. The Chinese people bullied by foreigners. Communist Party of China led the Chinese people defeated the aggressors and the Communist Party of China to the Chinese people have been bullied by the end of the day. I love the Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of China also love the Chinese people
'NotAllama 4:24:25 PM
What is that?
itis the truth
_(VS_(O5Z9(LM[8U`3]~7A.jpg)
(I again interject to point out that Europe is the number one purchaser of chinese goods, products and services. america is a paltry third, behind Japan. Considering america hates them, and everything they stand for, one would expect a little more hostility. This isn't the case however, and logic once again deflates in the face of human emotion (see:stupidity))
So having declared china masters of the universe, Tibet rightful property, and all other races (bar america) inferior, he drops this peach into the conversation: 'chinese love peace so china dont take over the world.... All of the world can be happy with life on this earth.... tibet belongs china forever.... The Tibetan people's life is very happy.'
At this point it's merely a pain to raise other factors in this conversation; but I will anyway:
China's modern history is a history of humiliation. The Chinese people bullied by foreigners. Communist Party of China led the Chinese people defeated the aggressors and the Communist Party of China to the Chinese people have been bullied by the end of the day. I love the Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of China also love the Chinese people
'NotAllama 4:24:25 PM
What is that?
itis the truth
Chat logs aren't very interesting, but here's another one anyway:
The Chinese people will always remember that period of humiliating history, so the Chinese people strive to build the motherland, and hope that their country could be more powerful. Only our country strong the Chinese people will not be bullied
When asked whether all chinese people could afford computers he replied:
NotAllama 5:17:34 PM
A computer costs a lot of money
X
no
NotAllama 5:17:47 PM
Yes it does
X
3000RMB
NotAllama 5:17:57 PM
Most chinese people cannot afford a computer!
X
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
NotAllama 5:18:43 PM
What is impossible?
X
THEY CAN AFFORD A COMPUTER
NotAllama 5:20:49 PM
Every chinese person can afford a computer?
X
BUT THEY DONT WANT TO SPEND MONEY IN COMPUTER
X
NO
X
MOST OF CHINESE CAN AFFORD IT'
A computer costs a lot of money
X
no
NotAllama 5:17:47 PM
Yes it does
X
3000RMB
NotAllama 5:17:57 PM
Most chinese people cannot afford a computer!
X
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
NotAllama 5:18:43 PM
What is impossible?
X
THEY CAN AFFORD A COMPUTER
NotAllama 5:20:49 PM
Every chinese person can afford a computer?
X
BUT THEY DONT WANT TO SPEND MONEY IN COMPUTER
X
NO
X
MOST OF CHINESE CAN AFFORD IT'
These ravings are uncommon in my experience, but are representative of the general blind faith. Who needs religion?
It later transpired that he was, in fact, a she; studying politics at university, readying to become a fledgling member of the government. The adage 'start them young,' has never seen a more appropriate usage...
Laugh or cry, it will be decades before some semblence of rationality is brought to those shores; I just hope I can visit someday, and escape with my life!
(I fully understand the chinese secret police will now murder me in my sleep; or simply ban me from entering the country)
Monday, 4 January 2010
Trade Agreements
A deal struck a few years ago, affecting some 2 billion people, came into effect on the first of this month. I've not heard anything about it in the news, so here's a little investigative journalism of my own.
It's a deal between a large number of Asian countries, reducing trade tariffs on select goods, in order to promote trade between them. Much like the EU, it's designed to increase the competitiveness of the area as a whole, and therefore benefit individual members.
The different approaches to world domination seem to strike an interesting comparison. america bullies everyone, invading anyone who has anything of value.
The EU tries to be the friend of everyone, with no clearly defined leadership (the epitome of democracy, with all the benefits and flaws that brings) while this new 'alliance' of sorts takes a communist approach to EU style trade wrangling. That is to say, do what china tells you.
"The average tariff rate on Chinese goods sold in ASEAN countries decreased from 12.8 to 0.6 percent on 1 January 2010 pending implementation of the free trade area by the remaining ASEAN members. Meanwhile, the average tariff rate on ASEAN goods sold in China decreased from 9.8 to 0.1 percent."
This means that china gets everything for .1% of previous prices, while charging .6% of previous prices. So while they still threaten other countries with force, as america does, they also screw other countries over financially, as america also does. Who knew communism and capitalism were so similar. It's also interesting to note that china always had a sweet deal.
It begs the question 'why?' though, because china is only a decade away from being the most powerful country in the world, and no one will stop them; so why bother striking up these deals? Presumably the money they lose in these deals goes towards securing their neighbouring countries favour. I doubt the likes of Vietnam could hate the americans any more though, so it all seems rather pointless from a chinese perspective.
One final tidbit: The ten largest economies in the world, in their relative positions.
Will everyone please now realise how insignificant England is in terms of the world; but how important the EU really is.
The reason why we get crappy laws implemented unto us by the EU is because we are unimportant. Realise this.
It's a deal between a large number of Asian countries, reducing trade tariffs on select goods, in order to promote trade between them. Much like the EU, it's designed to increase the competitiveness of the area as a whole, and therefore benefit individual members.
The different approaches to world domination seem to strike an interesting comparison. america bullies everyone, invading anyone who has anything of value.
The EU tries to be the friend of everyone, with no clearly defined leadership (the epitome of democracy, with all the benefits and flaws that brings) while this new 'alliance' of sorts takes a communist approach to EU style trade wrangling. That is to say, do what china tells you.
"The average tariff rate on Chinese goods sold in ASEAN countries decreased from 12.8 to 0.6 percent on 1 January 2010 pending implementation of the free trade area by the remaining ASEAN members. Meanwhile, the average tariff rate on ASEAN goods sold in China decreased from 9.8 to 0.1 percent."
This means that china gets everything for .1% of previous prices, while charging .6% of previous prices. So while they still threaten other countries with force, as america does, they also screw other countries over financially, as america also does. Who knew communism and capitalism were so similar. It's also interesting to note that china always had a sweet deal.
It begs the question 'why?' though, because china is only a decade away from being the most powerful country in the world, and no one will stop them; so why bother striking up these deals? Presumably the money they lose in these deals goes towards securing their neighbouring countries favour. I doubt the likes of Vietnam could hate the americans any more though, so it all seems rather pointless from a chinese perspective.
One final tidbit: The ten largest economies in the world, in their relative positions.
The reason why we get crappy laws implemented unto us by the EU is because we are unimportant. Realise this.
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