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2013-08-11 China-Japan-Koreas

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Posted by Shipman 2013-08-11 10:02|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 PLace is getting insufficiently Marxist for SOAS (i.e. degree waster ).

If he hates it then China is doing better than I thought.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-08-11 11:11|| 2013-08-11 11:11|| Front Page Top

#2 In love with the state. Pathetic.

Posted by M. Murcek 2013-08-11 11:18|| 2013-08-11 11:18|| Front Page Top

#3 BP, I think you're reading into it things he didn't say. He _did_ talk about greed and status, but... the Big Marxist Enterprises like Russia and China have _always_ been about Greed and Status.

People weren't scared of Stalin because they thought the Red Army was going to come in and make everyone pay the burger-flippers a livable wage.

And the author realizes these things, that's why he specifically mentions "Sixty years of self-serving socialism."

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2013-08-11 11:52|| 2013-08-11 11:52|| Front Page Top

#4 English Expat, leaves China....... Kenya, Rhodesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Nyasoland, Togoland, West Africa, Aden, Guiana, Nigeria.

Can they not get along anywhere, or are we to blame the genetics of social histocompatibility ?

Posted by Besoeker 2013-08-11 11:53|| 2013-08-11 11:53|| Front Page Top

#5 Read the article. Whatever he was that put him in the London Universitys School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as a youth he has been and is an entrepreneur in a land where he is an outsider.

Worth the read, best not to comment until you do so. And the article has a link discussing the response to the original article.

Especially important read for those interested in doing business in China.

Posted by tipover 2013-08-11 12:03|| 2013-08-11 12:03|| Front Page Top

#6 Read the article before commenting. It's still quite clear he was in love of the top down model, where the state makes you a good person. It's never worked. It never will...

Posted by M. Murcek 2013-08-11 12:10|| 2013-08-11 12:10|| Front Page Top

#7 Let me try this, with emphasis:

Modern day mainland Chinese society is focused on one object: money and the acquisition thereof. The politically correct term in China is economic benefit. The country and its people, on average, are far wealthier than they were 25 years ago. Traditional family culture, thanks to 60 years of self-serving socialism followed by another 30 of the one child policy, has become a me culture. Except where there is economic benefit to be had, communities do not act together, and when they do it is only to ensure equal financial compensation for the pollution, or the government-sponsored illegal land grab, or the poisoned children. Social status, so important in Chinese culture and more so thanks to those 60 years of communism, is defined by the display of wealth. Cars, apartments, personal jewellery, clothing, pets: all must be new and shiny, and carry a famous foreign brand name. In the small rural village where we live I am not asked about my health or that of my family, I am asked how much money our small business is making, how much our car cost, our dog.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2013-08-11 13:10|| 2013-08-11 13:10|| Front Page Top

#8 Tom Freidman abroad?

Posted by Frank G 2013-08-11 13:45|| 2013-08-11 13:45|| Front Page Top

#9 I've been a Sinophile for a while now - several Chinese girlfriends and on my way back again to visit Chongqing in about 4 weeks. I really love China and have thought about living there many times, but I just don't see it happening. He is right. It would be a great place to goof off a few years as an English teacher, but there are too many obstacles to setting up camp there for the long term.

Posted by Beau 2013-08-11 14:12|| 2013-08-11 14:12|| Front Page Top

#10 If you wait long enough China will be coming here as they buy America via bankruptcy court. I imagine that with Detroits voting history China would be more welcome than say the Koch Brothers.

Posted by Airandee 2013-08-11 15:09|| 2013-08-11 15:09|| Front Page Top

#11 If you wait long enough China will be coming here as they buy America via bankruptcy court.

One of the writer's points is that China is working up to a couple of major economic crashes, due to Communist Party short-term thinking and -- my interpolation here -- a lack of basic economic understanding. China may well not have long enough to buy up the rest of the world, nor the financial depth or diversity or whatever to leave their money in investments abroad when things go badly wrong back home.

A good article, dear Shipman, which is generating a useful discussion. I'm glad you posted it.

I'm also looking forward to any thoughts Scooter McGruder might have, as he is over there now.

Posted by trailing wife 2013-08-11 16:38|| 2013-08-11 16:38|| Front Page Top

#12 I see China crashing economically and turning back to militaristic repression internally as well as external assholery around the local oil fields

Posted by Frank G 2013-08-11 17:11|| 2013-08-11 17:11|| Front Page Top

#13 All things equal, China wants overseas PLA milbases, i.e. what the Superpower USA had after 1945 + Cold War, UK in the 19th thru mid 20th century, + "great power" world predecessors.

Despite its rhetoric, I see no sign that China is seriously willing to amend or give the above up - IFF ANYTHING, THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE I.E. CHINA IS PREPPING TO MILPOL CONFRONT + WAGE WAR TO ACHIEVE IT.

China's history points towards PROTRACTIVE OR PHASED, INTENSE "LIMITED WAR(S)" WHERE HIGH COMBAT = PLA CASUALTIES IS NOT A MAJOR OR DECIDING FACTOR.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2013-08-11 19:59|| 2013-08-11 19:59|| Front Page Top

#14 Case in point Joe - they are now talking about a $80 billion tunnel from the mainland to Taiwan. That ought to be popular ...

Posted by Beau 2013-08-11 22:16|| 2013-08-11 22:16|| Front Page Top

23:13 Redneck Jim
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