Can China Be More Helpful?

 http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-can-china-be-more-helpful/

We all know that stuff has been going down in the Ukraine. Russia is just kind of doing what ever they (Putin) wants, the Ukraine doesn't want Russia anywhere near them and the West is just watching...waiting to see what Russia is going to do and how we (the west) will act. But what is China doing? So far, from we can tell, China is just been very cautious on the situation as a whole. Just feeding Russia tips on what they should be doing, not what Putin is doing though. What they should be doing is embarking on a quiet diplomacy to help urge Russia to back down from the Ukraine. But ofcourse, Russia is unwilling to take China's advice as a friend who knows whats going to happen. Article post is at the top by the picture.

Walmart and China Might Not Be Such Good Friends After All.

Walmart, one of the biggest multi-national supermarket stores is starting to be bullied by their very own goods supplier. That supplier and culprit is China. Walmart is now asking Beijing to rewrite the rules for them after having to pay off several minor complaints. For example, one complaint was Walmart selling food with a label that had English letters printed larger than the Chinese ones for $383. Yes, only $383 but the problem is they have had countless number of small complaints like this and are constantly getting fined. Over the past couple years it has actually added up to 9.8 million dollars. You would think a big $250billion "heavy weight"  wouldn't really care about this but apparently they do. This is just a "little" issue in China and do you think it will affect any relationship status between Walmart and China? Honestly... Probably not but still something to think about.

This article was found on at  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10766396/Walmart-tells-Beijing-to-improve-food-labelling-rules.html

Is the Communist Party's Time Running Out?

There is a civil rights group within China that is once again causing trouble the Chinese Communist Party. This group is called the "New Citizens' Movement" and they are ready to fight for China.  This is their leader -->
his name is Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar and activist, was detained on charges of "disturbing public order"

This man just wants to help the people of China get a better life. He believes that "The light of freedom, fairness, justice and love will eventually fill China." But this group is starting to cause problem for the party which is why the party is now starting to crack down. Beijing responded with force, detaining or arresting dozens of activists, like Xu Zhiyong, in order to send a message that "organised advocating for change is not acceptable."

What do you think the people of China think of these groups? Are helping or just causing problems?  

Dr. Xu definitely feels he is helping hi country.It says from the article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10759457/Chinese-activist-group-warns-Communist-Party-We-cannot-be-stopped.html that Dr Xu believes "This ridiculous judgment cannot hold back the tide of human progress. The dark clouds of the Communist dictatorship will one day clear." and that the "[This] repression will not end the New Citizens' Movement, This is the road to a free China. It is the road to a better China. We are duty bound to forge ahead."

China's pollution problems

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27027876

China has the world's highest rate of pollution in the world and it has become so commonplace that the amount of pollution has become to effect world wide weather pattern. It was recently discovered that China's pollution (along with pollution from the rest of Asia) blows out over the Northern Pacific ocean, where the pollution particles gather and cause clouds to grow more dense, leading both to a higher rate of precipitation and more violent storms at sea. And it also affects the Winter weather on the "downstream track" which leads straight through North America. Pollution is a big problem in our world, and in a social lens, we see how people from both China and countries like the US have to work together to solve global issues. Even in China alone, the people have developed a growing attention to the pollution that has become even more of a problem in the past few years than ever before.

China and the Ukraine

http://china.org.cn/world/2014-04/16/content_32107624.htm

In the tumultuous events of the Ukrainian revolution of late China has been adamant in their position of

peaceful negotiation. While it seems initially that China just wants to be a good neighbor in the world, but the

true reasons are a little bit more pragmatic. China has control of a very large portion of land in the Ukraine,

which China generally rents out, and if the conflict continues or escalates it will hurt China's holdings. China

though is still pushing for peace, which hopefully will be the end result of negotiations between the countries.

From a political lens, we can see that China is trying to keep the Ukraine and Russia away from each others

throats, even if the reasons are less than altruistic. In fact China is willing to try and even set up a security

conference with several countries including Russia.

Chinese Workers Strike

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27033186

BBC did a report recently, and we learned that a Chinese shoe manufacturing plant had not been properly

paying their employees Social Security for the last 10 years, and the tension has boiled over, leading to a

strike that has been going on since the beginning of the month. The factory that is on strike has been known

for making Nike and Adidas, and went on strike after discovering their lack of social security and have

accused both the company and of local labor bureaus and social security bureaus had lied to them.

Through an Economic lens, it shows a shift in power towards the workers, as opposed to the factory

owner. It's also a further sign of China's growing middle class, which can generally be seen as increasing in

both size and power.

Lost Malaysian Plane: A Bigger Deal for China

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2014/04/13/rs-intv-jim-spellman-malaysia-flight-chinese-tv.cnn.html

In this video, CNN does an interview with an English-Speaking Chinese News station (CCTV)

Correspondent, and they have a correspondent who has been on a search ship for over a month covering

the search. In China, the story is a much bigger deal, due to the 150 Chinese passengers (approximately

half) and the fact that the plane was headed towards China. The reporters also, talked about how the US

was not showing the Chinese side of the story, even though it's an event where China is a major player. In a

Social lens, we see how the Chinese are not only concerned for their citizens, but also that they do not wish

to be left out of stories that involve their perspective. It's nice to see the concern the Chinese government

shows for the 150 civilians that have gone missing along with the plane.