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, 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.
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 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.
In a report by The Hollywood Reporter (//http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-film-import-quota-increase-696708) Clifford Coonan talks about movie going in China. In the United States, movies are an enormous industry, raking in $10 billion in 2013. However now Hollywood has its eyes on China. In 2017 China is going to revisit their quota for movie imports. This will happen as they continue to fulfill requirements with the World Trade Organization.
Now we should not be surprised that China limits foreign movies to a total of 34 per year. China has a oppressive government and movies can be a way for them to lose power. They can challenge authority and fill people with rebellious ideas. However the government is not quite ready to open up the market completely, much to the heartbreak of Hollywood. the CCP does not want to have a burst of new American films and threaten domestic industry, or lose control of the citizenry.
Those movies that do make it into China may be censored and that is a huge problem according to the article. As a result it looks like the Hollywood producers will have to wait to show their big ticket films. China is not quite ready for that kind of openness.
This article accompanied by a short video , which is linked here ( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/asia/chinas-great-uprooting-moving-250-million-into-cities.html?_r=0) discusses how China plans to move 250 million farmers to urban areas in the next 12 to 15 years. To put that into perspective, that is like trying to take the entire populations of New York City, Chicago, Miami, Boston, and many other large cities worldwide and moving them to another location. The amount of people here who are on the move is absurd. It's basically two thirds of the entire United States population. China is trying to move all of these people to the city because they want them in the city to help with economic growth. They do this by being consumers, and they are more likely to buy more items if they are living in the big cities. China is desperately attempting to modernize in many aspects. State spending is through the roof, as the Chinese government is spending an estimated $600 billion dollars on things such as new roads, hospitals, schools and community centers. A big question here is how will this affect the job markets? Will this cause even the lowest of jobs in the big cities of China to become hotly contested? With all of these people moving, the Chinese government has to create millions of new jobs because these people will not be able to farm for a living anymore. How will China be able to do that? They can build as many hospitals and schools as they want. It is still not going to create millions of jobs. Another big issue is pollution. Already, China has many cities that rank in the top 20 most polluted cities in the world. How many more will be added to the list with the addition of 250 million more people? The pollution problem is likely to become much worse. How will the people be feed if fewer people are farming and more are living in the big cities? Already, a huge percentage of the population lives inside the cites. What happens when there are 250 million fewer farmers? Will China have to import a lot of its food from countries like the U.S? All these question will likely be answered in the near future.
The article talks about new contemporary artists and mainly the Central Academy of Art located in Beijing. While in the 80s most art was censored and had hidden connotations criticizing the government, most art of today has changed to be more about the artist's personal life rather than politics. When sexual poses of a man and woman used to be forbidden, the paintings are now being sold for thousands of dollars. Some art investors are showing up on campus to find the next hit artist. Pressure is increasing on the students as they are no longer looking at art as a lifestyle but a job.
The art styles are now comparing to that of the US and Europe, which can only mean that China has grown more westernized, especially since art drives the social culture in every society. However, despite this there are still some censors on the art, mostly in depicting the CCP in a negative way. While China has made tremendous steps in becoming more western, it can be seen that there is still a clear post-communist role being taken into consideration, the artists are still significantly freer than they were 20 years ago. With freer art it can be seen that soon less censor will be put up through the internet and other sources of media. Eventually it is possible that sooner rather than later the art can show a new China more apt to fully embrace western culture.
This is the link to this particular article. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10759457/Chinese-activist-group-warns-Communist-Party-We-cannot-be-stopped.html)Many people know very little about political protest in China. Protests are suppressed by the Chinese government, and hefty fines and jail time await those who speak out against the government. Protests from a civil rights activist group in China called the New Citizens' Movement has become too vocal for the Chinese government to ignore any longer. The group's leader Xu Zhiyong appeared in court Friday, April 11, and tried to dispute his four-year sentence for protesting. The court rejected his argument, and he had strong words in response. "This ridiculous judgment cannot hold back the tide of human progress. The dark clouds of the Communist dictatorship will one day clear," Dr. Xu said. These are remarkable words from a Chinese citizen. Since 2012, the New Citizens' Movement has become increasingly problematic for the Chinese government, which fears that the group will grow into a political threat. Its members, rumored to be in the thousands, hold meetings where they discuss the future of China and also government corruption. China has a choice to make. The government can either crack down violently on the activists or jail the members to keep them quiet. With both of these options, however, the government risks the escalation of the movement.
Much like Tiananmen Square, there is the potential for great violence in this situation. The more China cracks down on democratic activists, the more other nations like the United States may begin to pull back from economic and political ties with China.
China makes some big moves as they move to settle a $5.85 billion dollar deal with Glencore. The Chinese Commerce Ministry settled the stipulations of the pricing last year before it was approved the $30 billion purchase by Glencore international.The Peruvian based mine is being sold to a group of Chinese mining industries, led by the China Minmetal Corporation. And to prove that China has influence on the industry outside it's own borders, the corporations paid for the mine upfront in cash. To prove that they are even more powerful, the buyers also agreed to cover all costs of industrializing required for the mine. China has become a powerhouse in several industries and now has a major influence to pass on other countries around the world and not just in Asia. But the purchasing of the mine in Peru shows that Chinamen now are adding to the global economy, and have enough revenue to add to it exponentially. However, there is also the point of China's alleged goal of their currency to become the world currency, over the usd.
Despite helping a world economy, the Commerce Ministry had to look out for the good of the Chinese people for whom they ultimately serve, which is to provide enough copper, zinc and lead to support China through 2020. This ultimately shows that there is going to be a small trickle down effect, that can lead to some of the actual workers in many industries that depend on the metals to experience possible benefits. While this is optimistic and it is still China, there is possibility as China strengthens its economy, which ultimately could lead it to be a stronger world player, and even help as they attempt to westernize.
In my last post, I talked about how China's model for economic growth alienates democracy and could lead to its downfall. Today I have found the proof that everything is falling apart in China (okay maybe that is a little dramatic and not true). Nonetheless a recent article from The Economist (http://www.economist.com/news/china/21600747-spite-political-clampdown-flourishing-civil-society-taking-hold-beneath-glacier) goes into detail about a new trend in China. It talks about how civil society is growing in China and how specifically NGOs (Non governmental organizations) are fueling it.
We have been taught before that active and free NGOs are necessary for a liberal democracy. They help fuel civil society by involving people in resolutions to help their communities. They give people a sense of pride in their community and help build grassroots movements. Whether the NGOs are political or not, they help people get involved in the civil society and become active politically to help their cause. If a country has active NGOs then the chances are they have a flourishing civil society. China is now moving into this territory.
Before Deng Xiaoping took office, NGOs in China did not exist. Under Mao, the CCP tried to destroy anything that could threaten their authority. The few that did exist were mostly international ones and they had heavy restrictions on them. However after the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, and their subsequent bloody put-down, the deal China’s leaders offered the country changed: stay out of politics and you can do almost anything else you want. NGOs were given some freedom to work within their communities as long as they stayed out of politics and did not challenge the CCP. Take a look at the chart and you can see what happened.
The title is fitting. Pandora's box was opened as NGOs began to spread and grow. While they still remain mostly apolitical (those that can exist must be in the categories of industry associations, science and technology organisations, charities and outfits providing social services) the fact that they exist at all is a big deal. As a result, the growing Chinese middle class is getting involved in civil society. Like I said earlier it is only a matter of time before those with economic freedom want their political freedom to match as well. This quote from the article cannot be stated better about the current climate between China and NGOs.
"It is not clear that the party believes in civil society. More likely it sees NGOs as a useful tool to achieve its own ends. But with politics directed from on high unable to meet social needs, and a new generation that wants more participation, some increased role for civil society is unavoidable. So a strange, unspoken pact has evolved, where both sides accept the compromise as a way of furthering their goals in the short term, while hoping future developments work in their favour."
So for now the two will work together, but who knows what the future holds. People may one day look back at the fall of Communist China and say that this is what started it all. I certainly think so.
This article http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21600166-how-china-affecting-europes-position-world-trad(ing-places?zid=306&ah=1b164dbd43b0cb27ba0d4c3b12a5e227) discusses how china is trying to maintain its status as a top economic power and is trying to complete a trade pact with Europe. Sadly Europe is more eager to do an ambitious transatlantic trade deal rather then creating a separate EU-China trade pact. Luckily for China, Europe's nervousness has begun to be sheltered from its confidence from surviving the Euro crisis and is actually looking towards China for investment. China's ultimate goal is to become the worlds leading distributor of goods and services, so it being the worlds strongest economy. China has already overtaken America as the biggest single trader and will match the EU by 2020. By then, China's share of global GDP will also probably surpass the EU's.
China is clearly trying to rise to power in the modern world after being behind for so many years. I realize that in a previous post, it was stated that China's economy was stopping but with Europe's trading capability it can surely grow to what is expected from the article. Now the question is what do you think they will do with this vastly growing power?
This article discusses how trouble in the real estate market has effected China and it's economy. The link to this article can be found here. (Insert link here). The real estate market accounts for a significant piece of China's GDP, and since real estate in several of China's biggest cities is down, this could spell trouble for the Chinese economy.
Many of the major real estate players in China are in debt, and they are having lots of trouble repaying the money that they owe. Xingrun, which is one of the smaller real estate developers based in the city of Ningbo, was unable to pay back more than 3.5 billion renminbi ($566 million) in debt. While defaults happen in the real estate market from time to time in China, the amount of debt this small company was in says something big about whats going on in the real estate market.
The failure of Xingrun comes a couple of weeks after China's bond market also defaulted. Many other large and small companies that are involved in real estate are starting to default as well. All of these real estate companies have had to deal with lenders who do not want to lend as much money for fear of default.
Home prices have been increasing at a slower rate. This means developers have less money, and that means they have more trouble repaying their loans. A slow down in the real estate market means that China's whole economy will suffer.
A meeting between the city council of Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist Party just ended, and was remarkable due to the fact that more members of the Hong Kong council attended than ever before. However, there is still no change that not everyone was there, in fact only three-quarters of the Hong Kong city council attended in solitary protest, only ten of the ones whom attended were democrats. The former British city has adopted a very western mind for a majority of the public, and view most of what the CCP is doing in China to be censorship and still restricting human rights. These are reasons contributing to the many disputes Hong Kong has with inland China and why they hesitate to call them selves as a full part of the country. A westernized Hong Kong will have a lot of trouble agreeing with a China that is still trying to climb out of communism and living in an illiberal democracy.
With one of the great Chinese cities having so much trouble dealing with the inland CCP, makes it hard to imagine how other countries can get along with it. The cleavages revealed are also partially do to the Tiananmen crisis and to rethink it. When any Hong Kong lawmaker is to bring it up the CCP ignores it and try to convince any democrats who may mention Tiananmen to stay away. Most accounts are successful. This is interesting to see that China truly has not changed in the past few years and is still trying to produce mass censorship, even amongst its own lawmakers.
Before reading this blog post, watch this video from Ted. Dambisa Moyo talks about China's economic and political systems in a very straightforward manner and relates them to the entire world. While I understand that the United States is not a comparative country, her talk brings up a very good point. If you recall, our first unit was about globalization and how it is affecting the world. For those of us who read Stiglitz, this video should sound familiar. For the last century, Western nations have controlled global economic institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, trying to force their model for economic growth on developing countries throughout the world. Stiglitz speaks out about the inequality in the global institutions, and Moyo brings the whole concept full circle.
Moyo breaks down China's economic system as State Capitalism and prioritized economic right along with a de-emphasis on democracy as opposed to the Western system of Private Capitalism, prioritized political rights, and an emphasis on democracy. She identifies the Chinese model as one that many developing countries see as a quicker way to reach prosperity. They see China as a place where more wealth is being created today, where the issue of healthcare is better handled, where there is increased economic equality, and where infrastructure is new and cunning. All of these are issues in the Western World, especially in the United States.
So what is the point? The point is that the West has always gone around championing their program and force feeding it to other nations because there was no viable alternative. The West was all powerful and controlled both the dominating political and economic ideologies of the time. However, with the rise of China this has changed. The West now has an opponent, and unlike the USSR, this idea is here to stay. The West has lost its credibility to China because the Chinese have gotten results. They are closing economic gaps, not widening them. Just a century ago, China was like those developing countries. Now they are a world superpower. Who wouldn't find this model appealing?
Well that is the thing. Where it is not appealing is the political end. Democracy is not as important in China, but it is the Holy Grail in the West. But again Moyo talks about this issue, asking which is more important, food or the right to vote? So as a result Moyo argues that economic success will lead to democracy, not the other way around.
I find her argument very compelling and I would like to elaborate on the idea from above. If she is right and economic success does lead to democracy, what does that mean for China? I would argue that she is right in her assumption and that China cannot keep a lid on democracy for ever. As the middle class continues to grow in China, pressure will be put on the government for more civil liberties. People will want their political freedom to match their economic freedom. As capitalism takes root and continues to grow, democracy may be inevitable. I imagine a rebellion led by the wealthiest Chinese citizens who are joined by those in middle class. Like Iran it will be urban led as the CCP will be unable to control dissent and will succumb to the pressure. But for now the CCP is safely in control and they are the new model for economic growth. The West will have to adapt.
China is on it's way to becoming one of the most influential and powerful countries in the world. One way in they have chosen to rise is through military growth. With now the second largest military in the world and the second larges military budget, China is a world player when it comes to battle. However, in the military many experts still do not see China to be a serious threat to anyone, as many still think that despite the Liaoning, a naval battleship, which according to a New York Times article was there when Defense Secretary Hagel was visiting.
China shows their might every time a person of some influence visits to try to show themselves off as a world power, but the question still remains of if they truly are a force to be reckoned with. Nobody is truly sure how to react to China whether they are all powerful or just putting on an act to try and be stronger, either way it shows how they are trying to be seen as a political power, and an up-and-coming nation to try and be the number one most powerful nation in the world. They still have a long ways to go, but with a military budget larger than Britain, Germany and France combined, they are going to become much scarier than they already are. Many are still just awe stricken that China even has a working battleship, with possibilities for a growing navy, even though many still think Japan is a stronger naval power. The world will continue to look at China watching to see how much its military will continue to grow in the coming years.
In all modern governments there are advisers and close colleagues who help the leader try and determine what is best for the country. In the United States the President has his cabinet. In Iran there is the Guardian Council. In China, there is the Politburo. These groups can exert massive influence on the lives of people throughout their respective nations. This is especially true in China. But how is it that China is able to determine this information, especially in such a secretive and highly centralized state? Last month the Central Party School in Beijing released a journal called Internal Reference of Ideology and Theory. According to an article by the Economist (http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/03/chinese-politics) this highly secret report is handed out to the Politburo members and is used to determine what policy the CCP wants to enact. This leads us to the idea of think tanks. A think tank (or policy institute, research institute, etc.) is an organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. These think tanks can be independent of the government, or done within. China has this done from within the CCP. However, the idea of an independent think tank is not appealing to China because it takes away from their control. As a result the Internal Reference of Ideology and Theory is done through the CCP. This creates a clear issue. In a country where the government often does much in secret and dissenters mysteriously disappear, the people who write the journal often tell President Xi Jinping exactly what he wants to hear. This confuses the already confusing system of decision making. It becomes increasingly hard to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction in China. So once again this puts all decision making on the members of the Politburo who have to decide whether or not to change policy based on what they feel is appropriate, not necessarily based on what China needs. The Economist puts it perfectly, saying "The biggest danger of this emperor-adviser relationship is that it rewards advisers who tell the emperor what they already think, and punishes (or at least fails to reward) radical thinking". As a result China may continue to evolve slowly and react to change in a less timely manner. As the world changes around China, the CCP may not be able to keep up. The lack of think tanks also serve to undermine Chinese civil liberties and provides little hope for change in China. So just as we thought the CCP is still in control.
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-can-china-be-more-helpful/
