Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : HONG KONG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (1618)	5/16/1998 6:00:00 AM
From: Tom	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2951

Stitch: Thanks very much for permitting the time for such a thought-filled reply. And the additional information on Mr. Zhu. I would not add to what you have put so well. Just a few ponderings. I was thinking only yesterday about the fact that the bulk of the unemployment is yet to come. It's not a wonder the Party leadership is said to be so uneasy about it. I haven't the time to imagine what they'll do. But they do need help. And they know it. Help along the lines of what Doug mentioned about Coca-Cola. Something additional occurred to me a couple of weeks ago. Reading of the the government instituting a new State pension plan for some workers in Guangdong Province has for me provided some insight to what is certainly part of a greater plan. Central to that plan would be the consolidation of the strength they feel is in the coastal industrial region. (Goes without saying, I guess.) Before anything can be done for the outlying regions there must be some sureity for economic stability in the coastal commercial hubs. The area from Shandong to Guangdong must be stable. Everything must be done to see that this area emerges from the current economic uncertainties in good, and if possible better, shape. Though the many aspects of disparity between the populations of the commerce centers of the coast and the inland regions is a source of great discord, Beijing must play to their own strength. And certain programs that may one day be instituted on a national basis might be test-driven along the coast. The Eastern Coastal Region should also function as a shoving-off point, a financial fulcrum for lifting the remainder of the country. I would also expect the Party leadership will hasten to fix any unrest along the coast with light-speed. And Guangdong has been the site of some ugly protests for more than a year now. Just one more issue. I must leaven some of what I have seen reported about China's military objectives with the thought that should China achieve, or approach achievement of, their economic goals, more than those within their borders will attempt access to that economy. It would be wise to ensure the ability not only to patrol what they see as their sovereign border, but to extend patrol activity to seaward in an effort to buffer security for commerce via the shipping lanes. Alarmists don't, or won't, realise that a world-class economy just cannot sit on the pier in Shanghai wishing safe transit for the ships and seamen that transport a sizeable portion of the nation's GDP. They must guarantee it. Whether the military guarantor of safe passage to and from the region will act responsibly in the process is another question. One among others I believe the U.S. is attempting to answer presently. Additional insight also to why, after a number of years in the making, Singapore decided only recently they will be happy to host the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet. Thanks again, Stitch.