*Political Rant On* Somebody [that person probably knows who they are] said a while ago that Chinese [maybe it was Asians in general] don't value human life as much as The West - which was presumably a comparison with the USA.
That was a totally ignorant statement to make. It's true the money China can spend on keeping individuals alive is hugely lower than the USA can bring to bear. So in that very narrow sense the statement is true. But to say they value lives very little is not the same thing. A mother with no money and few assets will feel a similar amount of suffering if she sees her child die whether she is Chinese or American. She will expend similar effort to keep her child alive.
When Chinese see or hear of their embassy being attacked and their citizens murdered, they don't just shrug their shoulders and check their wallets. They get angry. The parents of the murdered people cry.
I heard today from somebody living in Peking that Chinese in Peking have not forgotten about their embassy being destroyed and their citizens murdered. They are angry. No, they are not rent-a-mob people provided by the PLA to make an anti-USA demonstration. They are normal citizens. Not all Chinese citizens are frantically opposed to Zhu Rongji and desperate to be 'freed' by the democratic liberators from America.
These people and the Chinese government will be taking some actions over the embassy. That is enough information to justify a serious downturn in the USA economy in general and the Dow in particular. Already the Dow was on the way down. I expect people will soon be holding their breath and clutching white-knuckled as the Dow descends.
Already there are puzzled rantings in the Q! thread about the price of Q! being below the technical support levels and all that rot. Well, DiamondH, your children are not the only valuable children on this planet. Chinese parents feel pain and anger. How would you feel if somebody bombed your children? Would you value them more than the Chinese value their children? Would you be buying cdmaOne infrastructure from those who did the bombing?
Lucent and Motorola can kiss sales to China goodbye. If Q! shareholders are lucky, Samsung, NEC, Ericy and other non-USA suppliers will be able to sell equipment containing USA supplied components, such as ASICs [up to a certain percentage].
I've decided the attack on the Chinese Embassy was deliberate. It is simply not credible that the USA used old maps. The CIA has got to know about China and Russia as top priorities. Sure, they need to keep an eye on New Zealand's three frigates and Fijian elections, but the geopolitical threats from here are fairly trivial.
The CIA and other agencies would be interested in Milosevic contacts with China and Russia and the embassies in Belgrade would obviously be the focal point of those contacts.
Clinton says it was a mistake. Well, what else can he say? "We did it deliberately and we are now at war with China". No, that wouldn't go down very well and could lead to repercussions of a serious nature. China should bring a prosecution in the World Court, demand reparations, freeze USA assets in China pending resolution, call a special sitting of the UN or withdraw from the UN and initiate a competing reconstituted world body. There are a lot of actions they can take, none of which will do the USA any good.
The best the USA can do is get their checkbook out and pay large reparations to demonstrate that the 'accident' was indeed an accident and compensation is forthcoming as proof of regret. Clinton apologizing, or saying anything, as Americans know, has zero credibility. As is conventional wisdom these days, judge by actions, not words.
It will be a LOT cheaper to pay reparations than suffer the stockmarket crunch and economic loss which will otherwise result. Already, a crunch was going to happen [8099 for the Dow by 21 June as some of you will recall], but at least the extent of it might be ameliorated by rapid and generous compensation.
<A scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Wen Ho Lee, was fired in March on suspicion of passing classified information to China. He has not been charged with any crime.
The United States in 1995 became aware of the theft of W-88 information. The warhead is carried on the Trident submarine and described in the report as ''the most sophisticated nuclear weapon the United States has ever built.''
A Chinese citizen in 1995 approached the CIA outside China and turned over a number of documents including a classified Chinese document that included stolen U.S. design information on the W-88 nuclear warhead and technical information on some other warheads, the report said.
The CIA later determined that the individual who turned over the documents was secretly under the direction of Chinese intelligence services. The CIA nevertheless concluded the document contained U.S. warhead design information.
Other instances of alleged Chinese theft of nuclear weapons-related secrets were discovered but were not declassified, so they were not included in the public version of the Cox report.>
Why would Wen Ho Lee not be charged with a crime? I say because he didn't commit one. Let's see the charges and the evidence. The USA needn't be too prissy about making the evidence public since China already has the information and I won't be doing much with it. They won't have a trial because there isn't any evidence and they prefer to just make wild accusations. Clinton and the military know that the USA judiciary won't be totally flummoxed by a chant of 'national security you know' when individual rights are concerned. Occasionally, real evidence of a crime might be needed.
The CIA deduced something from the material from the "Chinese citizen". The CIA has zero credibility to deduce anything! They can't even read maps. They didn't even know where the number one embassy on earth was located.
There are allegations that China 'stole' secrets. It seems these 'secrets' were on a Web page somewhere. You can't 'steal' something by reading it on the internet. You can 'steal' copyrighted material or 'steal' patented material. Perhaps the copyrights and patents could be explained. Of course, sovereign countries can't 'steal' anything from another country because there is actually no international law other than 'the toughest one wins'.
That is currently the USA.
Sure, they can play, 'toughest one wins'. That's great if you don't like trade, stockmarkets, globalisation, profits, peace and a high standard of living. Civilization depends on more than 'toughest one wins'. 'Toughest one wins' is precisely the method of government which the USA purports to dislike in places like China. The USA pretends to promote 'democracy', not 'toughest one wins'.
Jill, personally, I think Nato belongs in Kosovo as much as Serbia belongs in Kosovo. It's 'toughest ape wins' there and so it's basically a free-for-all. The law of the jungle applies. Anyone stepping into the arena, as China found, is likely to be injured. On the even of Y2K, it's pitiful to see that the world's worst century in the world's history for total number of human deaths at the hands of other humans is ending in this way. With humans behaving like hyenas fighting over a carcass.
This not just a conflict in the bush in PNG, but right near the cradle of civilisation, involving the major populations of the planet.
Jill, the USA is not only threatening China with violence, it has begun it! You also asked at what rate China's private property is growing. It has been about 15%-20% per year for over a decade. The GNP growth rate has been only about 10% but that includes government sectors which are generally in decline, not growth. The private growth rate is much faster, as we should expect.
The private property belongs to the people who own it. I don't have their names. Actually, I own some of it now that I think of it! Not much, but a bit; Paladin, which is a company in China. Also, Lion Nathan, a New Zealand company owns some of it. You asked to whom does the property belong? It seems a tautology, but private property is owned by the people who own it. Maybe you were making a statement rather than asking a question.
Yes Jill, the economies of Taiwan and Hong Kong do have something to do with the policies of China. Hong Kong is totally part of China and the policies which China has set have allowed Hong Kong to continue it's profitable ways. Taiwan remains independent of China's control, but the Chinese policies have enabled huge trade between the two, which enhances Taiwan's economy.
You asked what their enormous army is for. They run a telephone company for a start, absurd though that might seem. They are more like a militia police force than simply an armed force which lives in the barracks and plays war games out in the desert. Their army is not actually very large in comparison with their population. Maybe 3m out of 1.3bn which comes out at well short of 1%. Do you know the USA armed forces numbers? Then allow for a huge USA police force too. Then add the huge technological advantage of the USA which replaces armed soldiers. One fighter is worth 1,000 people running around on the ground with tanks.
Russia has got plenty of army! Poorly paid [or not paid other than in food and lodging] but still a lot of them.
You and Morgan are promoters of WW3. The USA will be a primary participant in WW3 and the ravings of your politicians are likely to precipitate events leading to war. We can consider the shot fired in Belgrade as being the one heard around the world. Let's hope Zhu Rongji can rise to the occasion and tame the situation. As Ramsey says, he is the pre-eminent politician on earth at the moment. His population is ready to riot! Not at his rule. But at the USA!
Ramsey is right, Clinton should be held personally liable for the damage which occurs. He is Commander in Chief. The buck stops there!
<Those who love to hate 'us' remember how much help the U.S has dished out over the years.> I don't think China would feel too much debt to the USA. Please list the help which the USA has dished out over the years to China, excluding the embassy bombing. Also, the help which the USA has dished out to Russia. Or even NZ come to think of it. I doubt you will take the trouble to solicit your Congressor to allow free trade between NZ and USA will you?
The Chinese do value human life. We are all about to find out just how much!
Good luck, we'll need it. The USA should pay without delay [unless it was a deliberate attack of course] because the shambles will cost a LOT more than a $$billion or three. The USA, which values life so highly, should pay the families of those killed in the attack on the embassy the highest personal injury or death award ever awarded in the USA. The Chinese government should have double the value of the embassy paid plus some substantial awards for population upset and costs [they will have had to have many meetings and days of discussing what to do rather than getting on with trade and cdmaOne/cdma2000 discussions].
Mqurice
{You'd like to buy the world a Coke? How about telling that to the family of the people your government murdered in a terrorist attack. I think they'll want more than a Coke.} |
