Fortune Cookie?

[ShadowDog]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7941081.stm

China's Premier Wen Jiabao has said he expects that China and the rest of the world will be better off by next year. He was speaking at a news conference in Beijing at the end of the annual session of China's National People's Congress - the country's parliament. It is the only time each year that the premier takes questions from reporters.

In preliminary remarks, he said the nearly 3,000 NPC delegates had approved the government's plan to tackle the economic crisis. "Confidence is more important than gold or money," he told the news conference in Beijing. "First and foremost we need very strong confidence. Only when we have confidence can we have courage and strength, and only when we have courage and strength can we overcome difficulties. "I expect that next year both China and the world will be better off." Opening the NPC session nine days ago, Mr Wen said that this year would be the most difficult China has faced this century.

...

Mr Wen spoke two days after official figures revealed that Chinese exports plunged by more than a quarter in February from a year ago to $64.9bn (£47.3bn). Imports fell by 24.1% to $60.1bn, the figures showed. Mr Wen also said he was worried about the safety of the huge amount of China's foreign exchange reserves invested in US government bonds. "We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Mr Wen said.

Nearly half of China's $2tn in currency reserves is invested in US treasury bills and other government-affiliated notes, the Associated Press news agency said.

"We are extremely interested in developments in the US economy," Mr Wen said. "President Obama has introduced new measures to counter the international financial crisis and we do have expectations from those steps."

Communism is the bankroll, everyone is in mass-sell-mode and cardboard boxes are the new 'affordable homes'. Makes one want to hope Mr. Wen is right.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

Hooray for communism... oh wait

[Sixty8panther]

Let's just hope that the way we slingshot out

of the depression is not related to a WORLD

GOVERNMENT.

[the_yellow_dart]

Calling China a Communist country is no longer at all accurate. Sure, their government is still called the Communist Party but the reality is that ever since Mao, they've been slowly moving away from true communism and more towards a capitalist dictatorship. In fact their economy now looks a lot more like the United States than it does like the former USSR. The economic situation for the average person in China is similar to India, but slightly better - yet China takes flak while nobody cares about India.

One thing that their current situation makes clear to me is that capitalism without democracy is even more unfair to the average citizen than communism is. Communism is not the enemy of democracy - dictatorship is. That's the bad word you should be applying to the Chinese government - not Communist, DICTATORSHIP.

[CARBIZ]

Well, one thing to be said for a dictatorship: the Three Gorges would never have been built in Canada. They would have formed a Royal Commission to study it and Jesus would return before a spade would be stuck in the ground. Dictators get things done, like it or not; while Democracies posture and obfuscate.

China's meteoric rise seems on the face to be miraculous; however, as an inverse to GM's fall - when you started from nothing, anywhere is up.

[Z-06]

Well, one thing to be said for a dictatorship: the Three Gorges would never have been built in Canada. They would have formed a Royal Commission to study it and Jesus would return before a spade would be stuck in the ground. Dictators get things done, like it or not; while Democracies posture and obfuscate.

China's meteoric rise seems on the face to be miraculous; however, as an inverse to GM's fall - when you started from nothing, anywhere is up.

Nations just like living organisms have rigid skeleton, with flexible parts. If you give too much rigidity it becomes a electric pole. If you give too much flexibility it becomes an amoeba or a paralytic body just moving around like a parasite. An equilibrium should be sought between those opposites, which currently is lacking in the "democratic" US.

[ShadowDog]

That's the bad word you should be applying to the Chinese government - not Communist, DICTATORSHIP.

Depending upon how you look at it from a financial point of view. Dictators surely don't play the politics game and have even less interest in sharing their national wealth with others. Communism holds its own politically and manages to continue swaying people to look at its positives.

Quite frankly, if democracy and communism took its best elements and merged, that might produce a great deal of success; however, I know it's more complex than that. Also, too many people without a clear understanding would simply cry out at their perceived loss of civil liberties... not that there is much more freedom in democracy anyway.

[CARBIZ]

Depending upon how you look at it from a financial point of view. Dictators surely don't play the politics game and have even less interest in sharing their national wealth with others. Communism holds its own politically and manages to continue swaying people to look at its positives.

Quite frankly, if democracy and communism took its best elements and merged, that might produce a great deal of success; however, I know it's more complex than that. Also, too many people without a clear understanding would simply cry out at their perceived loss of civil liberties... not that there is much more freedom in democracy anyway.

I quite agree. I forget the name of the book, but years ago I read where it was proposed that governments be chosen by lottery. Every able-bodied person over the age of 21 without a criminal record who was a citizen was in the lottery automatically - no exceptions.

I've always thought that would be a better system than the crap we have now. Let's face it - who would want to put up with the BS, the personal attacks, the long hours, $h! pay (yes, $h! pay - do you know how much Clinton makes NOW?), unless you were in it for the ego and power. That should automatically disqualify a candidate, IMO.

[Drew Dowdell]

You seem to be forgetting that all communist regimes are also dictatorships or oligarchies. THERE'S NO DAMN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNISM, DICTATORSHIP, OR FASCISM EXCEPT THE NAMES. They all deprive their citizens of rights. They are all enemies of the free world... even a benevolent dictator is still an enemy of the free world.

And stop labeling them as enemies of Democracy, hell we aren't even a democracy cause its a god awful system. Ever notice in the pledge of allegiance we are pledging our allegiance to the Republic? Now we do have democratically elected representatives, but that is far different from a democracy (unless you live in California where it is mob rule with their propositions - see prop 8 ). A Republic stands for equal treatment under law, a Democracy stands for mob rule. The 51% can elect for the 49% to be executed under a democracy. Take your pick.

Every time any country makes a move to control the markets more, or to exert more control over its people, it is slowly moving further towards becoming an oligarchy (and yes you can have democratically elected oligarchies, but over time it will devolve into a complete oligarchy). One only has to look at the former Roman Republic and its slow decline into the Roman Empire.

You will, quite simply, never be as free as possible until you minimize the government to the smallest point necessary to prevent anarchism and to prevent other nations from controlling you. Anything past that, you are just deluding yourself that you are free. This is the basis of the Republic which America was founded.

Freedom and Liberty carry a very high cost, it has become obvious that most people don't want to pay that cost.

Please re-do your research then join me in the politics forum.

This thread is close to becoming closed.

[mustang84]

The Chinese interior is still very much Communist, but coastal China is largely capitalist and as materialistic as the United States. Much of the labor and farming population is leaving the interior to find jobs in the coastal cities. It won't be too much longer before popular sentiment and/or civil war ends communism in China. I knew a few Chinese students in college, and the younger populations are very much in favor of a democratic society. I give Communism in China another 15 years, maybe.

[ZL-1]

The Chinese interior is still very much Communist, but coastal China is largely capitalist and as materialistic as the United States. Much of the labor and farming population is leaving the interior to find jobs in the coastal cities. It won't be too much longer before popular sentiment and/or civil war ends communism in China. I knew a few Chinese students in college, and the younger populations are very much in favor of a democratic society. I give Communism in China another 15 years, maybe.

This. Social tensions are a real risk to China's political system, and that's why they have had the need (almost an obssession) to grow their economy at 10% a year.