PRC Economy and Industry: News and Discussions

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 20 May 2010 06:38

Drywall is Gypsum, not cement.

vina · Post by **vina** » 20 May 2010 06:53

Note that again China is consuming more cement than the rest of the world put together.

Also note that this is a little dated.

China is consuming a incredible 7 times over the #2 producer India.

The cement industry in India is very energy efficient. They all converted to the dry process long long ago (atleast 15 years , the bulk of them). Guys like Gujarat Ambuja made their name because of efficiency.

Yeah, given the very high cost of energy (especially electricity) and limited supply to industrial customers, they have to be efficient or go out of business. For the Chinese, it is a classic case of distortion being brought about by subsidized / misdirected input costs .

The analogy is the agriculture irrigation pumpsets in india. Since electricity for irrigation is given away free , the running cost / marginal cost of operation is zero. So the incentive is to reduce the upfront cost as much as possible. So you go to Coimbatore, buy the cheapest pump possible. Doesnt matter if the pump is machined like it has a two day's worth of stubble, it cavitates and the motor basically sucks and has terrible power factor. You couldn't care because you dont pay for that inefficiency because of lack of economic prices for electricity!.

The Chinese have done the equivalent with all inputs using coal I think. They have done an "el Cheap Coimbatore Pump" on a massive massive scale for everything involving coal (from power plants, to steel plants to cement and everything) and distressingly have more than half the global capacity (totally wasteful and huge over capacity) in those areas. It is not based on any competitive advantage or economic logic, but political logic.

Yeah, the end game of "political logic" / hubris and living on subsidized input is clear. There is going to be extra straw that breaks the camel's back. The question is which one is that straw and when is that straw going to be loaded?

naren · Post by **naren** » 20 May 2010 12:18

^^^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_power_in_China

The People's Republic of China is the largest consumer of coal in the world,[1] and is about to become the largest user of coal-derived electricity, generating 1.95 trillion kilowatt-hours per year, or 68.7% of its electricity from coal as of 2006 (compared to 1.99 trillion kilowatt-hours per year, or 49% for the US).[2][3] Hydroelectric power supplied another 20.7% of China's electricity needs in 2006. With approximately 13 percent of the world's proven reserves, China has enough coal to sustain its economic growth for a century or more even though demand is currently outpacing production.[4] {Tried to verify this source, but basterds, asking me to pay } China's coal mining industry is the deadliest in the world and has the world's worst safety record[5] where an average of 13 people die every day in the coal pits, compared to 30 per year for coal power in the United States.[6] Coal production rose 8.1% in 2006 over the previous year, reaching 2.38 billion tons, and the nation's largest coal enterprises saw their profits exceed 67 billion yuan, or $8.75 billion.[7]

While China boasts the greatest use of coal power, it is third in the world in terms of total coal reserves behind the United States and Russia. Most reserves are located in the north and north-west of the country, which poses a large logistical problem for supplying electricity to the more heavily populated coastal areas.[3]

The commie pr1cks with sticks have enough resources to outlast their individual life times & plenty of cannon fodder willing to meet their 72 (its sad actually). I dont see how this is going to be that straw. May be if E. Turkestan breaks away from the "motherland" & disown their Han master race identity

abhischekcc · Post by **abhischekcc** » 20 May 2010 15:47

Indian devaluation of the Rupee can be the straw that breaks the camels back.

Masaru · Post by **Masaru** » 21 May 2010 00:59

China Reveals Stimulus Graft: WSJ

ashi · Post by **ashi** » 22 May 2010 01:19

China's BYD tops Tech 100
http://www.businessweek.com/interactive ... -+tech+100

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 22 May 2010 11:19

Keiser Report: Future Made In China?

starek · Post by **starek** » 22 May 2010 12:34

Theo_Fidel wrote: For instance our coal consumption is 400 million ton per annum. This is 1/10th the Chinese output yet is enough for us to produce 1/4 the electricity China produces. We also produce 1/3 the steel China produces.

Out of necessity we have the unique opportunity to be the most resource efficient society on the planet.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/internation ... ption.html
Coal comsuption
India: 579 million short ton in 2007
China: 2893 million short ton in 2007, 5.0 times of India.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... 8rank.html
Electricity production (kWh)
India: 723,800,000,000 (2009 est.)
China: 3,451,000,000,000 (2008 est.), ~5 times of India.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/in ... ar/516964/
Production of steel (million tons, 2009)
India: 55
China: 501, 9.1 times of India.

Which one is the energy efficient?

Raghav K · Post by **Raghav K** » 22 May 2010 21:32

^^ When we look at the Tree, we forget to think about the roots..

*Star* welcome to BR and first this post not a comparison between China vs India.

If you look at history, the Indian civilization has been in existence more than 5000 years dwarfing any civilization and we have never given importance to shiny steel structures or magnificent buildings like the Greeks or Egyptians (pyramids). We have always given importance to inner growth and is the land of the "some" of the greatest people like Buddha, Swami Vivekanada etc. I will guarantee you that we will continue to prosper for the next 5000 years without any Great Walls but with Great souls.

As time passes Buildings collapse, but not the sayings of these Great souls.

You may be shouting aloud how great China is on BR, but you know the ground reality how much the poor man on the road is suffering with massive explosion of mining and this is what matters.

naren · Post by **naren** » 23 May 2010 08:40

^^^ If anything, economic prosperity/military might is short lived & temporary phenomena. Both India & China are living proof to this fact. China has been a great Dharmic nation for millennia. I for one strongly believe that China will go back to its Dharmic roots. Unfortunate that most Chinese I come across take pride in temporal matters such as economy & forget their civilizational strengths.

Swami Vivekananda once said this about China. (I strongly believe that a great Mahatma like Him wouldn't have said this lightly)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Compl ... _The_World

When you study the civilisation of India, you find that it has died and revived several times; this is its peculiarity. Most races rise once and then decline for ever. There are two kinds of people; those who grow continually and those whose growth comes to an end. The peaceful nations, India and China, fall down, yet rise again; but the others, once they go down, do not come up -- they die. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall enjoy the earth.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Compl ... nd_England

"Has any nation ever been great without being a great military power?"

"Yes," said the Swami without a moment's hesitation, "China has. Amongst other countries, I have travelled in China and Japan. Today, China is like a disorganised mob; but in the heyday of her greatness she possessed the most admirable organisation any nation has yet known Many of the devices and methods we term modern were practiced by the Chinese for hundreds and even thousands of years. Take competitive examination as an illustration."

"Why did she become disorganized?"

"Because she could not produce men equal to the system. You have the saying that men cannot be made virtuous by an Act of Parliament; the Chinese experienced it before you. And that is why religion is of deeper importance than politics, since it goes to the root, and deals with the essential of conduct."

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 23 May 2010 10:21

Holy cow...

Dharmic roots... What the..

In other news, namely the economy and industry part...

http://www.businessinsider.com/andy-xie ... ble-2010-5

Andy Xie: China's Government Parasitically Attached To The Property Bubble

1) Local governments have become dependent on income from the property sector as profits in manufacturing have come down, yet the need for local government spending keeps increasing. 'The real revenue game has shifted to property.'

2) Most of the debt in mainland China is in fact that of state owned enterprises. 'Keeping interest rates exceptionally low has become a national policy for protecting the state sector.'

3) Chinese exporters are in rough shape due to still-weak global demand plus rising labor and regulatory costs locally. 'They are vehemently opposed to currency appreciation.' (Which many believe is needed to reduce speculative inflows

The main purpose behind asset inflation is that the government can tax it.

starek · Post by **starek** » 23 May 2010 10:27

Raghav K wrote: If you look at history, the Indian civilization has been in existence more than 5000 years dwarfing any civilization and we have never given importance to shiny steel structures or magnificent buildings like the Greeks or Egyptians (pyramids). We have always given importance to inner growth and is the land of the "some" of the greatest people like Buddha, Swami Vivekanada etc. I will guarantee you that we will continue to prosper for the next 5000 years without any Great Walls but with Great souls.

As time passes Buildings collapse, but not the sayings of these Great souls.

You may be shouting aloud how great China is on BR, but you know the ground reality how much the poor man on the road is suffering with massive explosion of mining and this is what matters.

Please notice the topic of this thread. A beggar with great soul is still a beggar in economy. You can build temples, tombs of emperors and other religious facilities for so called souls, but they do not served the majority, also they do not serve Economy and Industry.

The cement, electricity and steel serves the majority, providing working and living places, accelerating economic growth. In China, at least 1.5% of population (20 million) migrates from rural areas to urban permanently very year.

Chinese underground miners are working in dangous, but their minimum wage is CNY6000(CNY 1 = INR 7) per month, according to NCAER middle class standard, they are strivers, the upper end of the middle class.

abhischekcc · Post by **abhischekcc** » 23 May 2010 10:44

Building temples and so forth creates employment that would otherwise not have been there.

And I think you missed the point that Raghav K was making - Indian culture has survived despite not having any grandiloquent pretensions of large constructions. This is because we focused on the morals of the people, not on the ego of rulers. Today, China may have 'largest this' and the 'fastest that', but tell that to the parents of the children killed in shooting sprees in schools, or to the rioters of 80,000+ riots in China every year, or to the destitute common folk whose homes (and life time savings) are razed because some stupid party official wants to build another empty shopping mall.

CCP has lost the mandate of heaven. That is why they employ 'internet moderators' such as you to try and fool people into accepting the unacceptable.

starek · Post by **starek** » 23 May 2010 13:30

abhischekcc wrote:Building temples and so forth creates employment that would otherwise not have been there.

And I think you missed the point that Raghav K was making - Indian culture has survived despite not having any grandiloquent pretensions of large constructions. This is because we focused on the morals of the people, not on the ego of rulers. Today, China may have 'largest this' and the 'fastest that', but tell that to the parents of the children killed in shooting sprees in schools, or to the rioters of 80,000+ riots in China every year, or to the destitute common folk whose homes (and life time savings) are razed because some stupid party official wants to build another empty shopping mall.

CCP has lost the mandate of heaven. That is why they employ 'internet moderators' such as you to try and fool people into accepting the unacceptable.

As I known, Beijing govt. paid avg. CNY 30 lakh (INR.2 crore = 2 slumdog millionaires) to every peasant family whoes lands was robbed.
Perhaps party officials are stupid, but the capitalists who buy the lands are clever than you, I'm sure.

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 23 May 2010 13:47

starek wrote:As I known, Beijing govt. paid avg. CNY 30 lakh (INR.2 crore = 2 slumdog millionaires) to every peasant family whoes lands was robbed.
Perhaps party officials are stupid, but the capitalists who buy the lands are clever than you, I'm sure.

This is crony capitalism, Chinese shtyle...

Govt. paid, and capitalists got the land. The capitalists got the land for free. Hell.. they can produce the stuff for free too. Govt. will pay the prisoners 2 million slumdogs, capitalists who use them are more clever.

Nice to know that 1 crore = 1 slumdog million. Chinese internet con-fu warriors need more training.

naren · Post by **naren** » 23 May 2010 14:24

*downloads 50 cents training manual in head*

I know con-fu

Morpheus: Show me.

abhischekcc · Post by **abhischekcc** » 23 May 2010 15:50

starek wrote:As I known, Beijing govt. paid avg. CNY 30 lakh (INR.2 crore = 2 slumdog millionaires) to every peasant family whoes lands was robbed.
Perhaps party officials are stupid, but the capitalists who buy the lands are clever than you, I'm sure.

I am sure the Beijing government allocated CNY 30 lakh for each displaced person.

I am equally sure that most of the money was pocketed by honest communist bureaucracy members.

starek · Post by **starek** » 23 May 2010 17:15

shyam wrote:
starek wrote:As I known, Beijing govt. paid avg. CNY 30 lakh (INR.2 crore = 2 slumdog millionaires) to every peasant family whoes lands was robbed.
Perhaps party officials are stupid, but the capitalists who buy the lands are clever than you, I'm sure.
This is crony capitalism, Chinese shtyle...
Govt. paid, and capitalists got the land. The capitalists got the land for free. Hell.. they can produce the stuff for free too. Govt. will pay the prisoners 2 million slumdogs, capitalists who use them are more clever.

Nice to know that 1 crore = 1 slumdog million. Chinese internet con-fu warriors need more training.

groundless hypotheses. headwashed by western media.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 May 2010 01:24

Back to scheduled news...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... y-xie.html

China’s Stock Market Has Become a Poor Man’s Casino

He spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince me that the Communist Party would make the market rise to 8,000 in the next three to five years.

The stock-market pain isn’t just collateral damage. Real-estate price appreciation is the biggest source of profit for businesses, especially in the financial industry. The total stock of properties, work-in-progress, and land banks may exceed three times GDP in value. When the price rises 20 percent, the gain is 60 percent of GDP.

Stock-market investors in China often can’t afford to enter the real-estate market in big cities. They wish to get lucky, make enough money, and move on to the property market. This force caps the market upside, but not the downside.

My bartender finally asked me to recommend a stock. He said he had 70,000 yuan and wanted to make enough money to buy a car.

“I can’t buy a car with my wage income,” he said. “Look at how hard my job is. But, if I make 200,000 yuan in the stock market, I can buy a nice car.”

I think the Chinese are in for the shock of their lives. Not only are they not going to earn anything from this gambling but they will lose even the shirt off their back in the process. Untrammeled greed.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 25 May 2010 00:53

>> thread cleaned up, OT posts moved to trash.
>> sukhothai banned by gerard for using free email.
>> starek warned for flamebait.

@ all, please do not increase our workload by responding to flamebaits and OT posts, chances are high you could be warned too. no need to get overtly emotional and play into the hands of disruptors.
Rahul.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 25 May 2010 06:11

thread re-opened.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 25 May 2010 10:41

What about all the other posters talking about how India isn't bothered about trivial things like economic development because everyone in India is so spiritual? They should be warned as well for bringing irrelevant nonsense into the PRC economy thread.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 25 May 2010 11:16

..warned as well..

perhaps you would like to go back and check who was warned and why. and possibly re-read my comments to understand what it means ?

lastly, any feedback should be given in the thread meant for that purpose. here, it constitutes disruption.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 25 May 2010 16:27

If you warned others as well, why did you mention only the (presumably) Chinese posters in your bolded comment above?

Anyway, I'll cross-post this in the feedback thread.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 28 May 2010 09:15

Reasons To Despair
Paul Krugman

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0 ... o-despair/

We could get tough with China, which continues its currency manipulation and, in the face of a world of grossly inadequate demand, is actually tightening monetary policy to avoid an overheating economy — when basic textbook economics says that it should be appreciating its currency instead, which would not only rebalance China’s economy but help the rest of the world. So given China’s outrageous behavior, Geithner went to China, got nothing .. and pronounced himself very pleased.

Chinmayanand · Post by **Chinmayanand** » 31 May 2010 11:23

China Real Estate Bubble Bursts in Bond Market: Credit Markets

naren · Post by **naren** » 01 Jun 2010 03:14

China aims to be become supercomputer superpower

China is ramping up efforts to become the world's supercomputing superpower.

Its Nebulae machine at the National Super Computer Center in Shenzhen, was ranked second on the biannual Top 500 supercomputer list.

Dawning, the company behind the fastest Chinese machine, is reportedly building an even faster machine for the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin. In addition, it is also developing home-grown silicon chips to power the behemoths.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 01 Jun 2010 11:32

David Daokui Li
David Daokui Li (Chinese: 李稻葵, Pinyin: Lǐ Dàokúi) is a Chinese economist and the Director of the Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) at the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and is the Mansfield Freeman Professor of Economics. He currently teaches courses on economic transition, corporate finance, international economics, and China's economy.
Li Daokui is a part of a trio to replace Fan Gang, as academic members to the central bank’s monetary policy committee (PBOC Monetary Policy Committee).[1]
His childhood was spent in Sichuan province, as a result of his parents being displaced to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. He currently lives in Beijing with his wife and two children. He is a member of the 1985 inaugural class of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM), and studied abroad immediately following his graduation. Studying under economic transition scholars Eric Maskin, Andrei Shliefer, and János Kornai, Li received his PhD degree in Economics from Harvard University in 1992. His current research interests are China's macroeconomy, economic development models, international comparisons of economic growth, and China's need to pursue a development pattern fitting with its large economic status.
He has also held the following positions: Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Development (CID) of the Harvard Kennedy School (1986), Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Research Fellow at Hoover Institute of the Stanford University, and Professor and Deputy Director of the Economic Development Research Center of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Li has also served as the editor for the Journal of Comparative Economics (2000–2003) and the Economics Bulletin, as well as being named an honorary professor at Sichuan University and Nankai University. He returned to China in 2004 to teach at his alma mater Tsinghua and serve as head of the Center for China in the World Economy research center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Daokui_Li

http://video.ft.com/v/89145028001/May-3 ... one-crisis

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 02 Jun 2010 17:42

http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/ ... s-wary.htm

Strikes hit China.. who would have thought?

Ameet · Post by **Ameet** » 03 Jun 2010 02:53

Hon Hai Group (Foxconn) to Raise Wages by at Least 30 Percent

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... H5bsyUCva8

Hon Hai Group, the assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, will raise workers’ salaries by at least 30 percent, more than indicated earlier, after a series of suicides at the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics.

Workers with a monthly wage of 900 yuan ($131.77) will be paid 1,200 yuan effective immediately,

Higher wages may help Hon Hai offset negative publicity generated after the worker deaths at its China factories this year, according to Steven Tseng, an analyst at RBS Asia Ltd. Rights group China Labor Watch said wages that are too low to cover the cost of living have put pressure on Hon Hai factory workers, who are “exhausted.”

At least 10 people have died this year at Hon Hai’s manufacturing complex in Shenzhen and police are treating the deaths as suicides, prompting Gou to recruit counselors and install nets on dormitory buildings.

The minimum monthly wage in Shenzhen is between 900 yuan and 1,000 yuan, according to the city government.

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 03 Jun 2010 03:10

Tanaji wrote:http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/ ... s-wary.htm

Strikes hit China.. who would have thought?

You have read this differently. Strike at a Japanese factory in China.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 03 Jun 2010 03:15

^ Is it any different, unless it is 400% political?

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 03 Jun 2010 03:39

That is what I suspect, unless we see protests in US owned factories too.

wrdos · Post by **wrdos** » 04 Jun 2010 12:22

China's Fast Track to Development
High-speed rail is about more than passengers. The new lines will free up valuable space for freight.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TTopBucket

The 350-kilometer-per-hour Wuguang Harmony Express rockets through China's heartland delivering passengers 1,000 kilometers from Wuhan to Guangzhou—roughly the distance between Washington, D.C. and Chicago—in just three hours. Outside, quintessential scenes of modern China unfold. Future urban districts populated only by cranes, the skeletons of concrete buildings and the cooling towers of coal-fired power plants rise out of fields of bright-yellow rapeseed dotted with the occasional dilapidated brick farmhouse.

Such glimpses of an agrarian country still in its initial stages of development make the state-of-the-art Wuguang Harmony Express seem an extravagant indulgence, an emblem of Beijing's obsession with infrastructure, regardless of cost or utility. Critics say China's mammoth high-speed passenger rail network (16,000 kilometers of which a quarter is complete) serves no useful purpose and will saddle the country with a crippling debt.

Such criticism is misguided. The high-speed rail program is not a desperate throw of gold-plated dice in response to the global financial crisis, but a carefully considered component of a long planned and desperately needed upgrade of China's rail system.

As incomes rise, China's passenger railroads will become by far the world's busiest. Moving passenger traffic off clogged conventional rail lines will free up room for an explosion of freight traffic, so increased freight revenue will pay the capital cost of building the new lines. And by reducing the need for airplanes, cars and trucks to carry passengers and freight, the system will yield big savings in energy intensity and carbon emissions.

China's rail system is already the most intensively used in the world. China carries a quarter of the world's rail freight and passenger traffic on only 6% of the world's track. China's intensity of rail use (passenger and freight combined) is double India's, triple that of the United States, and a dozen times Europe's. Over the next decade, China's Ministry of Railways expects freight carriage to rise 55%, while passenger-miles will double. More miles of track are not a luxury, but a necessity. In addition to the high-speed lines, the ministry plans to lay another 18,000 kilometers of new conventional freight and passenger track by 2020.

One objection is that high-speed lines cost far more to build than conventional lines. Maybe new passenger lines are not a luxury, but high-speed lines are.

Wrong again. In France, Spain or Japan a mile of high-speed track costs triple a conventional mile. But in China, according to World Bank estimates, the cost premium is as low as 20% to 30%. Cheap labor and locally produced equipment help; so does the decision to build much of the network on viaducts, minimizing land acquisition cost. Finally, building an entire network all at once produces massive economies of scale.

This modest cost premium translates into affordable ticket prices—higher than for conventional rail, but lower than for air travel. The average household income in China's 36 biggest cities is now more than $10,000, so tens of millions of Chinese can easily afford high-speed tickets, especially for business trips.

On several recent trips on the Nanjing-Wuhan, Wuhan-Guangzhou and Guangzhou-Shenzhen lines, we found the trains to be about 90% full. The World Bank reckons that in a few years' time the Beijing-Hong Kong line will carry more than 80 million passengers a year, becoming the world's busiest high-speed passenger rail line.

But the really big gain is that by moving most passenger traffic off existing conventional lines, more space is freed up for cargo. China's businesses—ranging from manufacturers to coal mines—have complained for years about the difficulty of securing space on freight trains, which forces them to move a lot of their cargo on more expensive and less efficient trucks. An increase in rail capacity will enable them to put their freight back on trains, generating huge savings. Ton for ton, freight carried by rail costs nearly 70% less than carriage by truck, uses 77% less energy and produces 91% less carbon dioxide emissions.

All well and good, but these benefits will accrue over many years. The cost of building the network is happening now, and is financed mainly by a huge run-up in debt. Isn't the financial risk too great?

Actually, no. For one thing, building the network now, when labor costs are still low, is smarter than waiting a decade or two, when higher wages will push the real cost far higher. And anyway, financing projects whose economic benefit takes a long time to emerge is precisely what debt is for.

That said, Beijing does need to diversify the sources of rail finance. MOR's liabilities rose by nearly 50% in 2009 to 1.3 trillion yuan ($190 billion), and it is near the limit of its ability prudently to issue more bonds. It has begun to get local governments to shoulder about one-third of the cost of building new lines, but direct budgetary support from the central government may also be required in the next five-year plan.

Yet this is hardly unusual—most countries with high-speed rail networks financed the capital construction mainly or entirely from budgetary funds. The bottom line is that, however it is financed, China's ambitious rail build-out is an investment well worth making.

Mr. Freeman is a research analyst and Mr. Kroeber is managing director at GaveKal Dragonomics, a Beijing-based research firm.

biswas · Post by **biswas** » 04 Jun 2010 13:44

You really like your trains don't you wrdos ji?

wrdos · Post by **wrdos** » 04 Jun 2010 14:08

I like trains, not only "mine", but also "yours", and in fact every kinds of trains and railways.

But the reason why I keep posting some reports about the Chinese high speed rail network is that I think it is the most significant economic phenomenon happening in China. People, not only in foreign countries but even inside China, need more time to fully understand its significance.

For the first time in history, a non white country owns a most advanced and largest transportation network in the world.

biswas wrote:You really like your trains don't you wrdos ji?

vina · Post by **vina** » 04 Jun 2010 14:36

For the first time in history, a non white country owns a most advanced and largest transportation network in the world.

Hmm. I did'nt think that the Japanese consider themselves as "white". Before the Europeans started building out their high speed rail systems (esp the French), " a non white country owned the most advanced and largest transportation network in the world"

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 04 Jun 2010 23:34

Japanese are minions of whites..so probably they don't count.

shynee · Post by **shynee** » 06 Jun 2010 11:05

How China works: The property market is a political, not economic, problem

wig · Post by **wig** » 06 Jun 2010 19:48

http://www.spiegel.de/international/bus ... 58,00.html

When the police fail to pursue his case, Mouazzen takes matters into his own hands and searches for his crane in Shanghai, which, as he has already discovered, is once again for sale online. He watches as the crane is loaded onto a truck. Then he instructs his attorney to ask the police to intervene. But the police refuse, claiming that the officer assigned to the case is now on vacation and that nothing can be done about the matter at the moment.

"What kind of a city is this," Mouazzen asks, "where swindlers are simply allowed to go about their business?"

the article above in a german news paper details the manner in which an iranian born german business person is first cheated and then when he goes to china for justice is denied help. he is made to run around by the chinese government authroities (police) while the scamsters make merry.
not a pleasant article to read.