colonel Feathers 5 Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 yup, real celebratory Go China Go After rereading post 14, cant interpret it as being purely informational in purpose. Link to post Share on other sites
pezeveng 207 Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Bob what's your take on these ghost towns? Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 Bob what's your take on these ghost towns? The ghost towns are a product of the hundreds of billions of dollars of misdirected investment in the Chinese economy. You have hundreds of millions of people who have inadequate housing at the same time that there are massive developments that are sitting empty. In too many cases investment is made and developments are built not because they will be productive but because the local officials will profit from it and they think it will make it look like their region is growing faster which gets them promoted. China has a totally corrupt system where everybody is taking their piece of the pie. Link to post Share on other sites
colonel Feathers 5 Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Bob what's your take on these ghost towns? Wonder what a penthouse with a view goes for here? Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 China admits pollution has caused 'cancer villages' The Chinese government has admitted for the first time that decades of reckless pollution have spawned a string of toxic "cancer villages". Link to post Share on other sites
colonel Feathers 5 Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 China admits pollution has caused 'cancer villages' The Chinese government has admitted for the first time that decades of reckless pollution have spawned a string of toxic "cancer villages". looking on the bright side, one govt official noted the population explosion is finally under control. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 China’s riskiest property market just collapsed. Is this how it starts? The problem is that the Chinese tend to put their money in real estate because they perceive it as a safe and reliable investment. This drives up prices, which leads more Chinese to invest, which drives up prices more. But because people are treating housing as an investment, the market is artificially inflated. People buy apartments but don’t live in them. One day, it’s possible that Chinese consumers will wake up and decide that those investment apartments aren’t such safe investments after all, or maybe they’ll just need to free up the cash they used to buy them, at which point they’ll want to start selling. That will lead prices to drop, perhaps catastrophically. If you’re a standard Chinese family with 41 percent of your money tied up in real estate and that real estate loses more than half of its value, as it did in Phoenix City, then it’s like a whole bunch of your money just disappeared. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 China Has Its Own Debt Bomb Not unlike the U.S. in 2008, China is at the end of a credit binge that won't end well. Link to post Share on other sites
mrdannyg 274 Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 This is interesting stuff Bob, thanks for posting. Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 China ready for currency war Reminds me a lot of China's declaration that they were 'ready to go to war with Russia' back in the 50's. Their thought is that they can live in caves for 100 years and still be China, where as the rest of the world cannot make this kind of commitment to the future. so I don't know that I take their statement as the same as the USA telling anyone that we are 'ready to go to war with you' because we actually are ready to go to war, but more of a ' no matter how bad you hurt us we will continue and eventually come back' kind of a statement from China. thoughts? Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 So called currency wars aren't really a worry. Things like low real interest rates and quantitative easing lead to lower relative exchange rates and if everybody is doing the say thing then the relative exchange rates won't move much. A currency war isn't like a trade war which can do real harm. Talk of currency wars "overblown," IMF spokesman says http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/01/investing/currency-wars/index.html Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 4, 2013 Author Share Posted March 4, 2013 60 minutes story on the Chinese Real Estate Bubble http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50142079n Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 This is why Chinese people boil water before drinking it. http://youtu.be/ugDUT2Uqo8E Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 China’s nightmare scenario: By 2025, air quality could be much, much worse Link to post Share on other sites
colonel Feathers 5 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 China’s nightmare scenario: By 2025, air quality could be much, much worse Even if we do affect climate change, wats the point in us destroying our economy when countries like China India, and any other emerging 3rd world country will just make our efforts moot. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 Shanghai 25 years ago and the same shot today Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 China's re-education camps Her ordeal began in 2006 when her 10-year-old daughter disappeared from home. Unbeknown to Tang Hui, the girl had been raped and then lured to a local karaoke centre by a man she'd met. There she was gang raped again by four men, beaten and forced to work as a prostitute. Local police did little to track down the missing girl, saying she'd probably run away from home. Tang Hui didn't give up and, after three months searching her hometown of Yongzhou, discovered where her daughter was being held. Only then did the authorities act, freeing the girl and arresting her captors. Tang Hui campaigned vigorously for the death penalty for the men who did it. But she says the pimps had powerful connections in the police force, and the bad publicity the case brought may have tarnished the careers of local officials. So those same police and officials had Tang Hui sent to Zhuzhou Baimalong camp to undergo 18 months of re-education. She says it was an act of revenge to silence her. Her re-education meant being told she must obey whatever the Communist Party says. Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Book: Factory Girls Years long study of the largest migration in the world of people leaving rural area for industrial jobs in the many factories of China. Most amazing thing about this book for me was how a Communist government was willing to fuse capitalism into it's society and choose the absolute worst side of it, the exploitation of the poor and uneducated. Young people leave their farms, beg for a job in a factory that might pay $100 a month. The factory keeps the first 2 months pay, and only gives this up if they agree to allow the person to quit. Fines for talking too much, for going to the bathroom, etc. But tens of millions of people are taking these jobs in order to better their life, and see a little more of the world. Of course forced prostitution is a danger for the women, and the men surprisingly have fewer work options and room for advancements meaning the men return home after only a few years to get married and settle down. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Book: Factory Girls Years long study of the largest migration in the world of people leaving rural area for industrial jobs in the many factories of China. Most amazing thing about this book for me was how a Communist government was willing to fuse capitalism into it's society and choose the absolute worst side of it, the exploitation of the poor and uneducated. Young people leave their farms, beg for a job in a factory that might pay $100 a month. The factory keeps the first 2 months pay, and only gives this up if they agree to allow the person to quit. Fines for talking too much, for going to the bathroom, etc. But tens of millions of people are taking these jobs in order to better their life, and see a little more of the world. Of course forced prostitution is a danger for the women, and the men surprisingly have fewer work options and room for advancements meaning the men return home after only a few years to get married and settle down. Conditions in factories in the Pearl River Delta area which is where this book takes place are improving greatly for workers for the simple reason that there is now a shortage of factory workers. A combination of new factories opening up inland closer to where the migrants grew up plus demographic changes mean that factories are having to pay higher wages and retention bonuses to get enough workers. The minimum wage in places like Shenzhen has also been going up radidly. China is actually going to run into severe demographic challenges in the coming decades as their population ages and the percentage of people of working age shrinks. There is no way they are going to be able to keep the One Child Policy in place eventhough there are huge loopholes in it. Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 They'll just ship the factories overseas, which will solve their problems with labor's wanting more money. What do they think? that they are in a communist country? Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 China moves troops in support of NK Reports from the region reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions, specifically North Korea’s declaration of a “state of war” and threats to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South Korea. According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March, including troop movements and warplane activity. China’s navy also conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that are set to continue throughout April. China may soon be in the market for another Navy, if they think they can go toe to toe with ours. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 The Hong Kong Stock Market was down 2.7% today over bird flu fears with most of the Chinese Airlines down over 10%. Shanghai closes poultry markets over bird flu http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2013/04/05/Over%2B20000%2Bbirds%2Bslaughtered%2Bin%2BShanghai%2Bafter%2BH7N9%2Bdetected/ Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 It's possible that the first human to human transmission of the H7N9 Bird Flu has been reported. That isn't good. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-04/05/c_132285203.htm Link to post Share on other sites
colonel Feathers 5 Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 It's possible that the first human to human transmission of the H7N9 Bird Flu has been reported. That isn't good. http://news.xinhuane...c_132285203.htm This kind of reporting from china must be taken with a grain of salt. Having sex with birds isnt something they like to talk about. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,312 Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 This map link is updated with the locations of Bird Flu cases in China https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200073663810992252651.0004d96b6096833780da3&msa=0 Link to post Share on other sites
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