Thread: China

Greenspan couldn't find his arse with both hands on a clear day.

I've just spent four and a half months offshore on a Chinese boat manned by Chinese.
At the end of that time, I've come to the conclusion that we're all perfectly safe. The Chinese are never going to rule the world.

^ I'd love to hear details, SB.

It's relevant to this thread. Please tell.

How was that trip? You've got an interesting gig. But I'm still not sure what exactly it is.

Originally Posted by Sir Burr

The Chinese are never going to rule the world.

It's going to be a sheer numbers game!

But they sure know what do do with crooked politico.
Seems that their minister of the Food and Drug admin. there has been selling his look the other way services, he has got $650K dollars in his sock now, and let a lot of counterfeit and bad meds and products, like that shit that was making dog food poison and some shit i never heard about before.
Well today was his day in court, for his sins against humanity he got the death penalty..No Shit.
Now of coarse they will have to find someone looking for a kidney or other parts that will match and then, WOW is he gonna be surprised.

There might be a contraction but slight.
The smart kids going to Chula and Thammasat are studying Mandarin like crazy. The future is China.

A snapshot. I lived in HK between 1992 and early 2004. China and HK are different, but I travelled to China many times. My wife was a HK born Chinese, her parents from about 80km from Macau.
I saw enormous changes, quite probably like as has happened at a pace nowhere else in the world. Where once was paddy fields in between Shenzhen and Guangzhou (early 90's), are factories as far as the eye can see. The city nearest my wive's ancestral village (very important to the Chinese) changed before me eyes in three snapshots over a two year period, from a jumble of very old shanties, to a demolition zone, to a modern city centre of high rise buildings.
The Chinese are very money motivated, and very clannish. They are hard working and enterprising, they do not like relying upon other people. They have character, but they are not people you instantly warm to on average. The people from the south do not like the people from the north, and so on. They do not trust outsiders, and they refer to us as barbarians. Yes, they are more prejudiced than westerners. If you are a fourth generation American born Chinese, you do not visit China for the first time, you 'return' to China. Faan gwok in Cantonese. If you are ethnically Chinese, you can instantly become a Chinese citizen. If you are not, you never can.
The Chinese will never take over the world, because frankly they are not that interested in you.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

^
Good stuff there sabang.
In terms of 'taking over the world' though, their economic might is very real. Products coming out of China are, for the most part, of inferior quality. Power tools for example but I'm betting they will be like Japan was back in the 1950's w/respect to quality issues and...look at Sony today?

With the bulk of the US national debt OWNED by China , you better believe GWB would drop to his knees to blow our Chinese Masters when they feel the urge.

China will shoot a huge gooey wad when ready and you all better be wearing your raincoats.

I maintain they won't take over the world, but owning it, now thats a different matter.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

^
Good stuff there sabang.
In terms of 'taking over the world' though, their economic might is very real. Products coming out of China are, for the most part, of inferior quality. Power tools for example but I'm betting they will be like Japan was back in the 1950's w/respect to quality issues and...look at Sony today?

I seriously doubt that. Even the Japanese had a reputation for high quality steel prior to the post-WWII economic miracle.

Now China wants to sell cars here? I shudder at that thought.

China is producing a lot of components for the new Boeing 787, and has further announced it's intention to get into the civil aviation business. They manufacture a hell of a lot of computers and semiconductors too.
If they want to do something, they will do it.

Originally Posted by sabang

China is producing a lot of components for the new Boeing 787, and has further announced it's intention to get into the civil aviation business.

I'll stick to Airbus for a while then...

Originally Posted by Milkman

Mandarin isn't a linguistic skill that can be learned a) easily and b) as quickly as English.

Nor is it spoken all across China.

Something not to forget, is the Chinese influence, not last because of the many Thai-Chinese, and, without pulling on clichees, I reckon they will be the ones trusted by Chinese business interests.
Already, speaking one of the main Chinese languages is an asset demanding equaly if not more 'rewarding' salaries as fluency in English.

-personal experience. I know of a sour-puss, useless secretary. Main qualification: she can communicate in Cantonese.

Actually there is a big push on in HK to get people to learn more Mandarin (more correctly Pehng Hwa, modified Madarin promoted as the central language of China). Cantonese is the local lingo, and most people in the south do not speak Pehng Hwa.
China has many, many dialects.

Surasak:

Now China wants to sell cars here? I shudder at that thought.

Attaboy:

Car sales were to begin in 2008 but the venture has been put on hold. According to the broker of the deal there is a problem in communicating to the Chinese manufacurers the importance American consumers put on consistency. That translates to a quality control problem.

A lot of this has come out recently, in addition to the pet food and toothpaste.

(In Vietnam, the local soy sauce brand producers have had high levels in the thousands of % of a carcinogen, that was discovered in 2001. Now it's just come public..)

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

^
Good stuff there sabang.
In terms of 'taking over the world' though, their economic might is very real. Products coming out of China are, for the most part, of inferior quality. Power tools for example but I'm betting they will be like Japan was back in the 1950's w/respect to quality issues and...look at Sony today?

well,as you say Boonie,many chinese products are inferior,but they are improving rapidly.

A friend of mine is a large fabric importer into NZ.Expensive stuff too.10 years ago,90% of his product came out of the USA and Europe,with the remaining 10% from korea and China.Now the ratio is about 50/50 west/east.In another 5 years it will prolly go 90/10 in favour of mainly China,'cause in my mates words."The quality of the products coming out of China are getting better and better every day.."

Originally Posted by Milkman

The Chinese can produce - but they cannot create.

But maybe, they won't need to create.

Maybe they will. Look at Taiwan. Taiwan was 20 years ago where China is today....a source of cheap labor because Japan started getting too expensive. As the NT rose in value so too did the cost of labor, thus, the move to the mainland for labor. Taiwan now essentially designs things that get built in the mainland using cheap labor (computers and computer parts come to mind).

Then again, maybe China will remain solely the factory of the world while everyone else designs things to be made there (or, worse, copied). No sense wasting time coming up with ideas when you can steal everyone else's.

Originally Posted by sabang

Actually there is a big push on in HK to get people to learn more Mandarin (more correctly Pehng Hwa, modified Madarin promoted as the central language of China). Cantonese is the local lingo, and most people in the south do not speak Pehng Hwa.
China has many, many dialects.

or even more correctly "putong hua" which translates as "common speech".

Regarding Chinese manufacturing it seems there is lots made in China but not much made by China. In order to continue this rapid development China will need to a) develop their own brands (I can only think of Haier as a truly global brand. And Lenovo now of course) and b) move up the value chain by manufacturing more hi tech items. China is less and less competitive now as a manuafcturing base for low tech items.

Originally Posted by Blake7

And Lenovo now of course

But, they are only known worldwide because of them buying out IBM PC, and they will still rely upon the westerners to do everything that requires thought and flair.