Several Thoughts About China...And All That U.S. Citizens Don't Get About It
Responding to propaganda and misunderstandings about China in the United States.
Tom Trasente
Issue date: 9/30/05 Section: Opinions
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There is a lot of junk written about China, and I would like to correct them.
Know that the "largest potential market" of 1.3 billion people does not exist. Dumb Western business people have been salivating over these sugar plums dancing in their heads for several hundred years. It did not exist then, it does not exist today, and it will not exist tomorrow.
Reject the out of date idea that China is a communist country. Chinese don't say they are capitalists, they say they "have a free market." Irregardless of whatever you call it, everything in China is profits, development, growth, markets, and getting rich.
In several aspects China is more capitalistic than America since they lack fair labor laws, minimum wages, social security, government provided health care, or the other trappings of the safety net that have swept over the Western world in the last hundred years.
Understand that several hundred million Chinese people are willing to die, and kill, for Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Short of wiping out the entire Han nation, nothing will ever change this.
Recognize that Mao is popular in China not for propaganda reasons but because he killed a lot of Japanese during World War II and stood up to foreign powers who had spent the last few hundred years plundering China. Deng Xiao Ping is worshipped for opening China to the outside world, and starting the free market. Jiang Ze Min is regarding as a bit of a clown, and the jury is still out on Hu Jin Tao.
Realize that Chinese, like many developing and ancient countries, do not want to be like us. They do not want their wives, daughters, and women showing off their bodies and seeking abortions. They do not want their husbands, sons, and men abandoning their wives and children.
Liberals will not want to hear this, but China does not want human rights (why would you want something you think you already have?), and least of all, foreign aid; they want to learn from us, so they, too, can be rich.
Know that the "largest potential market" of 1.3 billion people does not exist. Dumb Western business people have been salivating over these sugar plums dancing in their heads for several hundred years. It did not exist then, it does not exist today, and it will not exist tomorrow.
Reject the out of date idea that China is a communist country. Chinese don't say they are capitalists, they say they "have a free market." Irregardless of whatever you call it, everything in China is profits, development, growth, markets, and getting rich.
In several aspects China is more capitalistic than America since they lack fair labor laws, minimum wages, social security, government provided health care, or the other trappings of the safety net that have swept over the Western world in the last hundred years.
Understand that several hundred million Chinese people are willing to die, and kill, for Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Short of wiping out the entire Han nation, nothing will ever change this.
Recognize that Mao is popular in China not for propaganda reasons but because he killed a lot of Japanese during World War II and stood up to foreign powers who had spent the last few hundred years plundering China. Deng Xiao Ping is worshipped for opening China to the outside world, and starting the free market. Jiang Ze Min is regarding as a bit of a clown, and the jury is still out on Hu Jin Tao.
Realize that Chinese, like many developing and ancient countries, do not want to be like us. They do not want their wives, daughters, and women showing off their bodies and seeking abortions. They do not want their husbands, sons, and men abandoning their wives and children.
Liberals will not want to hear this, but China does not want human rights (why would you want something you think you already have?), and least of all, foreign aid; they want to learn from us, so they, too, can be rich.