[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoons
Title: A great honor for China (click to view)
Date: October 12, 2010
For the first time in a very long while, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a genuinely worthy recipient this week. Liu Xiaobo is a prominent member of the Chinese dissident movement, and has worked tirelessly to promote the cause of liberty and democracy in his nation. First gaining fame as a participant in the 1989 Tiananmen Square riots, he's been repeatedly imprisoned for his actions ever since, and is currently serving an 11-year sentence for the laughable charge of co-authoring an internet petition calling for political reforms.

The Chinese government was predictably livid over Xiaobo's award, calling it a grave insult to their regime,  and the full force of the Chinese censorship machine has been mobilized to prevent the citizenry of learning of the slur. Newspapers, internet searches, and text messages are all being redacted to omit references to Xiaobo's name or ideas, and of course Xiaobo himself will not be going to Norway anytime soon to pick up his medalion. Originally, it seemed that the regime was going to at least let Mrs. Xiaobo — one of the few people in China who seems to know about the Nobel Prize — serve as her husband's official representative to the western media and the Norwegian government, but now the latest reports say they've placed her under house arrest and banned her from communicating with the outside world.

It is really quite remarkable to pause and reflect on just how absurdly tyrannical China remains in the 21st Century. The country has massive, modern cities,a tremendously successful free-market economy, one of the highest GDPs in the world, and a consistently-rising standard of living for millions of its citizens, yet remains under the rule of a crackpot dictatorship straight out of the Cold War. Perhaps even more horrifying than the USSR in fact, considering the Chinese commies now have access to technology like the internet and cell phones that allow them to control the flow of goodthink right down to the pettiest level of individual communication.

President Obama and Prime Minister Harper, to their credit, both responded to the news of Xiaobo's award by demanding his release from prison. But their pleas are easily drowned out by the many loud and powerful pro-China lobbies in North America, backed by corporations and politicians who fear their personal gravy trains could be upset by broaching topics that upset the Chinese leadership. Norway may soon serve as their favorite little horror story, in fact. Prior to this award, the country had been well on its way to becoming the first European nation to ink a bilateral trade treaty with the People's Republic, but now, in the wake its insolence, has become a diplomatic persona non grata in Beijing.

[martin14]

Keep buying all that good high quality Chinese shit,

and keep supporting this regime, while we wallow in recession, creating stress in our society,
selling out our souls and resources, and creating a real monster.

[ASLplease]

You should trade in that Harley for a Canadian bike.

Edit: maybe a Schwinn or a CCM

[Dragom]

The recession is all good news for China. Most of the west can't afford to shop anywhere else.

My books are printed in China and my coffee cup was fired in a Chinese kiln.

At least my jeans where sewn together by a young girl just entering puberty some where locked in a factory without fire extinguishers in India...

Wait... Thats worse then supporting a communist dictatorship in the process of reforming itself.

[martin14]

ASLplease wrote:

You should trade in that Harley for a Canadian bike.

Edit: maybe a Schwinn or a CCM

... funny guy.


And Dragorm, you think there arent any child labor factories in China ?

guess again: http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/019 ... russia.htm

[Dragom]

3rd largest number of Child Labourers despite largest population, also Child Labour is illegal in China.

[ShepherdsDog]

Quote:

Tiananmen Square riots,

From what I remember, they weren't riots. They were peaceful protests that ended in a massacre at the hands of the CCCP's enforcers.

Quote:

also Child Labour is illegal in China.

I don't know if you've noticed but laws, domestic and international, mean SFA in China. The only time that they are 'enforced' is when some Red Mandarin needs a scapegoat to cover up exposed corruption and shoddy exports that have sickened or killed people and animals.

[Psudo]

North America does buy a lot of crap from China, but not so much as many people think. We also buy a lot of crap from Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. My work experience tells me that far more things at Walmart say "Product of Mexico" than "Product of China."

I found a great little website for statistics on the subject from the US International Trade Administration. They have dollar amounts on imports by country since 1989.

1989: China provides 2.5% of all US imports ($12 billion out of $473 billion).
2009: China provides 19% of all US imports ($296 billion / $1.6 trillion).

China was the USA's #1 import partner only in 2007 (16% of total) and 2009 (19%). Canada has been our #1 import partner in every other year on record except 1989 (with 19.8%) and 1991 (18.8%), when it was Japan.

My point here is that the USA (presumably Canada, also) does not have a unique trade relationship with China. They are a rising economy, sure, but China doesn't have any more economic power over the USA than Canada routinely does, nor any more control than Japan did in the late 80s. China has occasionally had more financial influence than any other single nation, but never more than 1/5th of the influence all nations share, and the total influence of all imports is only about 1/10th of the US economy. It's bad reasoning to imagine they own us.

Are we going to be similarly jealous of any emerging economy? If Estonia started doubling their GDP every year until they were a major world economy, would there be howling that they're going to buy our sovereignty and ruin our way of life? Probably. But it'd be just as silly.

Estonia would be better than China because China is a sinkhole devoid of human rights and Estonia is a extremely free country. But that's a moot point next to the clear evidence that neither of them own North America.

[JJ]

To me, the issue is less whether they "own" our countries, fullstop (which I agree is a hysterical and overblown accusation), and more whether they own our foreign policy. I know that Michael Ignatieff has been very critical of Harper speaking out about Chinese human rights as much as he has, and that a recent letter in favor of freeing Xiaobo was only signed by 29 members of Congress. It troubles me that this is considered such a delicate issue, especially if Chinese economic power over North America isn't even as great as we're constantly told it is.

[BartSimpson]

Liu Xiaobo.

Just a little education on Chinese names...

Liu is the fellow's family name and Xiaobo is his given name. Calling his wife "Mrs. Xiaobo" is like calling Michelle Obama "Mrs. Barack".

[JJ]

And in both cases they are entertaining.

[BartSimpson]

JJ wrote:

And in both cases they are entertaining.

Well, there is that!

[Psudo]

There's something ironic about hoping America, the supposed free market ideal, will refuse to trade with Communist China until they (China) improve working conditions for their workers. I think the definitions of capitalist and communist have ceased to apply to reality.

[Dragom]

A unionized world may have to wait till there are people who can afford to buy union made clothes.

[Psudo]

A unionized world may have a long wait, since a well-organized union tends to outlive it's original purpose and become detrimental to what people can afford for institutional self-preservation's sake.