China, meet Zimbabwe & Egypt!

Mark Penn is looking for a job. Maybe he could apply for the position of creating better international relations.

"Extorted?" I think Americans lined up to throw the money at them. Shame on us! At least China is buying US media manipulators - that's because we're still the best at something - promulgating lies!

Don't count on elections in China anytime soon. Why? People don't talk about it much but in many ways China has the same problem as Iraq. It is a racially, ethnically divided country held together first by oppression then by irrational exuberance.

After the blush goes off that rose.....step back fast.

Richard- well, true, "extorted" was a poorly selected word. I apologize for that! We played a leading role in the money drama by becoming the customer of last resort for China and then borrowing our own money back to pay for our budget deficits. Pretty humiliating stuff.

Greg- The awakening giant aspect of China worries me, because they really still do not like the concept of the rule of law. The ruling elite does get the idea of you scratch my back and I will scratch yours, but that only goes so far.

I hope everyone understands here that I do not hate the Chinese people. The Chinese people have a great work ethic, and one on one are not that bad. They can be a bit overly nationalistic, but hey the citizens of the USA are often guilty of that as well. But the one party state there reminds me of a monkey riding a buffalo at times, it just does not seem to be a sustainable thing. And like Greg I do not want it to transition to something else through a crisis that rocks the world.

Americans make the mistake of seeing the increased trade, growing middle class and modernization of the large cities in China as evidence that the Chinese government is moving towards capitalism (and by extension, political freedom) as we know it. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Given our growing economic dependence on this emerging giant, it behooves all of us to understand the country, its culture and its politics a whole lot better- lest we make the kinds of mistakes we've made in the Middle East.

I hope the media spinners at least have the patriotism to use some little cultural thing to give
China its well deserved black eye that we can see but they can't instead of whoring themselves for ill-gotten Chinese money.

Deb--Americans??? Not this one!!! I'm willing to pay more and have less stuff than stop boycotting Chinese products.

China is very harsh when it comes to its people they just kill them. I was in the square in 89, what they are doing again, is wrong as usual the US turned its back then too

China does not deserve any good press,they are just killers.

Thank you for reminding me again of one of the reasons I never shop at Wal-Mart.

it's not just about buying products...i feel like i should point out somewhere here that the tax rebates we are about to receive... that money was borrowed from the chinese. is this not outrageous???

These guys deserve every bit of bad press they get. Of course Bush won't offend his bankers.

We borrowed that money from everyone who bought treasury notes, not just the Chinese.

Yeah, forgot the Japanese and several newer players, that's true, but the Chinese bought more of them than anyone......

Do people really care about these lost and far distant places???

Well, Christopher Bruce is right, China buys those treasury notes.....and has been for quite a few years now...with that $20Billion dollars per month trade deficit we "support" when we buy Chinese exports over American goods.

We have been 'selling' America for a long time. This, if not resolved, will end up in a huge war (since most wars are about greedy people losing to other greedy people, then resorting to nationalization of assets first then violence in order to reclaim what they "lost" through stupid actions. AKA "sore losers, who can only see 'win' or 'lose' in life")

This is the dangerous "dance" American politicians are dancing right now......hence the reluctance to stand up for our stated values of "freedom for all, real democracy, freedom of speech, etc.. By ending the holocaust of Tibet. By selling out Tibet, in many ways...(ie. CIA and Nixon, and being friends with them when its easy) we have totally sold our souls to the devil. Not just in Tibet, in all aspects of our lives/foreign policy. Tibet is just a public test of our real principles......

war with China would really suck, eh? So what to do? Just stop buying their "drug" of cheap goods; in an attempt to try and "satisfy" a greedy desire for more 'stuff'/profits.

its time for everyone in America to "walk the talk".......else, America won't even have a chance of returning to what it once was.....the land of the free and the brave. Right now, karma is kicking our asses for "hypocrisy-out-of-ignorance/laziness."

Most Americans don't want to be hypocrites......but don't make the effort NOT to be led into the trap. Well, wake up.....we have been led into a mess. Ignorance is no longer a defense. Time to ask the tough questions, and hold all of our "leaders" accountable (i.e. support people who are trying to do the right things vs. this orgy of Bush-a-holics)

Check this out for current "spin".....ending the Youtube propaganda campaign.....we won't let them spin out of this, eh? I won't. how about you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS-a3RAoJuo&feature=related

justa few thoughts......

:-)

no man is an island, jjack.

During WWII, Americans bought "war bonds." If Americans were concerned about this, we could be spending billions of our dollars on T-bills, insead of all the cheap stuff from China. One can assume, if open war broke out, we wouldn't have Cinese goods coming into the US anymore, and they wouldn't get paid back any of the value of their T-bills. Who could recover first? America's capacity for production was challenged in WWII, and it would be again, if this all comes to a head. My money's on the USA, though it would be a difficult period, for sure. I still wouldn't want to be "the other guy" (China, in this example).

China has been the cloaked dragon looming in the background for decades. Nothing new. Americans have been set up to the point they don't know about issues until they're problems. The average American has to work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep just to make ends meet... hopefully. Working American's cannot do anything but work. Our government and the rich, which are not so slowly becoming one-and-the-same, has made sure of that. So, we have been painted into a corner which becomes smaller all the time. I know people who have children who have to work different shifts because they cannot afford child care. They barely see each other. They're always tired and frustrated. I know other families who have to work 3-4 jobs between the 2 parents. My point? When do they have time to read, research and make sure what CNN, FOX, the local newspaper, etc are telling them the truth? What percentage of the voting public has the time to dig for the truth? We have been hearing about China's atrocities for decades. Each time China gets busted for serious human violations, which I include poison toothpaste, pet-food, children's toys etc part of, it's a few lines in the news, a few sentences on TV and on with business as usual. I was debating China and the dangers it could present to us in high school in the early 70's. Nothing new. The things that were set in place to help America stay on course have been sold out, paid off, bought out and do not exist in a viable form. The media, politicians, our structured government, etc. Anyone thinks the issues with China are few or fixable under China's current government is ill informed or getting rich off China's shit....