Cup of Cha
This is China

As you may have heard, China’s economy has changed over the last few years. In 1979 China’s economy was 10th biggest in the world between Spain and Holland. It is expected to pass Japan as the world’s second largest this year, if it hasn’t already.
And yet, with all of the changes that have taken place, [...]

Continue reading “Grow the Economy, Print Bigger Currency” »

Speaking of brilliant ideas, how did China get to the point where it thought blocking YouTube would be a good idea. I know a few months ago there was a controversial video about Tibet (and when I say controversial, I mean it seemed to contradict a government account), but seriously, that was a month ago. [...]

Continue reading “China, the Fragile Superpower?” »

Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank’s governor, recently proposed that a new international super currency be created to replace the US dollar as the international reserve currency. The currency, which I call “Esperanto Bucks,” would  be tied to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a weighted basket of currencies the International Monetary Fund (IMF) currently uses [...]

Continue reading “China Pushes for Esperanto Currency” »

In the midst of the Olympics, I missed an interesting story about a car tax that will go into effect September 1. Ostensibly it is designed to reduce pollution and vehicles that use a lot of gasoline. However, as the Economist points out, the real goal is to reduce imports from foreign car manufacturers, who [...]

Continue reading “Greening with Chinese Characteristics” »

American leaders like Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsay Graham have long argued that China has an unfair trade advantage based on the historically undervalued Renminbi. While they were right to a small degree, these policymakers long failed to identify a much more problematic issue. Chinese manufacturers have had an edge over their counterparts in America [...]

Continue reading “China Continues to Fall Short of Market Economy” »

When the American northeast went black in August of 2003, the official version of events was that a tree branch crippled a huge chunk of the American and Canadian power grids. This either seemed far-fetched, or utterly terrifying, depending on your point of view. Well, a new report from National Journal says that China’s “cyber-militia” [...]

Continue reading “Did China Cause 2003 American Blackout?” »

In an AP article I found via ESPN.com I zeroed in on a quotation from a torch bearer name Fu Shenfeng seems to have unintentionally summed up the disconnect between Western and Chinese views on Olympic torch protests:
“Foreigners don’t understand China,” said torch bearer Fu Shenfeng before the relay started. “They still think we’re stuck [...]

Continue reading “Torch Protest Misunderstanding: Why Chinese and Foreigners Don’t Get Each Other” »

In the LA Times today, Francis Fukuyama argues that the greatest tyranny in China today is local, rather than the central, government. While his argument is essentially correct, it also oversimplifies the picture and implicitly absolves the country’s top leaders of their role in the country’s ills, while at the same time misunderstanding the uniqueness [...]

Continue reading “Does the Central Government Run China?” »

You may not have noticed this, but the Renminbi has now surpassed the 7:1 ratio to the US Dollar. Bank of China is now listing the official rate at 6.99:1. The symbolism of this barrier is more important than the actual change, but it shows the long trend that has significantly sped up, particularly this [...]

Continue reading “Renminbi Passes 7:1 Mark Against US Dollar” »

If you want to realize just how scary the neocons are, then you might want to check out John Bolton’s piece in the LA Times in which he argues that the way to ensure peace in East Asia is for the US to recognize Taiwan diplomatically. He seems to think this would be the [...]

Continue reading “Neocon Arrogance on Taiwan” »