The dragon awakes

[question everything]

(San Diego) Union-Tribune SPECIAL REPORT

The dragon awakes

Foreign investments, global demand for cheap goods and labor give China the fastest-growing economy in the world

By Dean Calbreath
STAFF WRITER

March 20, 2005


CRISTINA MARTINEZ / Union-Tribune

(snip)

"A few years ago, nobody in China knew Lancome, Burberry or Louis Vuitton," said Annie Wang, editor of a Shanghai fashion magazine. "Now they know everything and want everything." The glitzy brands are just one sign of China's rapidly growing economic clout.

In the past decade, foreign investments and worldwide demand for cheap goods have turned China's economy into the fastest-growing across the globe. It is expanding

three times as fast as the U.S. economy, four times as fast as Europe's and nearly nine times as fast as Japan's.

Some economists predict that by 2015, China will have enough spending power to become the world's primary engine of economic growth, unseating the United States, which has held that role since the end of World War II. By 2040 – and perhaps much sooner – China may have a greater gross domestic product than the United States, giving it the world's No. 1 economy. It now ranks at No. 3.

More (a lot)..


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050320/news_lz1n20dragon1.html

[bobthedrummer]

1. We live in interesting times.

[Ready4Change]

4. Apt phrase.

Well done.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Thanks.

It's getting even more that way with a lot of the news from China.
Plus, we now have our very own dragon-lady as Sect. of State, Bolton in the UN and Wolfowitz nominated to The World Bank as the Rumsfeld/Myers DoD continues Transformation.
:puke::argh:

[Warpy]

2. Yeppers, and most people in the US will be scratching

their asses and wondering just what the hell happened, since they're sleeping through the looting of the US economy by the far east, including China and India.

The inaction of Congress in this has to be called what it is: TREASON.

It's not exclusive to the pubbies in office. The Democrats, through their addlepated attachment to the disproven dogma of free trade, are entirely complicit.

I don't think depression will do it. I sincerely doubt anything but losing the next big war will do it.

We will lose, too. We don't make shoes. We don't make cloth. We don't make enough bullets to supply the troops in Iraq. We don't make many of the electronics the military is utterly dependent upon. We are screwed.

And the people dream on.

[Ready4Change]

8. Yep. Our information based economy...

...based on us being the corporate heads, and everyone else working for us, will utterly fail when everone else realizes they work for themselves instead.

It may be to late for China, however. They are reaching for the ring just as oil is getting pricier than ever, with no likelyhood of it ever getting cheaper. Their growth now may just give them further to fall, once we start sliding down the backside of Hubberts Peak.

Our nation rose from the ashes of the last depression to greatness. Who knows if we can repeat that, phoenix-like, from the next, or if we are doomed to a future of medicracy?

[NewJeffCT]

3. they still have a lot of hurdles

China has a potential for a banking scandal similar to what happened in the US post 1929 crash... they have that many bad loans.

They have massive unemployment and potential social unrest because of it.

AIDS is a growing problem there and could be much worse than what the US ever faced in regards to that disease.

Their infrastructure & power grid is as antiquated as the US, but they have much less open space than here.

that said, they are still on the rise and can threaten our overall status similar the the US growth through the 2nd half of the 19th century and early 20th century enabled us to pass Europe.

[solinvictus]

5. AIDS...

It's spreading like wildfire in the Chinese population. They've ignored it and denied it exists for nearly two decades and the situation has gotten so bad that no one can quantify the actual infection rate.

[Maple]

7. It's not looting

It's not treason. And China has no more social unrest or AIDS than the US does.

It's simple globalization...or did you think you were the only ones allowed jobs...and 'entitled' to those jobs because you are American?

[oneold1-4u]

9. Go for it China!

Things get much worse here and China will look very interesting!
With family ties into Hong Kong any business could be better than paying someone here $10 an hour so the government can take $6 of it right off the top. It is getting more and more stupid to think we are better, and better off than anyone else!

[kaitykaity]

10. Watch out for BRIC. It's a big deal.

You did not notice but the third world war started – it is the fight for dominance in oil and trade
http://www.energybulletin.net/3961.html

The third world war is about oil and trade. Three major blocks have emerged. The first is the Americans with some allies like Australia, Japan and so on. The second is BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The third is the European Union. The triangle of international politics is complex and a diplomatic challenge for all head of states. For example India is the process of a tug of war between the Bush led Americans and the Putin led BRIC. China is definitely in BRIC quarter. Russia is leading the BRIC with its big oil reserve. Brazil is in similar situation as India but they are leaning towards BRIC because of Chinese imports of Brazilian grain and other agricultural products. India is scared to antagonize the Americans. They love earning American dollars and Euros by exporting English speaking educated bodies or services to the West. But the heart of India is with the BRIC. Self respect and independence is very important in India. If you leave out the Indian oligarchs in the field of call centers, Information Technologies who make money by exploiting young educated people (a modern version of high tech slave trading), the rest of the country is pro-BRIC. India is also concerned about the ‘Pakistani nuisance effect” – Pakistan is not really a threat in any sense but can be a perpetual nuisance to deal with. For earning easy money based on H1 temporary work visas in America and so called providing outsourcing services and keeping Pakistani ambition in check, India just cannot antagonize the Americans. Also these Indian oligarchs fund the election of all the political parties. The Indian oligarchs control all the political parties. And as long as Americans keep providing outsourcing money to these oligarchs, India will stay neutral


The BRIC Wall- How The World Is Actively Cutting Us Off
http://playbytherules.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/19/0482...

by Maccabee
Fri Feb 18th, 2005 at 21:48:26 PST

Not a mispelling. Brazil Russian India China is a coalition that Vladmir Putin wants to put together. This is just another example of how deluded we are by Rice's Polite-A-Thon in Europe last week.
They don't trust us. No one does. And the world is not only not waiting for us to get nice again, they're actively cutting us off.

Russian President Putin is taking a lead role in putting together the most powerful coalition of regional and superpowers in the world. The coalition consists of India, China, Russia and Brazil. This will challenge the superpower supremacy of America as well as the European Union. The Chinese are concerned about American and European influence over the world. So is India, Brazil and Russia.... However, Putin has bigger ambitions: He wants to establish a long-term Russian footprint in Latin America in order to expand Moscow's geopolitical influence in the region.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Hah - I thought this would be this: Day of the Dragon

When Chris White, the referee, blew his final whistle a little before quarter past five yesterday, the Millennium erupted to the sound of a nation reborn. It was raucous and it was emotional for a country starved of a Grand Slam since 1978. They brought out a platform at the end and the new heroes of Welsh rugby mounted it one by one, cheered to the rafters by the heroes of old. Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett - they were all here. Where else would a Welshman wanted to have been on this day of days?

http://sport.scotsman.com/rugby.cfm?id=299772005

[Wilms]

12. .

[question everything]

13. Boom felt across globe

U-T SPECIAL REPORT

Boom felt across globe

China's voracious appetite for materials drives up costs in West U-T special report The dragon awakes

By Dean Calbreath
STAFF WRITER

March 21, 2005

(snip)

Each month, China needs to build the equivalent of a Houston or a Philadelphia just to keep up with population growth. Each year, Shanghai – about the geographic size of the city of San Diego but with 10 times the population – constructs or renovates 200 million square feet of building space, about the same amount as all the office space in New Jersey.

To fuel that boom, and to feed its hungry factories, China uses more than two-fifths of the world's annual output of cement, one-third of its iron ore, one-quarter of its lead and steel, and more than one-fifth of its copper, aluminum and zinc. The country's unprecedented demand for raw materials has had far-reaching effects, helping drive up the price of raw materials last year and creating short-term shortages throughout the world.

When victims of the 2003 San Diego County wildfires tried to rebuild their homes, some were told the price of wood had risen because of demand from China. And when the Sweetwater School District in Chula Vista wanted to repair some of its facilities last year, it had a hard time finding cheap concrete because so much was being used by China.

(snip)

To most consumers, perhaps the most visible effect of China's growing demand is the recent rise in worldwide oil prices, as an ever-increasing number of Chinese switch from bicycles to automobiles. More than 2 million new drivers hit the roads in China last year – helping make China the world's No. 2 consumer of oil, after the United States – and the number of new drivers is increasing at double-digit rates each year.

(snip)

China is not the only reason for last year's shortages and price increases. War, terrorism and political disruptions helped push up the price of oil. Hurricanes and plant consolidations also put a crimp on building materials. Renewed production by North American factories chewed into metal supplies. In California, the demand for construction materials was also driven by a spate of public works projects. Unlike one-time events that roil the marketplace, China's demand for raw materials represents a growing source of pressure that could affect commodities for decades to come.

More..

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050321/news_lz1n21china.html

Dean Calbreath: [phone]; [e-mail]