A few days ago, Paul Krugman from The New York Times made an important observation that affects the U.S. economy as well as other mature economies throughout the world. It’s the Year of The Tiger in China, and it seems that it’s gone to their head.  Last month and since 2004 I have reiterated the national security issues with China’s escalating cyber-espionage aimed at the United States, their continual industrial espionage and over three-thousand Chinese “front-companies” that operate in the United States with the sole intent of siphoning-off American know-how and technology. In spite of knowing how China treats their own people, which isn’t properly documented and televised, and their continual military/industrial espionage – most American and multi-national corporations continue to do business with a country that violates every concept of decency and humane treatment that is the great dividing factor between East and West. To the western World, life has some value, but in China, power, authority, and achieving their goals trumps any vestiges of humanity that most Westerner’s take for granted – and they often turn a blind eye to their own citizenry on issues that if they occurred in any western country – would immediately result in shutting a corporation down or fining them out of existence. When China’s industry sickens their own people, they actually punish the people seeking medical attention and turn a blind-eye to the perpetrator of the crime(s) – and American, multi-national, and Chinese corporations reap extremely high profits from human suffering and the poisoning of entire communities.

Taking On China

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: March 14, 2010

Tensions are rising over Chinese economic policy, and rightly so: China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, undervalued has become a significant drag on global economic recovery. Something must be done.

To give you a sense of the problem: Widespread complaints that China was manipulating its currency — selling renminbi and buying foreign currencies, so as to keep the renminbi weak and China’s exports artificially competitive — began around 2003. At that point China was adding about $10 billion a month to its reserves, and in 2003 it ran an overall surplus on its current account — a broad measure of the trade balance — of $46 billion.

Today, China is adding more than $30 billion a month to its $2.4 trillion hoard of reserves. The International Monetary Fund expects China to have a 2010 current surplus of more than $450 billion — 10 times the 2003 figure. This is the most distortionary exchange rate policy any major nation has ever followed.

And it’s a policy that seriously damages the rest of the world. Most of the world’s large economies are stuck in a liquidity trap — deeply depressed, but unable to generate a recovery by cutting interest rates because the relevant rates are already near zero. China, by engineering an unwarranted trade surplus, is in effect imposing an anti-stimulus on these economies, which they can’t offset. MUCH MORE

As noted above, it is not only the United States that is bearing the brunt of China’s continuing currency manipulation, but economies throughout the world. Paul Krugman is not the first to point out this disparagement, nor will he be the last; several well known economists have written about China and how undervaluing their currency is affecting economies on a global basis:

Chinese Yuan the Most Undervalued Currency in the World

Commentary-China’s Undervalued Currency

130 Members of Congress Push for Action on China Currency Manipulation

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama faced growing congressional pressure on Monday to get tough with China over its currency practices, one day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao brushed off accusations that Beijing was undervaluing its currency for an unfair trade advantage.

“The impact of China’s currency manipulation on the U.S. economy cannot be overstated. Maintaining its currency at a devalued exchange rate provides a subsidy to Chinese companies and unfairly disadvantages foreign competitors,” 130 lawmakers said in a letter to U.S. Secretary Timothy Geithner and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Many economists estimate China’s currency is undervalued by 25% to 40%, giving it a huge trade advantage by effectively subsidizing its exports and taxing its imports. LINK

In the last few years we have witnessed a constant barrage of unsafe products and even food items that have been manufactured in China that have caused, and have/had the potential to cause pain and suffering to our children and even the death of our pets in the United States. Chinese industrialists have not targeted the United States in particular, and greedy companies operating in China have harmed their own citizens as well as those throughout the global community. In November of 2009, many people should remember this story, but Chinese “justice,” if there is such a thing, apparently is lopsided and it depends on “who” is harmed whether or not the leaders in China choose to prosecute individual companies that cause harm to their own citizens:

China executes two over tainted milk powder scandal

China has executed two people for their role in a scandal involving tainted milk powder that resulted in six children dying, officials have said.

More than 300,000 other infants were made ill from milk powder contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer.

Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping are the only people to have been executed over the scandal, court officials said.

Nineteen other people were sentenced to prison terms. MUCH MORE

From the above article, an individual may surmise that when an industry sickens their own citizens, China reacts with strong measures to correct the atrocities that particular business committed. Unfortunately, that’s not true, and when an industry causes great harm to their own citizens, it appears that “who” was harmed and which province the alleged crime was committed in is the underlying circumstance on whether or not the state will protect their own people. Unbelievable as it may sound, China actually punishes people who are merely seeking medical attention in a tactic that is called “killing a chicken to scare the monkeys”.

China defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help

More than 50 villagers suffering from lead poisoning were detained after the bus taking them for health checks was stopped by police

Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 12.32 GMT

Chinese authorities have defended the six-month detention of lead poisoning victims who were seeking medical care, saying the punishment was necessary for “public education”.

Police in Jiahe, Hunan province, blocked a bus carrying 53 villagers who were on their way to get health checks last September, according to Chinese media.

Mistakenly believing the villagers were planning to protest, the police have detained two of them for the six months since on the charge of “disrupting traffic”. Though it has since been proved that they and their children were contaminated by illegal emissions of heavy metals from a smelting factory, the local government was unapologetic.

“We may have blocked the wrong visit, but they should not have been on that road,” Li Ying, deputy secretary of Jiahe county political and legislative committee told the Beijing News, which today published an investigation into the incident.

Ou Shudong, the chairman of the local People’s Congress, told the newspaper the police roadblock and detentions were justified. “The villagers’ intentions were unclear. Even if they were going for a medical examination, they should have informed the government.” MUCH MORE

How can the United States and the European Union allow our corporations that are still outsourcing our jobs and economic survival continue to support Chinese businesses, especially when it is apparent that profits made in China often come at the expense of human suffering and even death of innocent civilians? The Chinese are beginning to dominate the global economy and they are doing it unfairly by refusing to properly value their own currency, they are polluting their own rivers and lakes to the point that it’s killing their own citizens, and knowing that, China (is still) Drawing High-Tech Research From U.S. and our greedy corporations are now making profits on what can easily be construed as “Blood Money,” which in our opinion, is extremely similar to the Blood Diamonds that were finally blocked (as much as they could) from Africa. Do high profits from China somehow differ from the atrocities that were committed in Africa – or is life in Africa somehow valued greater than the lives which are lost in China on what seems to be a regular basis? When dictatorships murder and harm their own citizens to buy armaments in Africa via Blood Diamonds, they are universally condemned and are even referred to The Hague for crimes against humanity; why are profits that are made in China to support a militaristic regime that shows little or no respect for human life viewed in a different manner?

Obviously, the above questions were rhetorical; we know that for American and multi-national corporations, profit does trump life whether it’s here or in China! Many of these global conglomerates are publicly held corporations and it’s time for the stockholder’s of these companies to start speaking out, and as citizens who are woefully undereducated on China’s business practices to demand that these issues receive more attention through our own Mainstream News Media so that Americans who profit from these China based companies fully understand that their profits come at the expense of oppression and death to innocent Chinese civilians. Even in Asia, people are beginning to criticize China’s government, and if countries that have far less clout than the United States or the European Union have the tenacity to bring these issues to light – then it’s imperative that we follow suit and join a universal cry for China to play fair or get thrown out of the game! Unless things change dramatically, it is far overdue to sanction China, bring back our manufacturing and help to revitalize our own economies rather than supporting a nation that allows it’s own citizens to be detained and murdered, all in the name of profit.

William Cormier

NOTE: Please read the Asia Sentinal who published an excellent article on China’s belligerence. Also, high-speed rail is coming to the United States and China is attempting to gobble-up those contracts as well as those for “green technology.” We need to bombard Washington to ensure that contracts for major construction and green technology are designed and built by American companies, not the Chinese. If our Congress and Presidency continue to outsource our economy and long-term economic survivability to China, then we, especially those who are unemployed, need to raise holy hell until our own country makes a cognizant decision to support America, Not China, and to me, that’s the patriotic way of viewing at least part of this growing economic dominance being perpetrated by China’s inability to conduct business within acceptable “Western Values” if they expect us to continue purchasing their products.

Can China Afford its Belligerence? (This is a must-read article.)

Google’s Decision Highlights the Dangers of Doing Business in China

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