China and Taiwan links : January 16th 2008

There are a lot of interesting China and Taiwan news articles and blog posts/videos I encountered today and are well-worth your read. Here they are with a short excerpt :

 

China - I absolutely adore everything about Sexy Beijing - their videos, their blog, and the lovely Su Fei. Here’s their latest video about “Price Shock: Food Inflation in China” :

 

China - The $1.4 Trillion Question

Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. [...]

Any economist will say that Americans have been living better than they should—which is by definition the case when a nation’s total consumption is greater than its total production, as America’s now is. Economists will also point out that, despite the glitter of China’s big cities and the rise of its billionaire class, China’s people have been living far worse than they could. That’s what it means when a nation consumes only half of what it produces, as China does.

 

China - Stay away from Guangzhou!

It might be the third biggest city in China, but Guangzhou is nothing like Beijing or Shanghai. It’s a place where anarchy and chaos still rules and people’s ignorance has no boundaries. In short the place is a f**king hell-hole that can take your life.[...]

 

China, Taiwan - Comparing three ethnic Chinese militaries

 China, Taiwan and Singapore all share the Chinese language and culture. Yet due to their different positions in the international sphere and the capabilities of their respective military industries, the three have chosen very different military strategies and weapons systems. It is interesting to compare the three approaches.

 

China - China blogger beaten to death

(CNN) — Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China’s Xinhua news agency reports.

 

China - Pride and prejudice

Three homosexual Chinese tell of the challenge they face, and their hopes for a day when they will no longer be judged.

 

Taiwan - Report rates Taiwan 6th freest economy in the Asia Pacific

Taiwan’s economy is the world’s 25th freest economy or the sixth freest in the Asian and Pacific region, according to the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom jointly compiled by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong has remained the world’s freest economy for the 14 consecutive years, while China ranks the 126th of the 157 surveyed countries or the 23rd in the Asian and pacific region, according to the assessment report made public in Hong Kong yesterday.

 

Taiwan - ‘If I were president’ contest held for foreigners

Meanwhile, Canadian student Charlotte Oke suggested in her speech that the capital of Taiwan be moved to beautiful and scenic Hualien City to make the government a little more likable.

When Vietnamese student Li shih-chuang delivered her speech, she topped it off by using Hakka to urge the Taiwan citizens “to try to be a little nicer to foreigners.”