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China has some major issues coming

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By Peter Dyloco

Though some may continue to view the United States as the “Land of Opportunity,” many are now looking eastward to China in their never ending pursuit of higher bottom lines and salaries. In 2009 alone, China exported $1.2 trillion in goods and signed off on a plethora of lucrative business deals with countries around the world.

The East Asian country has modernized at a pace never before seen in history, while many corporations have turned sizeable profits in taking advantage of Chinese consumers’ newfound wealth. It seems, then, that the ascent of China is a win-win situation for not only the Chinese, but for all in our increasingly globalized world.

The reality is, however, it isn’t.

Many view the Chinese market as an untapped, limitless source of income for big business. In many cases it is, yet it is this insatiable demand that is the source of the problem itself. An indication of such can be found in the prices of commodities, which have increased exponentially as a direct result of China’s rapacious appetite. The price of iron ore, for instance, has skyrocketed from 29 cents per dry metric ton in 2000 to $2.05 per dry metric ton in July 2010; an exponential price increase that can largely be attributed to the boom of the manufacturing industry in China (which accounts for roughly half of China’s GDP).

To remedy the situation, China has invested billions, if not trillions, in securing their own iron ore resources around the globe. This has in turn placed a considerable amount of stress on other manufacturing and export – dependent countries such as Japan and South Korea, which have struggled to secure their own sources of iron ore in an increasingly resource stripped world. Such a monopoly exists not only in iron ore but in several other key commodities, under which China is benefiting at the expense of potential growth in other countries.

The threatening implications of China’s rise to prominence, however, are not only limited to economic repercussions, but also extend to include the negative environmental effects of China’s industrialization. Though China’s energy consumption per capita (1,484 kg of oil) falls far below American levels (7,766 kg of oil), its population of 1.3 billion has had an exponential effect on total energy consumption. China is now the world’s largest consumer of energy and as a resource poor nation, must import vast quantities of crude oil to supplement domestic production of coal and hydroelectricity.

What has ensued has been nothing short of an environmental disaster: 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are located in China. In the construction of massive river dams, swathes of rural residents have been displaced, while biodiversity and valuable farmland have been lost under gargantuan man-made lakes. Car ownership, once considered a luxury among the people, has been made accessible to a burgeoning middle class, which has led to uncontrolled urban sprawl and record levels of smog and congestion in metropolitan areas.

Though the above may simply be dismissed as local problems concerning solely the Chinese, the by-products of China’s industrialization may ultimately impede, perhaps even negate, any reductions in emission levels developed countries make in their attempts to curb severe climate change.

As important as the above issues may be, others view China itself as an immediate threat to regional peace and global stability. Take, for example, China’s growing assertiveness over disputed territories. Such can most recently be observed in its spat with Japan over the sovereignty of the oil and fish rich Senkaku islands, which has not only brought bilateral relations to its lowest level in years, but has prompted Japan to consider the stationing of troops in the area. Further south, China still has 350 short-range missiles aimed at the island country of Taiwan, which it still considers part of its sovereign territory. Both situations are exacerbated by the fact that China has the second biggest defense budget in the world, valued at approximately $78 billion in 2009.

In its climb up the economic ladder, China has bulldozed its way through every fiscal, environmental and political obstacle in its path. It is not a matter of if, but rather a question of when China will have to face the issues it has created in doing so.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

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According the history, China was an impoverished nation of the earth for more than a thousand years. Everything in the life has cycle. Rich will get poor. Poor will get rich and vice versa. It is their time for getting prosperous.

As a nation with huge population and vast land, there will be many problems. The worst is the corruption of the provincial government and inequalities among Chinese.

However their economic development is more sustainable and lasting longer. Not like a debt ridden lassie fare free market style economy. In the reality there is no free market. Market is manipulated by special interest group.

Their half socialist + half capitalist model is more realistic with the real world. For sustainability, They still need to balance the growth. The most important thing is stamping out the corruption.

It is time for cheering the new found wealth of poor cousin. Not jealousy!

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As my friend in India once told me, "America and Japan had their heyday for massive exponential growth and prosperity, why shouldn't we too have that chance to prosper?"

Globalization is the big equalizer, in that as some countries come up, others go down. It balances like a teeter-totter (seesaw). Not so good for us in first world countries, but great for those in the third world ones.

Life is about to become very interesting for all of us. And ver quickly, I might add.

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to : shinjukuboy China is our creation. Live with it so, who do you think you are? god?

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jason6 at 06:22 PM JST - 12th January "This blurb touches on what I have been saying for a long time, & that is China cud implode & or explode at virtually any time once s&%t starts hitting the fan, the commies wont be able to control the people & all hell cud break loose, there is very clearly a huge bubble in China right now, when it pops the masses will quickly become unmanageable, watch out its coming, and watch for china to lash out to try to keep the masses from seeing how bad its getting in their yards. Its not a question of if folks, only when!"

Switch "China" with "America" and your rantings would still be plausible.

No it's quite plausible and "China" is correct. The United States has it's own problems but the above describes China's.

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This blurb touches on what I have been saying for a long time, & that is China cud implode & or explode at virtually any time once s&%t starts hitting the fan, the commies wont be able to control the people & all hell cud break loose, there is very clearly a huge bubble in China right now, when it pops the masses will quickly become unmanageable, watch out its coming, and watch for china to lash out to try to keep the masses from seeing how bad its getting in their yards.

Its not a question of if folks, only when!

Switch "China" with "America" and your rantings would still be plausible.

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Seiharinokaze at 06:51 PM JST - 11th January OssanAmerica, Which clause of the peace treaty specifies the jurisdiction over the >islands when a problem arises? Which means I presume that China never >accepted any clause that denies China's claim over the islands either.

An unwritten practice has been for decades that Chinese fishing boats enter the waters and they are told by the JCG to get out. Which they do, often ciomming bak after the JCG boat leaves. This "unofficial" relationship has worked without any major problems until this particular Chines capt who was apparently drunk decided to ram the JCG boats.

Violation of territorial waters and trespass onto the islands happened >many times in the past. But never before were those cases put to the >jurisdiction of Japan.

Exactly.

Ramming the Japanese Maritime Agency's patrol boats may justify >arresting the Chinese captain, but applying the domestic law and indict >him disrupted the customary rules.

What other law are they going to apply? He would have been charged, fined and deported. End of story.

If the district public prosecutors had to decide somewhere along the >line to drop the case and release the captain out of diplomatic >consideration, the government should have settled it through diplomatic >channels from the beginning.

The district presecutors dropped the case obviously because of pressure from the government. Japan folishly expected China to behave in a mature and non-belligerent manner, perhaps requesting Chinese police authorites the right to question the drunk captain and atttend the proceedings. They didn't expect China would act like a hostile two year old.

When the Futenma base issue has been stalemated and the cause to deepen >the alliance is somewhat wavering,

THe US-Japan alliance was never wavering, it isn't based on one USMC air station. IOt was and stioll is an issue, but a far cry from what you make it out to be.

it's as if Maehara pulled strings (or himself is pulled strings) to let >the Maritime Agency's patrol boats provoke the boozy skipper to go >hellbent on a narrow way so that bilateral relations would be brought to >the lowest level in years. I mean he better step aside and mull rather >than dance to the strings between the devil and the lion.

Intersting speculation, but that's all it is; speculation. The biggest problem with that is that there no way the JCG col make a Chinbese fishing boat captain, drunk or otherwise, chase JCG boats from behind and ram them twice. The videos clearly show the Chinese boat could have gone in any direction but chose to target the JCG ships. This idea of "provoking" the chinese fishing boat is sheer nonsense.

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Companies in China need to be kept in very close check, they don't honer their deals, I have lost a lot with a gas company called VANWARD,never deal with them. Burt JAPAN is the only county to do business with in Asia!!!

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OssanAmerica,


The Treaty of Frienship was concluded jointly between China and Japan. Japan never accepted any clause that denies Japan's jurisdiction over the islands.


Which clause of the peace treaty specifies the jurisdiction over the islands when a problem arises? Which means I presume that China never accepted any clause that denies China's claim over the islands either.

Violation of territorial waters and trespass onto the islands happened many times in the past. But never before were those cases put to the jurisdiction of Japan. Ramming the Japanese Maritime Agency's patrol boats may justify arresting the Chinese captain, but applying the domestic law and indict him disrupted the customary rules. If the district public prosecutors had to decide somewhere along the line to drop the case and release the captain out of diplomatic consideration, the government should have settled it through diplomatic channels from the beginning. When the Futenma base issue has been stalemated and the cause to deepen the alliance is somewhat wavering, it's as if Maehara pulled strings (or himself is pulled strings) to let the Maritime Agency's patrol boats provoke the boozy skipper to go hellbent on a narrow way so that bilateral relations would be brought to the lowest level in years. I mean he better step aside and mull rather than dance to the strings between the devil and the lion.

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Seiharinokaze at 02:43 PM JST - 10th January In 1978 the Chinese leadership suggested that the issues of territorial >rights over the Senkaku Islands be shelved and put into the hands of the >next generation,

OK.

which means that Japan, while practically ruling the islands, does not >exercise jurisdiction over a problem that may arise around the islands.

No it doesn't.

The Japanese government accepted it and concluded the peace treaty with >China.

The Treaty of Frienship was concluded jointly between China and Japan. Japan never accepted any clause that denies Japan's jurisdiction over the islands.

Even though in the last 32 years collision did happen many times between >Japanese patrol vessels and Chinese fishing boats in the area, Japan >sent back Chinese skippers/crews to China immediately or after a certain >period of detention without applying its domestic laws. But Japan broke >the tacit agreement last year and indicted the Chinese skipper. FM >Maehara denied the existence of such an agreement and let the Maritime >Safety Agency's patrol boats act the way as we saw. So it's Maehara >rather than China that brought bilateral relations to its lowest level >in years.

There have certainly been many confronytations between Chinese fisjing boiats and the JCG in the past, amnd there may eve have been accidental collisions. However, never before has a Chinese fishing boat captain deliberately rammed JCG vessels, not once but twice. I presume we've all seen the vieo by now. This justified arresting him. It weas a routine maritime police incident which China unilaterally escalated into a territorial, poltical and economic issue bringing bilateral relations to the lowest point in years.

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China is our creation. Live with it.

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many brag about china BUT Many countries Don't trust them. I see why But we (US/Europe/Japan) were Dumb to help them & get exports from them we should have been exporting Goods from Japan. but i know they don't work as cheap as chinese have. ok wait till theres Millions of Foreigners in china & well see they will start complaing about that.

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The author is almost right, if only he would replace the title with "We have got some major issues coming". How has the US wise wisely spent the 846 billion dollars borrowed from China. Well, two wars cost 1,135 billions dollars (and counting), and apart from the kind act of providing lonely Iran with friendly companion on its border, and toppling a few allied democratic governments who supported the US war efforts (while the citizens were tired of it), there is not much to show for it. Certainly not oil security, certainly not a world in awe of US strength. Every nation generally gets along by trying to grab a bigger piece of the pie for itself, while (just barely) avoiding large-scale unpredictable military conflict. (This is just an observation, not approval or judgement). Of course, avoiding large-scale unpredictable military conflict includes defense expenditures, which requires money, which you cannot in the long the run borrow (esp. from ...), which in turn requires you do not engage in unnecessary and endless unequal wars of no (or negative) strategic value. My point is not to judge the authors conclusion, only to point out that it does not have much meaning because I think the author is an American, and as such his best course of self-interest action is, for example, to figure out how to change per-capita oil consumption from 7,800 barresl per year to the developed country mean of about 5,000 barrels per year in a very short time (it must be both possible and easy if all those europeans are doing it). That's exactly the kind of "never say die" spirit which will save America, and engender respect.

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A very shallow article that chooses to concentrate only on the problems of one country.Problems that are also faced by many other nations around the world, and problems which the most developed nations faced in their own development over the last century...China is the largest country so it will have large problems. Which country doesnt have problems?? This article is so simplistic in its approach For each problem their are policy decsions taken to ease and reduce their impact, so its not a static state of affairs,its an ongoing dynamic process..some years things improve others not.

This article also does not take into account the future development of other countries a such as India, Brazil and many more with huge populations that will also face these issues and add to the world demand for raw materials.so I dont see the point of focusing only on China.

Lets face it, the world is changing, dont fear it

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All these posts are very informative and very interesting, but they all lack an overall view, a global view wherein these bits of information tie in to make a larger statement. For instance, China will, just as U.S. has, ultimately be forced to develop a more effective customer relationship awareness. At some point China’s customers will demand a more give-and-take relationship, or take their business elsewhere.

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"China has bulldozed its way through every fiscal, environmental and political obstacle in its path."

So they are no doubt following the example of the U.S., whose military budget dwarfs any other countries comprising over 40% of the world's military expenditure.

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mushroomcloud at 09:27 AM JST - 10th January

China has some major issues, now. But that won't stop her bulldozing ahead.

World-class military not exclusive luxury

...It is both natural and unnatural for the US to be concerned about China developing new weapons. Most powers wish that their superiority will last forever. China is growing up fast, and the US military edge over China is unavoidably shrinking...

Source: Global Times editorial

It seems that they think that they are bulldozing the US military power.

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Words like "implode" or "explode" don't really mean anything. When has anything ever imploded? The Roman Empire "imploded" over a 100 year period. People have been saying that Japan will implode since the 1970s and that the US would implode in 2009. Still waiting. Big things "implode" only exteremely slowly. It is a drama queen type expression. China will manage its affairs. We may have the invisible hand, but they have the iron fist.

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Will implode. I have been saying it for years now. It will happen.

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vinnyfav,

When the peace treaty was concluded between Japan and China, the issue of the Senkaku islands was of course discussed but the Chinese leadership at the time (Deng Xiaoping) suggested to shelve the issue for the next generation. Otherwise they could not have concluded the treaty. It's a well known fact and often cited by the media. Google by the words 尖閣諸島 and 棚上げ and 鄧小平.

When the Chinese captain was arrested and his detention was extended over 10 days, China considered it as Japan's intention to indict the captain in spite of the tacit agreement. Japan disrupts the norm. That's the main reason for China's fury which made Maehara and others shudder and recoil from pursing indictment of the captain by off-loading all the responsibility on the district public prosecutors of Naha who said he did it from diplomatic consideration.

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But Japan broke the tacit agreement last year and indicted the Chinese skipper.

Please quote your source. As far as I know, the captain in the latest fiasco was detained, and then released without charge, because of the Chinese response.

In 1978 the Chinese leadership suggested that the issues of territorial rights over the Senkaku Islands be shelved and put into the hands of the next generation, which means that Japan, while practically ruling the islands, does not exercise jurisdiction over a problem that may arise around the islands.

Again, please quote your source, I'm interested to find out where you found these tidbits of information.

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The more China-phobia seizes Japan, the more anti-base sentiment will vaporize and Jpeople will be more reliant on the US military presence despite of any controversial actions by the servicemen.

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Take, for example, China’s growing assertiveness over disputed territories. Such can most recently be observed in its spat with Japan over the sovereignty of the oil and fish rich Senkaku islands.

In 1978 the Chinese leadership suggested that the issues of territorial rights over the Senkaku Islands be shelved and put into the hands of the next generation, which means that Japan, while practically ruling the islands, does not exercise jurisdiction over a problem that may arise around the islands. The Japanese government accepted it and concluded the peace treaty with China. Even though in the last 32 years collision did happen many times between Japanese patrol vessels and Chinese fishing boats in the area, Japan sent back Chinese skippers/crews to China immediately or after a certain period of detention without applying its domestic laws. But Japan broke the tacit agreement last year and indicted the Chinese skipper. FM Maehara denied the existence of such an agreement and let the Maritime Safety Agency's patrol boats act the way as we saw. So it's Maehara rather than China that brought bilateral relations to its lowest level in years.

America's strategy is to contain China by fanning China's threat and letting Japan and East/South Asian countries depend on the America's military. Dealing with America and China, the Japanese foreign minister should tread warily, sometimes even looking the other way and blink rather than just dance to the tune as between Scylla and Charybdis. But Maehara is hopeless.

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"...many corporations have turned sizeable profits in taking advantage of Chinese consumers’ newfound wealth."

And he doesn't delve into the fact that many multinational companies don't have much of any profits in China. Why? Because companies who want to enter the Chinese market are forced to relinquish technology, give up market share and buy goods/materials from state or crony owned suppliers at disadvantaged prices. And the shocking thing is many don't protest for fear of being frozen out in the future.

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This blurb touches on what I have been saying for a long time, & that is China cud implode & or explode at virtually any time once s&%t starts hitting the fan, the commies wont be able to control the people & all hell cud break loose, there is very clearly a huge bubble in China right now, when it pops the masses will quickly become unmanageable, watch out its coming, and watch for china to lash out to try to keep the masses from seeing how bad its getting in their yards.

Its not a question of if folks, only when!

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The article didn't mention the Chinese real-estate bubble or the fact that after it bursts it will cool the world economy. For example Tianjin has more office space already built than can be filled in 25 years at the current growth rate (according to wikipedia).

Also the 1-child policy means that within 2-3 decades China will have many more old people to support than working class. It will be like Japan's problem multiplied many times over.

I read that last year was the peak of the Chinese labor force and from here on out more people would retire each year than enter the labor force. Not sure if that is true, though, but given the demographics, I wouldn't doubt that too much.

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And the point of this article is????? Well, not bad for a high school social studies paper. I'd give it a B+.

PS: "oil rich Senkaku Islands"? The extent of the oil deposits there have yet to be ascertained. They may be "rich" or they may be miniscule and not worth the trouble.

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China has some major issues, now.

But that won't stop her bulldozing ahead.

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