Changing China Set to Shake World Economy, Again

[SinglePot]

22 Stunning Side-By-Side Images That Demonstrate China's Huge Wealth Gap

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/side-by-side-images-chinas-wealth-gap-2013-9?op=1#ixzz2gdDiXJZ3

http://www.businessinsider.com/side-by-side-images-chinas-wealth-gap-2013-9?op=1

"China has a high Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality.

The Communist Party is wary of the growing wealth gap because of the risk it poses in the form of social unrest. To show just how disparate the lifestyle of wealthy Chinese is from China's poor, we drew on 22 images from Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon."

[SinglePot]

13% of China's population lives on less than $1.25 a day.

That is roughly 180 million people.

Which is about half the population of the US.

Chinese economy needs a big uplift.

[Publicus]

13% of China's population lives on less than $1.25 a day.

That is roughly 180 million people.

Which is about half the population of the US.

Chinese economy needs a big uplift.

Only 145 million PRChinese are middle class.

That's expected to triple by 2020, but I expect to be 20 years younger by 2020.

Projections about the CCP-PRC growing and surpassing the United States are already a bust.

The CCP-PRC is going nowhere.

Fast.

[SinglePot]

Yes. very unfortunate for the very hospitable Mongolians, Tibetans and people who come from the west wearing Muslim headgear.

[SinglePot]

Let me illustrate the problem that the Chinese economy gives individual people.

I'm in a medium priced Beijing restaurant. There's a guy about 20 outside the window who looks as though he has not eaten for a week. He is ignored by the people in the restaurant. I invited him in to the restaurant and we shared some food, beer and cigarettes. He had clearly not eaten for a week.

He greeted me and said thank you with a wai. I think he might have come from Tibet.

The people in the restaurant just stared.

You know the vacant look.

Edited October 3, 2013 by SinglePot

[LawrenceChee]

Let me illustrate the problem that the Chinese economy gives individual people.

I'm in a medium priced Beijing restaurant. There's a guy about 20 outside the window who looks as though he has not eaten for a week. He is ignored by the people in the restaurant. I invited him in to the restaurant and we shared some food, beer and cigarettes. He had clearly not eaten for a week.

He greeted me and said thank you with a wai. I think he might have come from Tibet.

The people in the restaurant just stared.

You know the vacant look.

Very decent of you to offer a helping hand to someone down and out.

The scene u described is happening worldwide mate and not limited to China sad but true.

[LawrenceChee]

22 Stunning Side-By-Side Images That Demonstrate China's Huge Wealth Gap

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/side-by-side-images-chinas-wealth-gap-2013-9?op=1#ixzz2gdDiXJZ3

http://www.businessinsider.com/side-by-side-images-chinas-wealth-gap-2013-9?op=1

"China has a high Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality.

The Communist Party is wary of the growing wealth gap because of the risk it poses in the form of social unrest. To show just how disparate the lifestyle of wealthy Chinese is from China's poor, we drew on 22 images from Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon."

Have u been to Vegas lately or London High Street ...these images are easy to get there too.

There is a high street in every city ...if you are in Bangkok the difference at Siam Paragon and a few sois down is rather startling ...

I am counting on the strong Asian family ties to help them out. Alleviating poverty is a government priority in every country...the November CCP conference has a huge focus on this ..I am keeping my fingers crossed for a clear direction on the 2nd wave of economic reforms addressing this.

No one likes to witness another man down and out.

[SinglePot]

Same in Rio de Janeiro. Juxtaposition of wealth and poverty is stunning.

Let's hope the CCP get their act together.

[SinglePot]

PS. Rio de Janeiro is full of soul.

[SinglePot]

Rio Sheraton, Leblon. Just South of Ipanema on the ocean.

Favela up the hillside.

BRICS.

[Credo]

But China is a socialist country, where the wealth is shared by all, so there shouldn't be any hunger, unless everyone is hungry. Right?

[SinglePot]

But China is a socialist country, where the wealth is shared by all, so there shouldn't be any hunger, unless everyone is hungry. Right?

Approximately.

[SinglePot]

Let me tell you about the big difference.

Las Vegas and London do NOT have anything like the differential wealth you see in Beijing.

Rio in Brazil and Bangkok are very similar.

They also are very different from Beijing.

Whose the odd one out?

[folium]

Let me tell you about the big difference.

Las Vegas and London do NOT have anything like the differential wealth you see in Beijing.

Rio in Brazil and Bangkok are very similar.

They also are very different from Beijing.

Whose the odd one out?

Gini coefficients are probably a tad more reliable than individual anecdotes re income inequality in different nations. See below and the darker shades show the highest degrees of income inequality. China is mid ranking with much of Africa and S.America far more unequal....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINI_retouched_legend.gif

Edited October 3, 2013 by folium

[SinglePot]

Yep. Looks like Mongolia is doing fine.

[SinglePot]

But China is a socialist country, where the wealth is shared by all, so there shouldn't be any hunger, unless everyone is hungry. Right?

If you don't have brothers and sisters when you are a child you don't learn the concept of sharing.

Extrafamilial attempts at sharing in Chinese adolescents are token.

Check out Beijing McDonalds.

[Publicus]

Let me tell you about the big difference.

Las Vegas and London do NOT have anything like the differential wealth you see in Beijing.

Rio in Brazil and Bangkok are very similar.

They also are very different from Beijing.

Whose the odd one out?

Gini coefficients are probably a tad more reliable than individual anecdotes re income inequality in different nations. See below and the darker shades show the highest degrees of income inequality. China is mid ranking with much of Africa and S.America far more unequal....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINI_retouched_legend.gif

The point of the Gini coefficient concerning the CCP-PRC present is that the coefficient there is 0.6 - on the scale of 0.0 to 0.10.

Zero is no income or wealth inequality, ten is entirely a condition of great income and wealth inequality.

The UN has established through experience that the Gini coefficient wealth gap measurement that portends social unrest is 0.4.

So the income and wealth disparities - the yawning gap - of the CCP-PRC is well in excess of the danger level for the society as a whole.

When the several bubbles burst and the economy and financial system go bust, the peasants are going to be revolting.

[folium]

Let me tell you about the big difference.

Las Vegas and London do NOT have anything like the differential wealth you see in Beijing.

Rio in Brazil and Bangkok are very similar.

They also are very different from Beijing.

Whose the odd one out?

Gini coefficients are probably a tad more reliable than individual anecdotes re income inequality in different nations. See below and the darker shades show the highest degrees of income inequality. China is mid ranking with much of Africa and S.America far more unequal....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINI_retouched_legend.gif

The point of the Gini coefficient concerning the CCP-PRC present is that the coefficient there is 0.6 - on the scale of 0.0 to 0.10.

Zero is no income or wealth inequality, ten is entirely a condition of great income and wealth inequality.

The UN has established through experience that the Gini coefficient wealth gap measurement that portends social unrest is 0.4.

So the income and wealth disparities - the yawning gap - of the CCP-PRC is well in excess of the danger level for the society as a whole.

When the several bubbles burst and the economy and financial system go bust, the peasants are going to be revolting.

Inequality is definitely an issue in PRC but the exact level is hard to gauge. The government did release figures for 2012 and a retrospective update, see below:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21570749-gini-out-bottle

The last line is the key one:

"Whatever the true level, the decision to release the data now shows somebody in the new leadership is paying attention."

[Publicus]

Let me tell you about the big difference.

Las Vegas and London do NOT have anything like the differential wealth you see in Beijing.

Rio in Brazil and Bangkok are very similar.

They also are very different from Beijing.

Whose the odd one out?

Gini coefficients are probably a tad more reliable than individual anecdotes re income inequality in different nations. See below and the darker shades show the highest degrees of income inequality. China is mid ranking with much of Africa and S.America far more unequal....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINI_retouched_legend.gif

The point of the Gini coefficient concerning the CCP-PRC present is that the coefficient there is 0.6 - on the scale of 0.0 to 0.10.

Zero is no income or wealth inequality, ten is entirely a condition of great income and wealth inequality.

The UN has established through experience that the Gini coefficient wealth gap measurement that portends social unrest is 0.4.

So the income and wealth disparities - the yawning gap - of the CCP-PRC is well in excess of the danger level for the society as a whole.

When the several bubbles burst and the economy and financial system go bust, the peasants are going to be revolting.

Inequality is definitely an issue in PRC but the exact level is hard to gauge. The government did release figures for 2012 and a retrospective update, see below:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21570749-gini-out-bottle

The last line is the key one:

"Whatever the true level, the decision to release the data now shows somebody in the new leadership is paying attention."

Li and Xi are at this point all but officially working at cross purposes.

Xi is a dogmatic Maoist-Marxist who already has instituted his "Mass Line Campaign," which is to restore the CCP-PRC to its old Maoist purity, simplicity, dogmas. Xi already has sent the first rounds of his cadres spanning across the CCP-PRC to instruct local party officials of the new official line, which must be learned and adhered to.

Li is a pseudo reformer, careful not to touch the corrupt State Owned (and operated) Enterprises and unable to control the massively corrupt budget busting local CCP cadres that run the country's municipalities and counties - the feudal barons of the PRC. Rather than attempt real and actual structural and institutional reform, Li has opened the diversion of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone which will focus on only one locality - and in one district of Shanghai, not in all of Shanghai. The parameters of the Zone are as yet unspecified and Li already has said no conclusions will be drawn until three years of the Zone and then only after thorough studies of it. That's another five years, probably 6 or 7, maybe 8.

Until 2012 Beijing hadn't published the Gini coefficient for something like 9 years - Beijing simply couldn't try to hide the data any longer. Nobody in Beijing cares what the Gini coefficient is when the CCP is spending more on internal security forces than on the armed forces.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Publicus

[SinglePot]

"Whatever the true level, the decision to release the data now shows somebody in the new leadership is paying attention."

Oh yeah!

CCP leadership pay lip service.

Just as they do on pollution and corruption.

Motive: preserve their position.

And you all know what their position is.

If you don't take a few wild guesses.

Power, authority, money.

The Bullies from Beijing.

(Gini coefficient comparable to third world African nations. Impressive?)

[Publicus]

Here's one area of the changing economy of the CCP-PRC that needs some vital reforms.

The government is making some new laws but, as has been true for a long time, the Boyz in Beijing can make a lot of new laws that amount to little or nothing.

Business people in the CCP-PRC who deal with the public still have a long way to go before the People of the People's Republic can trust them.

For National Day, China Cracks Down on Tourism Industry

China’s National Reform and Development Commission just recently released a report (Chinese link) which has exposed some of the bad practices that Chinese travel agencies, tourist hotels and other tourism-related businesses have been implementing in order to maximize their profits.

Such companies have cheated customers by raising prices unfairly, faking discounts, forcing customers to purchase products on shopping trips as part of the tour, and signing monopoly agreements with other companies to dominate the market.

This is particularly important since there has been an increase in complaints about general Chinese tourist behavior, not only overseas, but at home as well.

http://thediplomat.com/china-power/

[LawrenceChee]

Here's one area of the changing economy of the CCP-PRC that needs some vital reforms.

The government is making some new laws but, as has been true for a long time, the Boyz in Beijing can make a lot of new laws that amount to little or nothing.

Business people in the CCP-PRC who deal with the public still have a long way to go before the People of the People's Republic can trust them.

For National Day, China Cracks Down on Tourism Industry

China’s National Reform and Development Commission just recently released a report (Chinese link) which has exposed some of the bad practices that Chinese travel agencies, tourist hotels and other tourism-related businesses have been implementing in order to maximize their profits.

Such companies have cheated customers by raising prices unfairly, faking discounts, forcing customers to purchase products on shopping trips as part of the tour, and signing monopoly agreements with other companies to dominate the market.

This is particularly important since there has been an increase in complaints about general Chinese tourist behavior, not only overseas, but at home as well.

http://thediplomat.com/china-power/

I don't think there are businesses in the world that are so highly ethical such that the citizens trust them 100%.

Lots of top name manufacturers have at one point or another compromise on safety features, quality and food safety

There are so many links and articles the moderates would remember ,not posting them as they are irrelevant to the topic...and it's easily available in google

Here is the hard part, when china passes a law like this that went into effect on oct 1 ...would we critique it for interfering with free trade and being a nanny state or applaud it for protecting its citizens ...I know we won't get a consensus on this even on this forum

It's like the mandatory healthcare program ...some would like it and some don't want the interference ...

You can't please them all and China is realizing that in world politics ...you need many friends and not just one ...and you don't have to make everyone happy.

[LawrenceChee]

President Xi is reaffirming deals with Malaysia and Indonesia to bring the economic and diplomatic ties to an even higher level and has renewed a currency swap deal with Indonesia

China is engaging SEA and being pragmatic as usual...the Asians get it...when it's not that serious a bicker...it still better to carry on like there is nothing happening ...just like a husband and wife thingie. no need to make mountains out of molehills

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/asia-report/china/story/kl-roll-out-red-carpet-china-president-xi-jinping-20131003

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20440502&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

[SinglePot]

I think Xi is also visiting Yingluck in Thailand in a few days. There's a thread on this forum.

Should be a lot of smiling going on.

[Publicus]

Xi’s Mass Line Campaign Casts a Dark Shadow Over China

China's mass line campaign is well in gear: self-criticisms are grabbing headlines, ideological warfare against all things foreign is underway and China's online world continues its descent into digital hell.

The government's insistence on ideological supremacy has coincided with the reprinting of Mao's "Little Red Book."

Any hopes that Xi Jinping’s government would liberalize died long ago; to the contrary, this government's obsession with steering the country's principles is ambitious.

http://thediplomat.com/china-power/xis-mass-line-campaign-casts-a-dark-shadow-over-china/

Xi Jinping has been leader of the CCP-PRC for almost a year now and his domestic focus is almost exclusively on what Mao Zee Dong called the "Mass Line" campaign by which the CCP does everything it can to convince the people it's on their side.

The Mass Line elitist and dictatorial philosophy of Mao had all but been abandoned since Deng Xiao Peng introduced some market reforms to the economy of the CCP-PRC in 1979. Deng "opened up" the CCP's economy to Western capital in the form of money, technology, investment, human resource expertise and the like, all in the interests of advancing the CCP's economy to legitimize its absolute rule.

Mao's ideological purity, correctness and dogmas had become passe', ignored.

Not any more.

Xi is a Maoist-Marxist who has breathed new life into the Maoist idea of what life and people in the CCP need to be doing and what they need to be like. For one thing, foreign devils are most unwelcome. This has become obvious in the sudden and new awful treatment of foreign owned firms that had been doing business in the CCP-PRC for decades with only encouragement and support from the CCP in Beijing, which means throughout the country.

Now Xi is harassing foreign firms and foreign devils in unprecedented ways. Xi denounces popular Western goods, music, entertainment, food, values, ideas etc. Xi is interfering seriously in the economic development of the CCP-PRC and is closing its political system in new and imposing ways.

Dissidents are being locked up. Internet "rumors" are being chased down and their OPs are arrested and punished. The new Shanghai Free Trade Zone will not include internet access to foreign websites after all.

In short, Xi Jinping has made clear he is taking the CCP-PRC back in time rather than forward. Xi's "China Dream" is to go back to the time of Mao when the CCP-PRC had no future.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Publicus

[SinglePot]

...whilst talking out of both sides of his mouth.

When I get time I will give you first hand experience of how foreign owned firms operate in Beijing. Specifically big west pharmaceutical companies.

The Chinese economy needs the drugs to keep the ageing work force working.

The irony of The Opium Wars.

[boomerangutang]

...whilst talking out of both sides of his mouth.

When I get time I will give you first hand experience of how foreign owned firms operate in Beijing. Specifically big west pharmaceutical companies.

The Chinese economy needs the drugs to keep the ageing work force working.

The irony of The Opium Wars.

Tell us. Sounds interesting. As is known: there are many drawbacks with pharma drugs, prescribed for either physical or mental ailments. Several studies have shown that placebos work as well or sometimes even better than expensive pharma drugs - particularly for mental conditions. And then is residue of drugs and hormones, which get flushed in to waterways (from toilets, sinks, etc) - and affect other species in weird ways we'll never know. As much as I knock the Chinese for various reasons, I sincerely hope they don't get too sucked in to using pharma drugs. They're bad news (the drugs, not the people). On the other side of the coin, if using pharma somehow gets them to use less endangered species products, then that's a good trade-off.

Incidentally, pharma drugs cause more harm and deaths than all illegal drugs combined. source: Discover Magazine.

[SinglePot]

...whilst talking out of both sides of his mouth.

When I get time I will give you first hand experience of how foreign owned firms operate in Beijing. Specifically big west pharmaceutical companies.

The Chinese economy needs the drugs to keep the ageing work force working.

The irony of The Opium Wars.

Tell us. Sounds interesting. As is known: there are many drawbacks with pharma drugs, prescribed for either physical or mental ailments. Several studies have shown that placebos work as well or sometimes even better than expensive pharma drugs - particularly for mental conditions. And then is residue of drugs and hormones, which get flushed in to waterways (from toilets, sinks, etc) - and affect other species in weird ways we'll never know. As much as I knock the Chinese for various reasons, I sincerely hope they don't get too sucked in to using pharma drugs. They're bad news (the drugs, not the people). On the other side of the coin, if using pharma somehow gets them to use less endangered species products, then that's a good trade-off.

Incidentally, pharma drugs cause more harm and deaths than all illegal drugs combined. source: Discover Magazine.

Will do when I get time.

Incidentally, what would you agree with your doctor by way of treatment if your wife had breast cancer, your child had leukemia or your father had diabetes?

[LawrenceChee]

Xi’s Mass Line Campaign Casts a Dark Shadow Over China

China's mass line campaign is well in gear: self-criticisms are grabbing headlines, ideological warfare against all things foreign is underway and China's online world continues its descent into digital hell.

The government's insistence on ideological supremacy has coincided with the reprinting of Mao's "Little Red Book."

Any hopes that Xi Jinping’s government would liberalize died long ago; to the contrary, this government's obsession with steering the country's principles is ambitious.

http://thediplomat.com/china-power/xis-mass-line-campaign-casts-a-dark-shadow-over-china/

Xi Jinping has been leader of the CCP-PRC for almost a year now and his domestic focus is almost exclusively on what Mao Zee Dong called the "Mass Line" campaign by which the CCP does everything it can to convince the people it's on their side.

The Mass Line elitist and dictatorial philosophy of Mao had all but been abandoned since Deng Xiao Peng introduced some market reforms to the economy of the CCP-PRC in 1979. Deng "opened up" the CCP's economy to Western capital in the form of money, technology, investment, human resource expertise and the like, all in the interests of advancing the CCP's economy to legitimize its absolute rule.

Mao's ideological purity, correctness and dogmas had become passe', ignored.

Not any more.

Xi is a Maoist-Marxist who has breathed new life into the Maoist idea of what life and people in the CCP need to be doing and what they need to be like. For one thing, foreign devils are most unwelcome. This has become obvious in the sudden and new awful treatment of foreign owned firms that had been doing business in the CCP-PRC for decades with only encouragement and support from the CCP in Beijing, which means throughout the country.

Now Xi is harassing foreign firms and foreign devils in unprecedented ways. Xi denounces popular Western goods, music, entertainment, food, values, ideas etc. Xi is interfering seriously in the economic development of the CCP-PRC and is closing its political system in new and imposing ways.

Dissidents are being locked up. Internet "rumors" are being chased down and their OPs are arrested and punished. The new Shanghai Free Trade Zone will not include internet access to foreign websites after all.

In short, Xi Jinping has made clear he is taking the CCP-PRC back in time rather than forward. Xi's "China Dream" is to go back to the time of Mao when the CCP-PRC had no future.

China has honored these 50 foreign experts from 20 countries for their contributions to China development for the next phase of the economic cycle. I don't believe they are enemies of the state.

http://www.travel-impact-newswire.com/2013/10/china-honours-50-foreign-experts-with-friendship-awards/

As for china clamping down on Chinese firms, I think the article below is good for reading.

There are foreign firms who have blatantly abused the trust premium that the Chinese consumers placed on the foreign brands and established a price monopoly and engaged themselves on unethical business practices .

There is another just in with regards to national nurses and doctors being given bribes by Danone Corp to promote their brand of milk powder to mothers who have just been given birth.

Seems like another day if this was in the UK Fair Act or Aussie fair trade practice ...I don't see why it should not apply to Chinese consumers if they have to clean up its corrupt business practices that foreign firms should partake in that.

If your business is ethical nothing to worry about.

http://news.yahoo.com/compliance-buzzword-foreign-firms-china-glaxo-103807545.html

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE98F0A720130916?irpc=932

[LawrenceChee]

Just in ....Beijing is spending USD$7 billion to replace 4 coal reactors with natural gas piped from Indonesia to reduce the smog factor and pollution index as they move to clean air.

Another good step ahead for the environment and I am hoping the wind factories started in the northeast province can be diverted as they are exploring that.

That area is bitter cold as anyone who been to harbin would know and generates wind speeds idea for wind farms but they are currently producing more than is needed and they shut it down during the summer months or slacken it