Eye on the Future, For Better or Worse

[Adam's Apple]

Asia Rising
By Rich Lowry, National Review
April 21, 2006

India has been shedding its deadening Fabian socialism, an import from Europe, and is a burgeoning economic power. China has created a kind of ramshackle free-market economy—in a bizarre shotgun marriage with a communist state—that is producing robust growth. Both countries are on the rise. Japan has been in a decade-long rut, but is still the world's second-largest economy. The trend lines in terms of economic and military power all say "Asia."

The future is happening there, for better or worse. If we offend Europe, it still putters, and sputters, on. The stakes in Asia are much higher. Taiwan could be an occasion for a war. India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed adversaries. China could break up into feuding fiefdoms. Then, there's the psycho-state of North Korea. Given the region's importance and potential pitfalls, Bush-administration diplomacy should get more notice.

President Bush has hitched a rising India to the U.S. At the same time, he has forged a close relationship with India's historic rival, Pakistan. The U.S. alliance with Japan has never been stronger, and relations with China are relatively friendly, too. The administration has been firm in its defense of Taiwan's de facto independence, while keeping the island from any unnecessary provocations. Diplomatically — putting aside the intractable North Korean nuclear problem — his is as close as it comes to running the table.

The strategic goal is to create a sustainable balance of power so Asian countries can continue to liberalize. As Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations argues, if the focus is exclusively on China's rising power vis-à-vis the United States, the historic model is Europe circa 1914, with China in the role of Germany. If the focus is widened out to include Japan and India — as Bush has sought to do — hen the more congenial model might be Europe circa 1815, with a balance between several powers and the United States as Britain, which maintained that balance at very little cost to itself.

All of this means our lingering Eurocentrism is out of place. We should care less about Jacques Chirac taking offense at our latest alleged gaucherie and more about what Dr. Manmohan Singh — he prime minister of India — thinks of attempts in Congress to torpedo the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal. Europe is yesterday's news; Asia is tomorrow's.

for full article: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.asp

 

[Annie]

Well first there was the pet food problem, now toothpaste? What's with China, an economic deathwish?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/w...d1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

May 19, 2007
Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China
By WALT BOGDANICH and RENWICK McLEAN

Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China.

“Our preliminary information is that it came from China, but we don’t know that with certainty yet,” said Daniel Delgado Diamante, Panama’s director of customs. “We are still checking all the possible imports to see if there could be other shipments.”

Some of the toothpaste, which arrived several months ago in the free trade zone next to the Panama Canal, was re-exported to the Dominican Republic in seven shipments, customs officials said. A newspaper in Australia reported yesterday that one brand of the toothpaste had been found on supermarket shelves there and had been recalled.

Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government inadvertently mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. Records show that in that episode the poison, falsely labeled as glycerin, a harmless syrup, also originated in China.

There is no evidence that the tainted toothpaste is in the United States, according to American government officials...​

 

[Annie]

It does look like China has a serious problem with food related items, which could lead to huge economic problems for her:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901273.html?hpid=topnews

Tainted Chinese Imports Common
In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 20, 2007; A01

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.

Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

Now the confluence of two events -- the highly publicized contamination of U.S. chicken, pork and fish with tainted Chinese pet food ingredients and this week's resumption of high-level economic and trade talks with China -- has activists and members of Congress demanding that the United States tell China it is fed up.

Dead pets and melamine-tainted food notwithstanding, change will prove difficult, policy experts say, in large part because U.S. companies have become so dependent on the Chinese economy that tighter rules on imports stand to harm the U.S. economy, too.

"So many U.S. companies are directly or indirectly involved in China now, the commercial interest of the United States these days has become to allow imports to come in as quickly and smoothly as possible," said Robert B. Cassidy, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for China and now director of international trade and services for Kelley Drye Collier Shannon, a Washington law firm.

As a result, the United States finds itself "kowtowing to China," Cassidy said, even as that country keeps sending American consumers adulterated and mislabeled foods.

It's not just about cheap imports, added Carol Tucker Foreman, a former assistant secretary of agriculture now at the Consumer Federation of America.

"Our farmers and food processors have drooled for years to be able to sell their food to that massive market," Foreman said. "The Chinese counterfeit. They have a serious piracy problem. But we put up with it because we want to sell to them."

U.S. agricultural exports to China have grown to more than $5 billion a year-- a fraction of last year's $232 billion U.S. trade deficit with China but a number that has enormous growth potential, given the Chinese economy's 10 percent growth rate and its billion-plus consumers.

Trading with the largely unregulated Chinese marketplace has its risks, of course, as evidenced by the many lawsuits that U.S. pet food companies now face from angry consumers who say their pets were poisoned by tainted Chinese ingredients. Until recently, however, many companies and even the federal government reckoned that, on average, those risks were worth taking. And for some products they have had little choice, as China has driven competitors out of business with its rock-bottom prices.

But after the pet food scandal, some are recalculating.

"This isn't the first time we've had an incident from a Chinese supplier," said Pat Verduin, a senior vice president at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group in Washington. "Food safety is integral to brands and to companies. This is not an issue the industry is taking lightly."
....

 

[Truthmatters]

they should have some restrictions on certain chinese imports untill they can reasure us of their safety.

 

[Annie]

they should have some restrictions on certain chinese imports untill they can reasure us of their safety.

That's the second or third article on food related issues coming out in the past several days. Something is up and it's not going to be good for China.

 

[Truthmatters]

They have got to get a gripp on their inspection process or they will lose alot of renvenue.

I dont know how much this will hurt them but its ja trend that if it shows up in ohter areas of their exports it could really chill their economy.

 

[Annie]

They have got to get a gripp on their inspection process or they will lose alot of renvenue.

I dont know how much this will hurt them but its ja trend that if it shows up in ohter areas of their exports it could really chill their economy.

Do you really think the government would NOT know what is going on? Question is how long other governments have failed to follow up with the China connection.

 

[Truthmatters]

The melamine in the Wheat glutin was put thier to make the tests read it as higher in Protein.
This makes it so they could sell it for more.

I dont really think the left knows what the right hand is doing in China.

I really doubt it was a government plan.

I think it was some profiteering buy whomever was in charge of that section of thier production.

It could show up as a trend where the central gov is unable to keep control of all aspects of the regime.

This is the downfall of communism.

Corruption and inability to control everything even if your intentions are honorable.

Its a flawed system.

Im hoping this spurs more openness and a begining of a shift towards the free market.

 

[Annie]

The melamine in the Wheat glutin was put thier to make the tests read it as higher in Protein.
This makes it so they could sell it for more.

I dont really think the left knows what the right hand is doing in China.

I really doubt it was a government plan.

I think it was some profiteering buy whomever was in charge of that section of thier production.

It could show up as a trend where the central gov is unable to keep control of all aspects of the regime.

This is the downfall of communism.

Corruption and inability to control everything even if your intentions are honorable.

Its a flawed system.

Im hoping this spurs more openness and a begining of a shift towards the free market.

We'll see. Too many products from too many sources.

 

[Annie]

and again:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275269,00.html

Frozen Monkfish Recalled in 3 States

Thursday , May 24, 2007

AP


A frozen product labeled monkfish distributed in three states is being recalled after two Chicago area people became ill after eating it, the importer announced Thursday.

Hong Chang Corporation of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., said it is recalling the product labeled as monkfish because it may contain tetrodotoxin, a potent toxin.

While the frozen fish imported from China was labeled monkfish, the company said it is concerned that it may be pufferfish because this toxin is usually associated with certain types of pufferfish.

Eating foods containing tetrodotoxin can result in life-threatening illness or death and the toxin cannot be destroyed by cooking or freezing.

The company said two people in the Chicago area became ill after eating soup containing the fish. Analysis by the Food and Drug Administration confirmed the presence of the toxin.

Some 282 22-pound boxes of the fish were distributed to wholesalers in Illinois, California and Hawaii, according to the company beginning in September. The fish was sold in retail stores, restaurants and cash and carry stores in these regions.

The fish are individually packaged in clear plastic sleeves and placed in a plastic liner which is inside a cardboard box. There are no lot numbers on the box. Labels on one panel read "MONK FISH GUTTED AND HEAD-OFF PRODUCT OF CHINA".

A second box panel bears nutritional facts and the following, "Ingredients: Monk fish; Imported by: Hong Chang Corp., Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670; Product of China (P.R.C.)."

Consumers who have purchased this monkfish can return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Care should be exercised in handling the fish as the tetrodotoxin may be present on the skin and flesh of the fish. Wash hands thoroughly after handling.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-562-309-0068.

People who may have consumed these products and have concerns are encouraged to contact their health care provider. Illnesses associated with consumption of these products should be reported to the nearest FDA district offices and to the local health authority.

 

[actsnoblemartin]

I dont trust anything made by china.

and again:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275269,00.html

 

[akiboy]

Asia Rising
By Rich Lowry, National Review
April 21, 2006

India has been shedding its deadening Fabian socialism, an import from Europe, and is a burgeoning economic power. China has created a kind of ramshackle free-market economy—in a bizarre shotgun marriage with a communist state—that is producing robust growth. Both countries are on the rise. Japan has been in a decade-long rut, but is still the world's second-largest economy. The trend lines in terms of economic and military power all say "Asia."

The future is happening there, for better or worse. If we offend Europe, it still putters, and sputters, on. The stakes in Asia are much higher. Taiwan could be an occasion for a war. India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed adversaries. China could break up into feuding fiefdoms. Then, there's the psycho-state of North Korea. Given the region's importance and potential pitfalls, Bush-administration diplomacy should get more notice.

President Bush has hitched a rising India to the U.S. At the same time, he has forged a close relationship with India's historic rival, Pakistan. The U.S. alliance with Japan has never been stronger, and relations with China are relatively friendly, too. The administration has been firm in its defense of Taiwan's de facto independence, while keeping the island from any unnecessary provocations. Diplomatically — putting aside the intractable North Korean nuclear problem — his is as close as it comes to running the table.

The strategic goal is to create a sustainable balance of power so Asian countries can continue to liberalize. As Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations argues, if the focus is exclusively on China's rising power vis-à-vis the United States, the historic model is Europe circa 1914, with China in the role of Germany. If the focus is widened out to include Japan and India — as Bush has sought to do — hen the more congenial model might be Europe circa 1815, with a balance between several powers and the United States as Britain, which maintained that balance at very little cost to itself.

All of this means our lingering Eurocentrism is out of place. We should care less about Jacques Chirac taking offense at our latest alleged gaucherie and more about what Dr. Manmohan Singh — he prime minister of India — thinks of attempts in Congress to torpedo the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal. Europe is yesterday's news; Asia is tomorrow's.

for full article: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.asp

True.Very true.

ANyways..I would like to make myself loud and clear. I will quote what the former Defence Minister of India said in an interview way back in 1998. "China is India's no 1 enemy in the world apart from being an economic and military threat"

Asia can never be stable and calm as long as CHina keeps trying to use its clout. Bejing hates India's guts and is doing all that it can to curtail India. And if that happens Asia belongs to China.

 

[Alucard]

I dont trust anything made by china.

With good reason...

Last week I bought "halex" brand horseshoes today I threw the shoe it hit the post and the horseshoe broke in half... Guess what... Made in China..

 

[jodylee]

Asia Rising
By Rich Lowry, National Review
April 21, 2006

India has been shedding its deadening Fabian socialism, an import from Europe, and is a burgeoning economic power. China has created a kind of ramshackle free-market economy—in a bizarre shotgun marriage with a communist state—that is producing robust growth. Both countries are on the rise. Japan has been in a decade-long rut, but is still the world's second-largest economy. The trend lines in terms of economic and military power all say "Asia."

The future is happening there, for better or worse. If we offend Europe, it still putters, and sputters, on. The stakes in Asia are much higher. Taiwan could be an occasion for a war. India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed adversaries. China could break up into feuding fiefdoms. Then, there's the psycho-state of North Korea. Given the region's importance and potential pitfalls, Bush-administration diplomacy should get more notice.

President Bush has hitched a rising India to the U.S. At the same time, he has forged a close relationship with India's historic rival, Pakistan. The U.S. alliance with Japan has never been stronger, and relations with China are relatively friendly, too. The administration has been firm in its defense of Taiwan's de facto independence, while keeping the island from any unnecessary provocations. Diplomatically — putting aside the intractable North Korean nuclear problem — his is as close as it comes to running the table.

The strategic goal is to create a sustainable balance of power so Asian countries can continue to liberalize. As Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations argues, if the focus is exclusively on China's rising power vis-à-vis the United States, the historic model is Europe circa 1914, with China in the role of Germany. If the focus is widened out to include Japan and India — as Bush has sought to do — hen the more congenial model might be Europe circa 1815, with a balance between several powers and the United States as Britain, which maintained that balance at very little cost to itself.

All of this means our lingering Eurocentrism is out of place. We should care less about Jacques Chirac taking offense at our latest alleged gaucherie and more about what Dr. Manmohan Singh — he prime minister of India — thinks of attempts in Congress to torpedo the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal. Europe is yesterday's news; Asia is tomorrow's.

for full article: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.asp

I mostly agree, but don't forgett the Euro is probably going to be the next world currency. when that does happen it will be a far weaker U.S. and a europe that steaches as far as the middle east.