My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

Hey, just wanted to let the 1.3 billion or so of you know that I’m ready to sell my house. It’s on the market. Well…not really. But if the price is right, it is for you http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/business/in-suburban-seattle-new-nests-for-chinas-rich.html?ref=international&_r=0 Being how the Chinese per capita income is only around say…$6600 per person, I like others have always kinda wondered from a distance….well from my back yard balcony anyway, where all these  Chinese dollars seem to come from?  I see you guys with all your mysterious sources of cash coming over here to the Land of the Free and Easily Swindled and all I can say is…… Well, I’m ready to be taken. How can I say NO? (answer: I cannot) Yes, I know, I know it’s your GREAT CULTURAL WEAKNESS, that silly habit of yours to not want to assimilate with the rest of us(Chinatown?), that makes you keen on places such as that Great Sprawling American Wasteland of endless concrete an

As Alibaba goes public, and many people make a fortune off the stock, I’m reminded of how so many American companies have gone to China and failed.  Ebay, and Amazon in particular.   Facebook and Twitter are of course banned.  Google. These same companies dominate nearly everywhere else on the planet.  Why do they fail in China? It’s neither white nor black.  My Chinese friends here in America are convinced the Chinese government simply keeps them out, as they won’t commit to self censorship.   But what of Amazon and Ebay?  Were they really outsmarted by their Chinese counterparts?  I’d say yes, they were, but with a nudge from the Chinese govt perhaps as well.   And this dovetails with what I want to write about today and get out of my system, ie how hard, so very hard it is to do business with the Chinese.   Not as a supplier.  As a customer.  It is very hard for a small guy like myself, let alone for a large company to simply sell things to China. Back in the 80’s the

US Debt Chinese Power As most folks know, China owns a large portion of US Debt.  China is in effect a holder of 1.3 trillion of US Debt.  That is, it owns treasuries.  It holds approximately 20% of all foreign owned US debt, but only about 10% of overall US debt.  That should tell you right away that China’s leverage over the USA is really pretty small.  Not nonexistent, but small.  Why does China own US Debt?  Well, it’s a good safe investment.  And that’s really pretty much it.  However, while China does have a deliberate policy of buying American treasuries to (so it thought), gain leverage over America, it has now come to realize that “strategic” thinking has been misplaced. The well known phrase “when you owe the bank so much money, that you in effect own the bank”, comes into play here.   China can only, as it has been doing recently, slowly, very slowly cash in it’s chips and takes it’s money back home.  To sell it’s treasuries too quickly would only hurt China

Wanting to keep this front and center.........another update of an update of an original post going back at least a year.  I want to state I am very pro Death Penalty, as you probably guessed from my personal background and having read previous posts.   Still injustice is injustice.  Yet again, despite ALL the publicity and money and time being spent on finding people wrongfully sentenced to Death, I'm amazed the USA is STILL finding innocent civilians that have fallen through the cracks.    It seems to me there are way too many out of control Prosecutors out there....in small towns...their little fiefdoms....that are bent on revenge and a quick end to a case than on Justice being properly meted out.  The below is only the latest example.   How many more innocents on Death Row are there?? And as this is very much a China Blog, I yet again want to bring attention to the undeniable fact that if a process driven "always looking at itself in the mirror country"

The Chinese In-law Series continues...  this is the 3 rd in a planned 4 part installment.   You’ve heard me now over the last couple of years say plenty of things about the in-laws.  By now I’m sure you’ve figured out what it takes to get along with your Chinese In-laws.     Having a harmonious life with your Chinese in-laws is far more important than getting along with the counterpart Western in-laws.   An unsuccessful relationship with your Chinese “Mom and Pop” will likewise quickly destabilize ones relationship with the wife as well.   While one can get along with one while not necessarily with the other in a Western marriage, it is much more difficult to separate the two in a Chinese marriage. Are there other ways to get along?  Of course there are.  Am I perhaps exaggerating when I list the issues below?  Maybe.   All the same, let me codify things a bit for you, only slightly tongue in cheek. The first rule goes back to what is probably my post popular post to date