Tuesday, April 2, 2019

On China


Many ‘experts’ said China would collapse for more than 10 years. So far, it has not been materialized. Even five years ago, the same ‘experts’ told me it would crash soon and this time was right. No crash so far. I bet these experts have never visited China. China has prevented the loan bubble by creating the housing bubble. Eventually these bubbles will burst and no one knows when they will.

U.S. is still leading the world in many sectors, while China is reducing the gap. 5G is the technology that China can claim it is about 1 year ahead of all competitors. It would be the important technology when thousands of machines can talk to each other.

Being a Chinese immigrated to the US, I’m happy that China is rising after centuries of humiliation. Sincerely I hope China’s rise will be beneficial to the world. “One Belt, One Road” should benefit many countries including the nations in the routes including Africa. China claim they do not interfere your political belief.

China has been building railroads, factories, hospitals, stadiums in Africa. From history, China has very few invasions to other countries and very seldom colonized a country even it had the ability to. China has emphasized not to interfere other countries but grows wealth mutually via trading and investing. Many times China’s foreign investments do not pay off for China, but in most cases they benefit these foreign countries. China tries her best to integrate with the international systems rather than changing them. However, U.S. will not want to be #2 in Africa. Africa in the next 30 years will not be wealthy enough as the major partner for Chinese products.  

Any trade war, military war and conflicts between US and China would hurt me personally. I do hope the reunification with Taiwan will not happen in my lifetime if it is by force. Hope all the islet disputes will be settled politically.

Like most countries, China has her own problems to solve. Corporations are encouraged to buy foreign technologies. The housing bubble is almost burst as of 2018. The government has taken actions to cure the debt problems starting with reducing buying US debts.

With few regulations, China is easy to start new ventures.  However, it is now close to be developed. China needs regulations and enforcements to protect her citizens and her own intelligent properties. China needs food quality control and enforcement, financial regulations like our SEC, FTC, Federal Reserve Bank…  China is on the right track, but she still needs to reduce wealth gap, suppress corruption, improves human rights…

Yuan will not be a reserve currency for a long while but it will be used to trade between China and her partners especially in the “One Belt, One Road” projects. The new energy exchange uses Yuan as the trade currency.

We need to trust China rather than making China an enemy. We have not let China to participate in our space program while China opens theirs. With our high debts, should we contain China with loans from China?

China is changing so fast. After 10 years, I visited China again in 2017 and I did not recognize China with so many new buildings. Use Google or any search engine to search for updated articles.

Chinese are optimistic for the future. They enjoy a better living standard than 30 or even 10 years ago. They care more about making money than politics. The youths are busy in their education and they know no one will bail them out if they do not work hard now.

If China’s rise is peaceful and beneficial to the world, let she rise. We have other problems more important to deal with such as our deteriorating infrastructure, our rising debts, addictive drugs, shootings, crimes and obesity. Israel could be controlling our Congress and it would drag us to WW3.

China and the US are the largest economies and they are integrated in almost in all areas. For example, China is #1 or #2 loaner to our foreign debts and our companies are #1 to invest directly in China. Our trade deficit has been huge but exaggerated as explained in this book. We need China to take out the barriers to our products that are viewed as superior products by Chinese citizens.

Even with all the distrust and cultural differences in both sides, we have integrated with Chinese in many of our departments. Chinese has become the second foreign language to our students after Spanish. Chinese tourists and students have become our number 1 service surplus.

“2025 Made in China”, “One Belt, One Road” and China’s leading 5G, U.S. receives the warning with actions including the trade war. Chinese never learn “silence is golden”.

As of 2018, I have donated all book profits to charities. I write for the love of my adopted country and my country I was born in. If you feel this book is beneficial to you, refer it to your friends and/or write an unbiased comment in Amazon.com; if you’re shy, you do not have to use your real name. Thank you for reading my book.

----

The above is from my book "Can China Say No?" available from  Amazon.com.


Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Impression from my recent trip to Spain and Portugal


Here is my general impression on this trip to Spain and Portugal. It is from an American point of view.

·         Try to be best in your job. Our tour guide is one example. He is funny and informative on the places and the brief history for the cities we are going to visit.

·         The tour operator offers an apps to show the itinerary and attractions and it is quite useful.

·         Avoid to come to Spain and Portugal in the summer time as they are hot and too many crowded with tourists.

·         The food portion in general is smaller than ours. Food is considered as a supplement to wines and beer. It is a little salty to my taste but the pastries are excellent. Luckily there are about six Chinese restaurants within walking distance from my hotel in Barcelona. Surprisingly they’re quite good.

·         Made a second mistake in a restaurant right in the attraction. The food was pricy and the portion was small. I do not know who wrote the good review. Could not find other piglet offer close by.

·         Oranges are plentiful, tasteful and cheap as they grow a lot here. So is kiwi.

·         If you do not join a tour, there are many day trips available from Madrid.

·         Spaniards are quite fit and I do not find too many fat folks there except our fellow tourists. It could be the warm climate (300 sunny days in a year) and easy life style.

·         Most are laid back and enjoy life. Can they compete globally? That could explain their high unemployment rate (15% vs. our 5%). Many skilled, young folks move to other countries in Europe.

·         Socialism has its drawbacks. Spaniards enjoys social welfare supported by high taxes (50% I was told) which discourages folks to work hard.

·         There is a clear presence of America business here such as fast food, retail stores, TV shows and movies.

·         Huawei has a big presence in Spain which is not of one the U.S.’s “5 Eyes”, which could be one year late in implanting 5G network if they do not select Huawei. Trump is the best spokesman for Huawei and now it is well-known even in the U.S.


·         They have a lot of farm land per capita from what I saw from the tour bus.

·         The ‘loots’ from year 1450 on were long gone. However, they left many extraordinary palaces and churches that attract tourists.

·         You can find so many statutes in this trip. They have over 2,000 years of written history compared to our 200 years.

·         Madrid replaces the old capital Toledo. Madrid is flatter than the previous capital and well-planned with wide roads and trees on each side of many roads.

·         We have to learn from Toledo where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived harmoniously for a long period. Killing each other is not in any preaching in any religious book. Forgiveness is the most powerful word in any dictionary.


·         If you are not joining a tour, there are many tours offered locally in Madrid.

·         Many sites still show the influences from the mighty Roman Empire such as the aqua duct.

·         Madrid is great for bikers as in many European cities. Boston is not and definitely not safe for bikers.

·         Do not miss the fascinating Flamenco dance show. The ladies in my show must pass their primes.

·         Barcelona is richer than the rest of Spain. That’s why they want independence besides other cultural differences. We were glad that there was no riots due to the trial of the ‘separatists’ during our stay.

·         Metro, the subway, has a reduced rate for 10 uses. It is convenient and efficient. Watch out for pick pockets. One young lady was behind me and another one asked me for the time.

·         Plan for two full days in Madrid (one more for art lovers and/or religious folks) each in Madrid and Barcelona.

·         The bus from airport in Barcelona to city center costs $5.99. My hotel is within walking distance from the last bus stop.

·         Portugal’s secondary language is English and it prepares the country better for global communication.

·         Euro is great for tourists but a tool to cheat for some EU countries. Greece, Italy and Spain have financial problems and drag down the entire union.

·         Europe has to control pick pocketing. It is hurting the tourist industry.

·         We have a hard time to book transportation from Madrid to Barcelona. The high-speed train seems to be great between the train stations from our hotels. The cheaper tickets have to be booked far in advance and the web site is in Spanish. Finally we chose the cheap airline that has a lot of restrictions.

--------------------------------------

Check out my new book "Madrid, Lisbon and Barcelona"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PT7NTQB