Category Archives: China

Potholes Develop in One Belt One Road

Posted on 7 December, 2018 by

More intelligent observers have begun to take a sceptical look at the nuts and bolts underlying Chairman Xi’s One Belt One Road “juggernaut.” Western press outlets have tended to cover the BRI as a triumphant PRC bid to remake global … Continue reading →

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Japan Suddenly Becomes a Major Military Power Again

Posted on 12 November, 2018 by

Japan Has Blue Water Position on China China has been creating artificial island fortresses in the South China Sea, but despite those advance bases, the dragon remains confined by the Japanese Islands, Taiwan, in part by South Korea, and the … Continue reading →

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China Pursues Weapons with Abandon (Of the Economy)

Posted on 12 November, 2018 by

Economy Before Military is a Better Rule to Follow Smarter rulers would have made certain of their economies before they put their nations in a military posture against the rest of the world. Scarcely a day goes by without hearing … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 3 Comments

China is Riding the Storm Better than Russia

Posted on 24 October, 2018 by

China’s Economic Slump Less Dangerous Than Russia’s Like the United States after the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, a Chinese financial crisis will lead to a nasty recession but not an economic collapse. GDP growth will likely recover after a … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Russia | Tagged | 3 Comments

Why President Trump is Determined to Spank Chairman Xi

Posted on 2 October, 2018 by

Update: China’s Great Leap Backward China Enters a Stage of Vulnerability Here are some vulnerabilities, all of them affecting China’s economy and the Communist dictatorship’s ability to project power. Corruption challenges the dictatorship’s legitimacy. Managing the complex economy and addressing … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Demographics, Donald Trump, Economics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Who Will Help Russia Build Better?

Posted on 13 August, 2018 by

Russia needs a lot of good men and good weapons to defend its vast and porous borders. Russia is falling behind on both. Who will help Russia to build more and better young men and weapons? Russia’s New Weapons Do … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Russia, Russian Decline | Tagged | 7 Comments

Donald Trump: China’s Great White Grandfather

Posted on 8 August, 2018 by

Chuan Da Ye People in the United States and other Western countries may have called Donald J. Trump a lot of different names, but in China, many people are addressing him as “Chuan Da Ye.” “Chuan” is the Chinese pronunciation … Continue reading →

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Empty Towers on Debt Mountains: China’s Vulnerability

Posted on 20 July, 2018 by

Until now, China has managed to keep its huge raft of nonperforming debt afloat thanks to capital inflows, as successive waves of quantitative easing pushed dollars into the world. A tighter dollar would seem to make the bursting of China’s … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics | Tagged ,

Entering the New Chinese Warlord Era

Posted on 30 June, 2018 by

Chinese warlords have appeared all throughout China’s history, springing up in times of turmoil to gain power, and sometimes establishing their own dynasty. Warlords are normally aggressive and ambitious, they want to gain power and will use any means necessary … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Siberia | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Xi Jinping’s Extreme Makeover: Marxism that Really Works!

Posted on 21 May, 2018 by

China’s president-for-life Xi Jinping has turned to “born-again Marxism” in an effort to revise history and to re-shape national consciousness around a more malleable model that suits his purposes. … Xi and his supporters [are] now trying to use [Marx] … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics | Tagged | 1 Comment

China’s Marshmallow Days

Posted on 6 May, 2018 by

China Economic Blockbuster Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain __ The Wizard of Oz (1939) Despite appreciable slowing of China’s economic growth rates, the Middle Kingdom is riding a glittering wave of apparent wealth. The dragon maintains … Continue reading →

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China Loses Market Share… And Workers

Posted on 26 March, 2018 by

China is no longer the manufacturer of first resort for a growing number of western importers. China is losing market share to upstarts, newcomers, and old grizzled rivals such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. China is losing market share … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Demographics, Economics | Tagged | 2 Comments

China-Style Bridge Collapse in Florida Raises Questions

Posted on 17 March, 2018 by

Something was clearly wrong with the bridge. An engineer for bridge contractor FIGG noticed cracks in the structure two days before the collapse. But his message was overlooked until the day after the collapse. This Kind of Thing is Expected … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 5 Comments

Pyramids Within Pyramids … Schemes and Scams

Posted on 9 March, 2018 by

The Fractal Scams of Modern Chinese Society Today’s China is one fractal pyramid from top to bottom — from the lowest scale to the highest. “Scale Invariance” is a fractal property of an object, where its morphology is virtually identical … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 2 Comments

What Really Scares China’s Leaders

Posted on 13 December, 2017 by

Trump’s “Double Whammy” Spreads Fear in Beijing There has been a lot of nervous speculation in Beijing over the “single whammy,” Trump’s tax plan which reduces corporate taxes in the US, and makes it much easier for international companies to … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 1 Comment

An Important Distinction: GDP Growth vs. Economic Growth

Posted on 1 December, 2017 by

Real GDP Growth in China 3% or Less It is actually much worse than China expert Michael Pettis explains below: GDP growth is not the same as economic growth. Consider two factories that cost the same to build and operate. … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Chinese Century Is Already Over

Posted on 11 November, 2017 by

A Workforce Already Shrinking The working age population of China is shrinking so quickly that wages are being forced upward, driving many overseas investors to look to other nations to do their offshore manufacturing. A country needs a fertility rate … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 4 Comments

Robert D. Kaplan on the Russia – China Rivalry

Posted on 5 November, 2017 by

Savvy geographer and writer Robert D. Kaplan has had his eyes on developments in Central Asia since he published his influential essay and book, The Coming Anarchy, in the middle 1990s. Since that time a quiet but intense rivalry in … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Russia | Tagged | 2 Comments

China’s Junk-Rated Future

Posted on 31 October, 2017 by

One Belt One Road: Leap Into the Uncertain Future China’s Mr. Xi has attained the pinnacle of one-man power in The Middle Kingdom. In order to achieve his ambition to make China the leading global power in economic, political, and … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged | 1 Comment

China’s Growth is 100% Debt Driven

Posted on 25 October, 2017 by

China leads the world in economic growth but that growth is 100% debt-driven. China’s recent $10 trillion in growth comes from $10 trillion in additional debt. … The instability of China’s credit-fueled, investment-focused growth strategy is—without a doubt—one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Demographics, Economics, Poison | 2 Comments

The Lithium Calamity: Poison Mountain, Green Idiocracy

Posted on 29 September, 2017 by

Who Wants to Follow China’s Long Toxic Walk? China has long been famous for its poisoned air, toxic rivers, and deadly soil. Now the aging dragon faces a new toxic calamity: a looming mountain of poisoned and unusable lithium batteries … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Energy, Environment, Green Quagmire, Groupthink, Poison | Tagged , | 10 Comments

The Engineering Apocalypse: David Goldman “Spengler”

Posted on 7 September, 2017 by

Update: Can the “Engineering Apocalypse” save China from its perfect storm? According to the South China Morning Post, the impending economic crisis is rooted in expansive fiscal policy, increased government spending, rising property values, extremely lax monetary policies, record-high bank … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics | Tagged | 1 Comment

China Preparing for Next Great Leap Forward?

Posted on 8 August, 2017 by

Can China Reverse its Present Stall? China is experiencing an unexpected slowdown in its global ambitions. The very nature of economic growth in China has changed in an ominous way. A closer look at the fixed causes behind China’s unhealthy … Continue reading →

Posted in China | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Astounding Ghost Towers of Shanghai

Posted on 14 June, 2017 by

A dangerous proportion of China’s vaunted GDP is based upon capital misallocation, overproduction, and “broken window” style investments. The “demolish and build” cycle so prominent in many Chinese cities is only one case in point. The era of economic reform … Continue reading →

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Emerging Ghost Malls, Hotels, Office Buildings and Cities of Africa

Posted on 12 June, 2017 by

We usually think of China when contemplating “ghost cities” and other ghost real estate properties. But the Chinese propensity to build infrastructure far in advance of actual demand is not limited to the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese Communist Party wants … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, China, Maintenance | Tagged , | 3 Comments