On 4/10/2017 6:47 AM, Keyser Soze wrote:
On 4/10/17 12:26 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 9 Apr 2017 20:05:48 -0400, Keyser Soze wrote:
The question is whether Kim Jong-un is any more of a nutcase than Donald
Trump, who might just well start WW III. A really good deal-maker,
instead of Bull**** Artist Trump, might have been able to persuade
President Xi to go back home and convince his government to put North
Korea on a short leash. But noooo...we have an ill-informed, lazy,
ignorant, short-termed idiot as president.
I am not convinced that Trump is not going to work a deal with Putin
and Xi. I just fear the rest of the world might not like it.
They might end up saying China will step on N Korea if we let them
have the islands in the South China Sea, maybe Tibet and a bigger
stake in Taiwan.
China has "had" Tibet for decades. It is in China's interest to act in
ways that promote its world trade.
I think there is a good chance that China will eventually agree to clamp
down on North Korea.
China has made a major transition since the late 1970's when economic
reforms were initiated and experiments in capitalism with foreign trade
in mind began. Before then about 700 million Chinese survived on the
equivalent of $1 a day. The experiment in economic reforms from 1980 to
the late 1990's allowed limited privatization of businesses, competition
and encouraged foreign trade. I visited China in 1986 as a direct
result of these reforms although it was still "experimental" in nature.
Certain provinces that were somewhat remote from major population areas
were set aside as the experiment locations.
Western and European companies were invited to visit under the pretense
of developing joint ventures. The mistake many western companies made
was in assuming that the joint ventures with China would open markets
for their products to the billion plus Chinese population which was not
the case. The Chinese were interested in procuring Western
manufacturing technologies to produce and export products to the rest of
the world.
They have succeeded in doing exactly that as we can see today. Although
technically still a communist country China has transformed itself
economically into a major capitalist nation. The poverty level in China
has dropped enormously as it's population benefits from business
privatization. The Chinese government can never go back to the way it
was before 1980 and they need us as customers more than we really need them.