If China is our enemy...

[bfdd]

Uhm,... no. No they are not.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/07/china-cancer-villages-industrial-pollution

Actually they are. Just because they are having some messy times, it's because it's that step is a lot shorter and more condensed than when we went through it. Did you see the thread of China in the 80s? They went from looking like early 1900's Western World to cities that put New York City to shame in less than 30 years? Come on...

They are totally thinking ahead with their huge push for solar, which happens to be much cheaper for them than us and their push for a lot of modern nuclear reactors to help stave their energy demands. China is on a very solid path.

 

[rchiu]

Actually they are. Just because they are having some messy times, it's because it's that step is a lot shorter and more condensed than when we went through it. Did you see the thread of China in the 80s? They went from looking like early 1900's Western World to cities that put New York City to shame in less than 30 years? Come on...

They are totally thinking ahead with their huge push for solar, which happens to be much cheaper for them than us and their push for a lot of modern nuclear reactors to help stave their energy demands. China is on a very solid path.

That's the benefit of not having election every 4 years. Ironically politicians in democracies are more worried about winning elections/doing what's popular than doing what's best of the country.

 

[Infohawk]

Who cares if the country is a totalitarian or not.

It's so obvious it's not even worth discussing.

 

[momeNt]

China is absolutely our friend. No other country was willing to suppress their working class and currency like China in order to give us all the cheap products we wanted.

We actually came to the realization that settling trade deficits through printing and treasury selling actually accelerates the longer you do it and now we suddenly want them to stop suppressing their working class and to force their currency to appreciate so we can get some of that manufacturing back.

So now some say they are our enemy.

 

[QuantumPion]

Well, depending on how you look at it, they are technically an enemy of the American middle class, and all the people who lost their jobs due all the off-shoring of Industry.

As the middle class crumbles, so too does all that makes this country great

Maybe they are the enemy of unskilled/uneducated workers...but for the rest of us China kicks ass. Personally I like having access to $200 smartphones, $100 LCD's, $300 laptops, etc. As do most Americans, especially those in the lower class whom were not able to afford such luxuries in the past.

 

[Lotheron]

Once products from china start costing more to manufacture and ship, it will be more cost effective to bring such production back to our shores and all this will be a moot point.

It will happen, just who knows when and when it does, goods will cost more.

 

[Infohawk]

Once products from china start costing more to manufacture and ship .

At that point the US would be a third world country and China would be an advanced and industrialized totalitarian country. Not worth the cheap goods were getting now.

 

[Rastus]

China has a Marxist Communist government. One of their main tenets is that they aim to take over all the other world governments by any means they can, including force. That is why they are our enemies.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

China has a Marxist Communist government. One of their main tenets is that they aim to take over all the other world governments by any means they can, including force. That is why they are our enemies.

China is communist in name only. They use the idea of socialism to unite their people, but it's really a controlled capitalist society.

 

[Sonikku]

China buys our debt not because they want to keep the US going, but because they could blow us up economically if they called us on our debt. This effectively gives them far more flexibility in what they can and can't do, because the moment we try to throw our weight around with them, their finger is resting on the doomsday button acting as a ward.

Same reason they hack our government constantly and we do nothing to respond. They've got us by the balls.

 

[AreaCode707]

Why in the world do we do so much business with them?

Because they are a market.
Apple store openings: http://micgadget.com/15800/chinas-biggest-apple-store-grand-opening-in-shanghai/

Microsoft presence: http://www.chinatechnews.com/2011/0...-authentic-products-experience-store-in-china

Amazon in China is huge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_China

We do business with them because they have money to spend, because they have services to offer, because selling our stuff there means we need to have buildings, employees, HR people, finance departments, etc that are counterparts to the US divisions of these companies.

Having worked for some of these multinational corporations I can tell you that the jobs in China are not, for the most part, jobs that we relocated from the US to CN, they are jobs that exist because we have a sales presence in CN that creates new jobs and ultimately funnels cash back to the US.

The manufacturing jobs are the exception, obviously, but those jobs are not coming back to the US for sheer fiscal reasons - if they weren't in China they'd be in Mexico or Korea or elsewhere. Companies are competing with each other for the lowest prices and the biggest market shares, and US-based manufacturing is prohibitive (who recently bought a $79 Kindle Fire? That would not ever be the price point if it were made in the US.)