RSS Feed MenuThe Empire State Building officially recognized Communist China’s 60th Anniversary by switching its evening lighting to red and yellow for September 30th and October 1st. The move brought out some protesters who realized it is still necessary to remind people of China’s ongoing human rights abuses, but a building spokeswoman would only admit that the iconic skyscraper celebrates many world cultures.
Any tourist who visits New York City can see the Empire State Building lit up to celebrate a number of different occasions year-round: St. Patrick’s Day, Independence Day, the U.S. Open Tennis Finals, even the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. But this may be the first time that the lighting scheme has recognized a despotic nation that has subjugated and murdered millions of people.
There is something deeply unsettling about an iconic building like the Empire State Building — once the tallest skyscraper in the world and an ongoing symbol of ingenuity and capitalism — allowing itself to become a piece of propaganda for a nation that remains a serial violator of human rights and a symbol of a state’s power over its people. Chinese Consul General Peng Keyu, on hand for the ceremonial lighting, said that China has come a long way in the last few decades toward becoming a more open society. Maybe so, but it hasn’t come far enough to warrant this kind of celebration.
rbottoms // Oct 1, 2009 at 8:12 am
Empire State Building Celebrates Chinese Communism
Millions of Walmart Shoppers Celebrate Chinese Communism
Fixed
Since that firm is probably the #1 facilitator on earth of US cash heading to the Communist regime perhaps railing against them might make more sense.
midcon // Oct 1, 2009 at 8:18 am
Says everyone just before they run off to Wal Mart and other places to buy products from China. However, let’s not let our outrage cause to us to actually act any differently in our lives. After all imposition of tariffs on tires is just plain silly because it interferes with free trade and all that. Our biggest trading partner (oops or should I say creditor) did not become that because the Chinese were dealing with a nation who has principles. Our colors are the color of money. Democrat or Republican – labor or management – all culpable. You shop the lowest price and cost regardless of what it does to our economy or industries and then take umbrage at lights as if the symbology is meaningful, either on your part or the part of everyone else (including citizens) who compromised our national security by destroying our self sufficiency.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 9:30 am
I thought you Leftwingers were for helping the poor and downtrodden of the Earth.
Guess what you really meant was you were for giving them handouts.
balconesfault // Oct 1, 2009 at 9:37 am
Yes, China abuses human rights – not only by denying rights of free speech and political organization, but by preventing unionization and even allowing use of forced labor for export goods. Add the massive environmental disaster that is China – last year the World Bank demonstrated that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities are found in China’s industrial areas, and it was only a few years ago that a release caused a 50-mile long benzene plume to destroy the Songhua River in central China. Meanwhile, in many parts of China everyone in the family from children up to elders have to work to maintain a lifestyle that matches our poverty level.
Yet if you listen to a lot of commentators over the last 30 years in America, we’ve lost jobs to China because environmentalists and unionists made us uncompetitive. In a way, that was true – our desire to maintain clean air and water, and a large workforce able to enjoy a middle class lifestyle – put us at a competitive disadvantage as long as “unrestricted free trade” was our mantra.
Future generations of economists and historians will look back in amazement at a country which had the biggest, most prosperous middle class in history, and didn’t run a trade policy to defend that prosperity. We had the power of access to the American marketplace, the most coveted commodity on the planet, and we gave that power away on an ideological gamble that if we did so our trading partners would all play nice.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 9:41 am
First you praise engagement, and then you lament the results of engagement.
Seems that you cant make up your minds about what you are about.
But as long as you can rip on Walmart and feel smug about yourselves, heh?
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 9:45 am
So balconesfault,
Is the US a evil imperialist or did they give the farm away?
You cant have it both ways, you know.
We have helped post war Europe and countless other nations like the Asian Dragons become prosperous, and dragged billions of people out of poverty.
But we should have protected our market and held other peoples and nations down….that is your argument. Classic imperialist maintenance of disparate power.
LOL!
sinz54 // Oct 1, 2009 at 9:58 am
balconesfault: We had the power of access to the American marketplace, the most coveted commodity on the planet, and we gave that power away on an ideological gamble that if we did so our trading partners would all play nice.
Part of it was strategic.
We gave that access away to foreign countries as a bribe to get them to side with us in the Cold War.
And it worked.
China broke away from Russia. And by the 1980s, relations between the U.S. and China were excellent.
Japan became an economic superpower, a buffer against Communism in the Far East.
Had we done as you asked, we might have alienated these nations. They might even have become neutrals in the great death struggle between American democracy and Soviet Communism. And the U.S. would have been in a far weaker position.
Finally, I believe in the theory of comparative advantage. Yes, by trading with China, we lost textiles and the shoe industry (in which my dad worked). Yes, by trading with Japan, we lost the automobile industry. But look at the industries in which America is dominant: Computers, software (including Internet apps), aviation, military systems. You don’t see Boeing going out of business. Or Microsoft. Or Dell Computers. Or Adobe.
sinz54 // Oct 1, 2009 at 10:05 am
Despite China’s human rights abuses, they pale by comparison with the MILLIONS who were abused under Mao’s “Cultural Revolution.”
Ever since China embraced market reforms, they have had to slacken off because now the intelligentsia is their key to superior white-collar industries.
And I think that trend will continue. Young Chinese are accustomed to a free flow of information from cell phones, email and the Internet. The human rights abuses everyone is so concerned about will continue to fade gradually. And the market reforms are not going to go away.
According to a poll of Chinese in 2006, 74% of Chinese surveyed feel that the “free enterprise system and free market economy work best in society’s interests when accompanied by strong government regulations”
That’s a higher percentage in favor of a mixed economy than even in the United States, where only 71% of Americans believed such an economy operates in society’s interests.
Now that is truly something to celebrate!
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 10:17 am
I second sinz commentary.
balconesfault // Oct 1, 2009 at 10:32 am
Sinz: But look at the industries in which America is dominant: Computers, software (including Internet apps), aviation, military systems. You don’t see Boeing going out of business. Or Microsoft. Or Dell Computers. Or Adobe.
Computers? That’s your argument that the US is maintaining dominance? Our computer manufacturing has largely moved to China in the last 10 years (a problem, btw, because many security experts fear that China is installing backdoor technology in computers to allow remote surveillance via the internet). Dell Computers is at half of its market capitalization from a decade ago.
I’m amused by your promoting the success of aviation and military systems – those are the industries where America HAS essentially run a national industrial and trade policy including huge amounts of government subsidies, coupled with staunch protectionism.
balconesfault // Oct 1, 2009 at 10:33 am
According to a poll of Chinese in 2006, 74% of Chinese surveyed feel that the “free enterprise system and free market economy work best in society’s interests when accompanied by strong government regulations”
That’s a higher percentage in favor of a mixed economy than even in the United States, where only 71% of Americans believed such an economy operates in society’s interests.
LOL – yes, but that’s because a substantial portion of Americans harbor the fantasy that the free market economy works best when not accompanied by strong government regulations.
rbottoms // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Ever since China embraced market reforms, they have had to slacken off because now the intelligentsia is their key to superior white-collar industries.
They are still one of the most brutal dictatorships on the planet. But I do like my cheap shirts.
But back to the original bit of irony, the Empire State Building operators are criticized for some display that celebrates China.
The OP says it’s a bad thing.
I’d lay odds his television, computer, and computer monitor were made there along with a significant portion of his clothes and shoes bought in part at Walmart at one time or another.
The default conservative position is to defend Walmart, without whom China would be in dire straits, with the capitalism is moderating their behavior mantra. Okay. Explain why that wouldn’t work for Cuba and why our decades long embargo makes any kind of sense.
Just pointing out the hypocrisy.
SFTor1 // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Trade and production was internationalized so that corporations could gain access to cheaper labor pools.
Today we live with the results.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Wrong SanFran, open markets were pushed after WW2 to avoid setting the stage for a repeat of that war.
It seems that balconesfault is all for protected markets and spheres of influence, the reimposition of classic mercantilist systems.
Be careful what you wish for.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:47 pm
The default conservative position is to defend Walmart, without whom China would be in dire straits, with the capitalism is moderating their behavior mantra. Okay. Explain why that wouldn’t work for Cuba and why our decades long embargo makes any kind of sense. — rbottoms
Walmart is hardly an exception to the rule of non Chinese products being sold by American retailers. Walmart has other classist connotations which is why its a favorite of the Left to attack. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
The difference between China and Cuba are many….but this one stands out…. China has a billion people and ICBMs loaded with miniaturized multi head nukes….with a standing army of 3 million.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:47 pm
BTW, I boycott Chinese products and do a pretty good job of it.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:49 pm
People that cant understand why celebrating Communist Red China’s birth is objectionable, are the same people that inhabit the Democrat Party in large numbers and are Western Leftists.
These people should be driven from decent society, but alas…
Oneon1isto // Oct 1, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Ayn Rand is turning over in her grave. Wait, she’s dead right?
There is something massively ironic about this bit of non-news, though. Capitalist totem drenched in the colors of neuveaux-communism.
balconesfault // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:32 pm
You know, there are a few things in Escape’s postings that actually merit some discussion – but then you read them all in their totality, and you see that he’s really just throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks.
But it is worth noting that WalMart in many ways has been the worst actor in moving work overseas. A decade ago working in Kansas, I heard the story from the cement plant supervisor I was dealing with of a guy a town over who had developed a really innovative design for an engine hoist, that you could operate with one person. They cost X to make, and he made a deal to sell with WalMart Z units at price Y the following year. He took out loans, expanded his operations, and made sure he could supply those Z units. The following year, WalMart came back and informed him that they could produce Z units in China next year at some price lower than Y, and really barely above X – if he wanted to stay in the game he needed to bring his price down.
Of course, he was already committed thanks to loans and expansion. He inspected the Chinese prototype, and could point out that it was of poorer design, rivets where he used bolts, etc – they didn’t care. He went to other distributors, and was informed that they didn’t want to commit to take Z units when they knew WalMart would be underselling them on price. He finally had to accept WalMart consistently pushing his price down year after year, until he gave up the game and dissolved the company.
There was also a story of one of the top flight lawnmower companies in America a few years ago – the CEO went into WalMart to pitch his brand – they first told him they wanted to carry it … then told him he needed to produce a cheaper version than the cheapest model they carry, use cast steel instead of forged, etc. He saw this as a deal with the devil, and turned down the committment for fear of damaging the corporate brand. WalMart went overseas for the production of the units they’d sell.
In short, China’s and Wal-Marts mercantile interests have meshed perfectly for a couple decades … to the detriment of our long term economic health.
rbottoms // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:34 pm
In short, China’s and Wal-Marts mercantile interests have meshed perfectly for a couple decades … to the detriment of our long term economic health.
But the corporation supports the GOP so your facts are irrelevant to the current discussion.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Next we will celebrate the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia!
LOL!
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:51 pm
…they’re shutting Detroit down
I love this frigg’n song…
I don’t give a god damn what I’m “supposed” to believe as a conservative. What could be more truly conservative than loving one’s country and praying one’s fellow countrymen be gainfully employed producing products and services of true value?
Is this America?
General Motors said on Sunday it has agreed to set up a light commercial vehicle production venture with major Chinese automaker FAW Group, with total investment of 2 billion yuan ($293 million).
The 50-50 joint venture, based in the northeast China city of Changchun in Jilin province, will make light-duty trucks and vans, GM said in a statement.
“For us in China, this is an important complement to the rest of our portfolio,” Kevin Wale, president and managing director for GM’s China operations, told reporters in a conference call.
The venture will use two existing FAW plants in Changchun and the city of Harbin, also in the northeast, with combined annual capacity of roughly 90,000 vehicles, Wale said.
A greenfield plant, currently under construction in Harbin, will add 100,000 units of capacity by the end of next year, he said.
Vehicles made at the venture will carry the FAW brand and will focus on supplying the China market, but they could be exported under a GM brand through the Detroit automaker’s global network in the future, Wale said.
GM is making Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac models at its flagship China venture with SAIC Motor Corp. It also makes minivans, pickup trucks and the Spark compact car in a three-way tie-up with SAIC and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile.
This is where our bailout funds go – to China… to employ Chinese workers…???
This is where a good chunk of our government run – USING OUR TAX DOLLARS – “Cash for Clunkers” program money went… to a firm which seems more concerned with building up the Chinese economy than our own…???
Remember the old misquote “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country?” Well folks… it looks like those days are far, far behind us.
God DAMN these greedy ba$tards!
http://usalyright.blogspot.com/2009/09/theyre-shutting-detroit-down.html
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Im no big defender of Walmart.
An interesting story is what happened to Rubber Maid, with Walmart being a complicating factor.
Furthermore, Walmart used to tout their American Made products, that was a selling point for them, wrapped in teh Flag. This was before Sam Walton died and the Corpobots took over with not soul and morality left in the company, only cogs and drones working for bonuses and bottom lines.
EscapeVelocity // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Capitalism without underlying values and morality, and not this psuedo Leftwing Green morality, but Christian and Patriotic morality.
Hell we give businesses tax incentives to leave the Country and incorporate in Bermuda.
Stanley Tools did this. Dont buy Stanley Tools, unless a particular product is verified Made in USA.
Now we have Government Motors working to undermine the rest of the competition unfairly with government backing. Giving 60 day money back gaurantees that no company can afford to make, unless they have a direct line to Taxpayers Money via Governemnt Ownership. Healthcare, up next!
midcon // Oct 2, 2009 at 8:18 pm
balconesfault // Oct 1, 2009 at 2:32 pm sez, You know, there are a few things in Escape’s postings that actually merit some discussion -
Yeah you are right, but he posts so much and so much is simply slogans he picked up while trolling the net that I have given up trying to find the nuggets in the pile of excrement. I am at the point where I have to just skip all his posts and leave it to others who don’t have a job or anything else to do to wade through the BS and identify the nuggets.