Meet Your New Landlord

Meet Your New Landlord

It hasn't been mentioned much but one of the worst things about our financial crisis, which I hope becomes known as W's folly, is that it is inevitable that China is going to buy up more U.S. debt. We are already into China for more than 500 billion dollars. We are into Japan for about 600 billion which is no good either but the obligation to China is more scary, particularly because China is now in a far better position than Japan to bargain hunt and buy up additional U.S. debt and it is speculated that this well might double our indebtedness. I have said before that China's one child policy, although carried out savagely, was courageous and is projected to have reduced the world's population by 700 million. I admire this and wish other nations would institute similar policies but of course enforce them with compassion.

40 million died under Mao's regime. Now, China has the second largest (nearly 7 trillion) GDP of any nation in the world. Since the transition towards a free market in 1978, the GDP has risen on average of 9.9% per year and per capita income has increased about 8% annually for each of the last 30 years. Putting to practice the theory that individual lives are expendable for the greater long term good has indeed radically diminished the starvation that was rampant when Mao came to power and has groomed China to become one of the world's big financial powers.

The road to prosperity for China has been a brutal and ugly one. They put a lot of energy into the Olympics which I guess was nice of them and while they are tops in terms of population control, I do not think they are a force for good in the world. The extent to which we will be inevitably beholden to this nation, whose philosophy is so contrary to our own, is frightening. Burma is considered to be the second most corrupt country in the world. It is impossible to exert international economic pressure towards ushering in human rights there because China, with a huge "fuck you" to the civilized world and to human rights, continues to stuff the pockets of and provide arms to one of the cruelest dictatorships on the planet.

The United Nations, established Millennium Development Goals with benchmarks for the year 2015 in the areas of quality of life, governance, health-care, education, gender equity, disaster preparedness, infrastructure, economics, human rights and the environment. In 1964 a loose coalition of United Nation members called the Group of 77 formed in order to address problems specific to the third world. The group, which now numbers 130 nation members is charged recently with helping to implement the Millennium Development Goals. The leader nation of the group, due to pressure from China, in cahoots with the Organization of the Islamic Conference is currently Sudan. Yes, THAT Sudan, one of the most corrupt nations on the planet and the folks that brought us genocide in Darfur. China buys oil from Sudan and sells them weapons, about 80 million dollars worth of armaments in 2005 alone. I'm sure, despite their naughty little genocide that Sudan will provide great leadership that will herald enormous progress on the implementation of the millennium goals.

In 2005 China was elected to the presidency of the United Nations Security Council and has used its veto power against sanctioning Sudan and Burma and also the dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. They provided Mugabe arms necessary to carry through a rigged election and even some lovely blue tile for the roof of his palace. China also vetoed sanctions against Iran and sold them ten billion dollars worth of weapons in the year 2005. They also provided materials and guidance for the development of Iran's Shabab 3 and Shabab 4 ballistic missiles which could blow Europe to smithereens, and similarly were instrumental in Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons.

China provides weapons to maintain oppression in Nepal. North Korea depends on China for 2/3 of its fuel and 1/3 of its food. The favored weapon for street crime in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Africa is the Chinese manufactured Norinco pistol which is aggressively (black) marketed to generate billions of dollars in illegal income. In addition to facilitating mayhem and murder throughout the world, at home the Chinese have a shitty track record with democracy advocates, ethnic minorities, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim Ulghurs and human rights activists.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice inspired by Taoism and dedicated to the cultivation of virtue and character based on the principles of truth, compassion and forbearance. In 1999 10,000 Falun Gong members staged a silent protest at Communist headquarters. This led to a huge crackdown and it has been estimated that nearly 60% of Chinese forced laborers were incarcerated due to Falun Gong affiliation. Most distressing is that several completely reputable reports corroborate that many Falun Gong prisoners were executed and that their organs were routinely harvested and sold.

I still like that the idea of the one child policy but China seems also bent on reducing the population by supporting dictators who build palaces and gorge on caviar while their countrymen die of disease, disaster, famine or genocide, providing weapons to the least stable nations on the planet and murdering practitioners of a mild faith in order to profiteer on human livers, kidneys, eyes and hearts. And soon they will be holding a trillion dollar note signed by George W. Bush on behalf of the citizens of the United States.