树房子游客指南

 登录 | 注册 | English | DE/FR
 

导航

搜索

用户登录

新进会员

主页 » 论坛 » Main » General

Interesting China articles on Economist

‹ sofa folds out into bunk bed Bird flu ›
作者消息
mod

Joined: 2005-04-24
Points: 648
*Posted：由 wtanaka (648) 于 周四, 2005-11-17 22:19 提交。 | 主题：Interesting China articles on Economist

Two pretty interesting articles on the Economist about China.  This well-written but unfortunately titled article about Bush's visit to China this weekend gives a good overview of the background to the meeting.  This got a chuckle out of me:

Mr Bush isn’t short of opinions on China’s rise either. In Kyoto this week, on the first leg of his Asian tour, he said: “As China reforms its economy, its leaders are finding that once the door to freedom is opened even a crack, it cannot be closed.” He went on to heap lavish praise on Taiwan’s democracy, in a move sure to irritate his hosts in China, who consider the island to be a renegade province.

And this other one is about a rogue copper trader who has put China in debt 100,000-200,000 tons of copper -- copper which the country seemingly doesn't have available to deliver.  The trader (one Mr. Liu) has disappeared, and some sources say his company denied that a Mr Liu even worked there.

Back to top
mod

Joined: 2005-04-24
Points: 648
*Posted：周一, 2005-11-21 08:18 | 主题：this page has an interesting

this page has an interesting perspective on the whole talking heads charade that heads of state go through, and has a comment about the part of Mr. Bush's speech quoted above.

And I think there's this tacit "wink wink" in this speech. Bush is saying "Ok, I'm just going to give my usual democracy-is-good-for-you speech, but please understand this is just a formality that I have to go through." And China is saying "Ok, just go ahead with whatever you have to do, and then let's talk real business, like trade/textile imports/taiwan, etc". So both sides understand each other very well Smile

Case in point, right after the 1989 Tianamen Incident, the Senior Bush wrote to Deng Xiaoping in a private/secret letter that the US wants to continue the economic relationship with China, but for domestic consumption, he has no choice but to condemn China publicly and cut off certain ties for symbolic and political purposes. He said in his letter (paraphrase) "There's no way I can go on like nothing happened, certain sanctions will have to be taken, but please understand that we don't want to fundamentally disrupt our relationship." Deng Xiaoping something like , "Yea, we understand, you do what you have to do."

# Back to top
mod
avatar
Joined: 2005-09-21
Points: 179
*Posted：周一, 2005-11-21 09:21 | 主题：Understanding is mature.  

Understanding is mature. Mr. Green

 

# Back to top
mod

Joined: 2005-04-24
Points: 648
*Posted：周五, 2005-11-25 19:15 | 主题：They admit it now.

 They admit it now.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Nov. 24 -- China on Thursday acknowledged that a since-detained government trader placed a series of disastrous bets on the price of copper in London this summer, leaving the state to cover hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, according to a report in official Chinese media.

Turns out the trader was working for the government directly.

As the price of copper climbed, Liu's supervisors apparently pressured him to double his bets in hopes that an eventual drop in the price would erase his losses, lest they provoke scrutiny from higher up, said a source familiar with the case. A merely bad bet ballooned into a disaster.

the article explains it all in more layman terms than the economist article.

# Back to top
隐私 | 联系方式 | 推荐酷地方