We Aren't Getting Anywhere

From what I experienced during the conference I can say one thing, I'm surprised we get anything done at any kind of conferences where countries are together. I believe that it is impossible for there to be a unanimous vote on any subject matter. Every country has their own agenda, which generally includes what is best for that country. The only way there will ever be a unanimous vote is if countries look out for each other,which will never happen. There has to be a majority vote for any voting to be successful or else nothing will get done. I can't give out numbers of the majority percentage but I do know it has to be well over 50% so less countries are angry of the outcome. The issue about climate change is that countries don't really care. We are silly putting a bandwidth on a wound that requires stitches. Climate change seems to be more of a crowd pleaser than an actual issue countries want to fix. I believe countries should address the issue immediately but I know it won't happen. We aren't really thinking about the future as a whole instead we are focused on the present for a variety of reasons. We need an agency to regulate GHG and there definitely has to be a cap on it as well. Even if there was a cap we would only be stalling the inevitable because we would still not be doing enough.

India will slow the emission of greenhouse gases. However, India will not stop the emissions to the point that it is inhibiting its growth as a country. We will also improve our efforts in reducing emission if Western countries provide financial and technological assistance. India will only slow down the emission of greenhouse gases to the extent of the aid. India would also like for developed countries to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases more than they have already stated. Developing countries should not be the ones cutting back back on emissions as much as developed countries because developed countries were the ones that caused climate change and were the ones that emitted the most greenhouse gases throughout their path to becoming developed. India will not affect the growth of itself because of demands from other countries.

Podcast. Walter and Daniel

http://audioboo.fm/boos/752592

Insert Clever Title Here

We are incredibly lucky that China loves us. China needs the US just like the US needs China. China currently holds $900 billion USD that is not make believe like the other money circulating around the world. China would absolutely be foolish to release all that money to reduce the worth of the dollar. If the dollar decreases in value, so does the yuan which would be catastrophic for China because it is pegged. However, China could always peg another currency or simply let the yuan float if the US somehow angered China to the point that they would want to drop an imaginary nuke on us. Hypothetically speaking if China were to let loose all the USD then that would hurt both economies. If the dollar decreases in value, less Chinese goods will be imported because the yuan would be much stronger than the dollar, assuming it is no longer pegged. China would then lose one of its largest costumers, thus hurting their own economy. Releasing the $900 billion dollars would be foolish and would only cause unnecessary conflicts because I'm 100% certain of it were to ever happen the US would simply not stay quiet.
As for the bonds, **** the older generation. That is all.

Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Everyone wants to take the blue pill, no one wants to take the red pill because they're scared or they simply do not want to face the truth. The United States is in an absolutely terrible position regarding their debt. No one will be happy with any plan to cut into the debt. To erase this debt people are going to pay, and pay a lot. The problem is, is that no one wants to pay. Everyone wants to take the blue pill and continue to allow the debt to increase or they believe the debt crisis will solve itself. Majority of the US's population is currently high on the amount of blue pills they are currently taking, but what would the image be if we handed out unhealthy amounts of red pills instead?

If everyone was hopped up on red pills instead they would see that social security is a complete mess. People are living longer and the baby boom generation all want to retire. The nice thing to do is to allow the old people to retire because they have paid their dues, however since we all need money for our red pills we're going to tell them to continue to work and retire later. In the process we hope that it stalls the amount of spending on social security (hopefully some perish...we're all thinking it). Now we need to raise taxes and anger the entire population. Oh no! There goes our drug money, but everyone needs to make sacrifices and this will increase the amount of revenue that the US takes in. Next we tax corporate companies and prevent them from using loop holes to avoid taxes. There is a chance they outsource, however if China lets the yuan float then they could lower the amount of outsourced labor in China, but companies could outsource to countries like Vietnam instead. Next we notice that we're spending $700 billion on defense when the next closest country is not eclipsing $200 billion. We cut spending on defense and cause many people to lose their jobs, but it is a sacrifice that needs to be made for the future. Once everything starts to balance out eventually the blue pill will become reality, but that will probably never happen. 

I was imagining the fight between Neo vs Smiths while writing this which is why this blog post is most likely choppy. 

Would a universal currency work?

What if I told you there is going to be a universal currency called the Doan one day? Chances are you wouldnt believe me and rightfully so because no one would ever agree to a universal currency. Why wouldn't countries agre on a universal currency? The reason why I believe countries would not all agree to a universal currency is because with it there would be less competition between countries. Less competition is not the only bad factor in a universal currency but implementing one would be near impossible. If there was a universal currency poorer countries would be in danger because people would simply not be able to afford anything. Another factor is that a lone country could screw up the value of the Doan, which would cause a ripple effect to everyone in the world because everyone has the same currency. A universal currency most likely will never work, but our currency system now is not working either. Putting the faith of the value of currency in the hands of the people was never a smart idea which can be seen from contagion. People tend to panic when it comes to money and they act on impulse rather than reason. There should have been no reason for Thailand to affect all of those other countries but the reason why it did was because people panicked and quickly lost faith. There are many other issues with the system we have now such as how banking works and how easy it is for countries to conceal how much money they really have. I believe the current system we have is here to stay.

Glogster

http://www.glogster.com/doanish/us-china-relations/g-6lmfirbpq4lgpri90itesa0

Fun Definitions For All

Terms

GDP- gross domestic production. Amount of profit made by products being exported. 14.59 is US and 5.93 China, in trillions.

Import- Products bought from outside of the country and taken in. US 227 billion, 122.7 billion

Export- Products shipped out of a country to buyers. US 178 billion, 149.9 billion

Tariff- a tax placed on a good being traded so the economy of the importing country remains the same.

Trade Surplus- extra good left over after a country has exported goods.

Trade Deficit- when a country does not meet the demand of another country who would like to import their products.

Treasury Bond- marketable fixed interest US govt. debt security with a maturity of more than 10 years.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)- investment made in a company in a foreign country. CHINA 143 billion.

Budget Deficit- spending more money than you have. US 15.5 trillion, 1.9 trillion

Foreign Currency Reserve- deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities. US 148.5 billion, China 3181 billion

Currency Exchange- exchange rate of different currency from one system to another. Money can lose value or gain value based on country you are in so money is exchanged to make it easier.

Subsidy (subsidies)- government buys a product so it can be selled at a constant price.

Did Clinton Know What He Was Doing?

During this week for class I was questioning whether or not Clinton knew what he was doing with China. I wondered if he was some sort of mastermind with a very elaborate plan or he was just insanely lucky. It seemed that Clinton just purposely tried to piss off China. He would actually make demands from China unlike the other presidents. The other presidents would spoon feed China. The odd thing about Clinton is that he made demands from China when they needed America the least. The other presidents made did not make many demands from China but rather they gave China everything they wanted. China was in no position to make demands from America but America still gave in to their demands every time. It is possible that Clinton also had the luxury of mainly focusing on the economical side of the relationship which aided in his more upfront stance with China. I believe that Clinton had no real master plan but he was the only president that stood his ground against China. His stance and time of power was the reason for his short term success with China. I believe China knew they could not persuade Clinton S easily compared to the other presidents.

Bill Clinton

1) Clinton had visited Taiwan many times before he was president. He was not exactly familiar with foreign policy, however he was experienced with business affairs. Overall he had more experience with Taiwan than China.

2) Barad pretty much told Clinton that without the MFN on China, many American companies would suffer greatly.

3) Human rights improvements for Taiwan and then the US would pull back from the new Taiwan policies.

4) Congress was pushing to renew the MFN status, but Clinton ordered his executives to make it appear as if Congress was trying to revoke the MFN status. The reason for this is so Clinton would have more leverage when asking for demands from China. China wanted more from MFN, but decided not to speak out because it would be a sign of disrespect.

5) The American business community was rushing to Beijing to invest in the market. Over 6700 new foreign contracts in China were American. China was and is leading the world business community because no other country attracted more attention from businesses.

6) The US imposes military sanctions on China for selling M-11 missile parts to Pakistan. This did not sit well with the business community because it hurt the companies who signed contracted with China. The business community complained and spoke out against the sanctions.

7) The US is worried about North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which caused Clinton to be less confrontational with China because China still had relations with North Korea.

8) The Clinton admonistration remained neutral, but Warren Christopher sent human rights information to the International Olympic Committee.

9) The Clinton administration changes it policy which would mean they "would be willing to talk to the Chinese at all levels of government and on a wide range of subjects."

10) I believe China would be cautious when talking to the US from now on because now they would have to talk more about their issues and it is known that China had many internal issues that should be addressed. The US would be seen as stronger because now that have shown China that they have less issues to deal with and they were the ones who opened up the talks.

I wish I was a true Asian

The film 2MM clearly shows the difference in work ethics of American, Indian, and Chinese high school students. It is clearly evident that American high school students on average do not even compare to the determination of their Indian and Chinese counterparts. The reason why is because majority of American students are not meant to be the saviors of their families but rather we are encouraged to do something we love for a career. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing something you love for a career, in fact that is something everyone should be able to do but not everyone can. The reason why Americans can do it is because majority of Americans are not expected to provide for their parents and extended family. Not only are Americans not expected to do that but they do not have the pressures of being that person in the family that will be the one who will move out of the lower class. I am well aware of the fact that not all Americans have this luxury, it would be foolish of me to think so because not everyone does, in fact a large population doesn't have this luxury. This begs the question of why students in America, that are not as priveledged as their peers, do not work as hard as those in China and India. My answer that I have come up with within a minute because I need to get this in by 12 is competition. Could be a half-a**ed response but I believe it to be true. The reason why there are so many workaholics (not abad term in my book) in China and India is because their peers are working at an amazingly high level so they have to work just as hard, if not harder, to ensure that they will be successful. Put that Indian or Chinese student in America and I am willing to bet my daily clementines for lunch that that student will not work as hard the moment they see their peers work ethics. This could also be because America's education system is utter trash and to graduate high school can be done in pajamas at home. The workload that American students have more educational purposes is much lower than India's and China's. Lastly to make sure people do not get the impression that I believe Americans are lazy slobs (even though I believe it is true for the most part) I will say this, American students are just as intelligent as any other students in te world, but they are not as geared as their counterparts towards education. I would also like to add that I consider myself a lazy slob compared to the Asian students on 2MM.

The US loves China!

The US had continued to give China resources and help for what seems to be, nothing. When Deng Xiaoping came to power the US had already created a relationship with China, so why do we continue to help them for nothing? During all this the US once again throws Taiwan like a rag doll, only to pick them up again and cuddle it for days. It seems to me like the US is constantly digging enough for all the times they royally screw up. Why continue to constantly dig your own grave? There could be many things that motivated the US. Two main factors that stick out are money and legacy. Money is a huge factor because china's market potential is easily the best in the world, however at that moment China was in terrible shape. To fix that the US helped China recover and in doing so they potentially befriended a country whose market potentially is nearly endless. Legacy plays an important role in the US's activity with China. The previous presidents wanted to connect with China. They connected to Chins through unconstitutional methods. In my opinion the fact that presidents are going through extreme measures to start or continue a relationship with China by breaking the rules reveals how egotistical they were. They could of done it for their legacies or they simply took a shot while blond folded, hoping they would strike gold with China when they read the adventures of a Italian man. All of these factors could have played a role, but one thing is for sure, the US clearly had no idea what they were doing.

The Forbidden Country (terrible reference to the city)

Nixon's visit is what I would describe as very gutsy. First the fact that he had been planning this visit for years shows how much he wanted relations with China. China was essentially taboo back then because they considered themselves as a communist country. The amount of preparation Noxon's super secret circle was ridiculous. Even after Kissinger's visit in China, Nixon didn't visit china until two years later. During his message to the US, Nixon had to choose his words carefully because he did not want the public to know he really wanted to go to China. When he got to China he brought a plethora of reporters, but the Chinese distracted the reporters by sending them to the various tourist sites. Nixon then left out his good friend, the secretary of state in a meeting with Mao. In his old friend's place was Kissinger's assistant. Even after all the sketchy things Nixon had done to get to China, it was still a success. The US started relations with China and they did not give Taiwan. It is important to note that the US treated Taiwan like an ex girlfriend, but then started a new loving relationship with them again. In the beginning it looked appeared as if the US was giving too much, but they didn't really end up giving up anything. In the end China got trolled terribly. I hope you know what trolled means, if you don't ignore that last sentence.

China Holds Grudges

China holds grudges for long periods of times. Not only that, they use the past actions of other countries against them. I simply picture China as a child who wants something from their parents. Here's a fun dialogue of China being the child and some random country being the parents:
Mom: Wang I will not buy you a new math book!
Child: But remember when you threw away my old notebook by accident?
Mom: It was an accident and you don't need more math books!
Child: it was my favorite notebook and it's only fair you buy me an expensive math book!

Alternate endings

Mom: Fine,whatever heres an advanced math textbook.

Or

Mom: GTFO

Mao was a complete tyrant when he ruled. He created his vision of China through nondiplomatic means, but instead used force and deception. He would kill those who opposed him and with the combination of paranoia and immense power you have one of the most ruthless rulers in history. His power and paranoia allowed him to gain and maintain power for awhile because it didn't allow anyone to catch up to him or oppose him.

Go against China would be like me fighting Nico...wouldn't work

The United States should be friends with China. The reason why is because the US is in debt with China and China is a very powerful country as well. It is also important to note that the US is royally messing up their relations with other countries. Causing a huge rift with China would not be an ideal move or situation that the US would like to be in because of the power China has. Another important aspect to factor in is that the US imports many products from China and the US also takes advantage of the cheap labor that China has to offer. Overall being stronger allies with China would benefit the US more than hurt it.