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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Aug-2012
27-Aug-12 World View -- China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

Web Log - August, 2012

27-Aug-12 World View -- China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

Angola sends 37 Chinese gangsters back to China

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Angola sends 37 Chinese gangsters back to China
Angola's Chinese-built ghost town
Germany's Angela Merkel tries to halt anti-Greece panic
China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

Angola sends 37 Chinese gangsters back to China

Chinese gangsters being escored off a plane in Beijing (Xinhua)

Chinese gangsters being escored off a plane in Beijing (Xinhua)

Angola has extradited 37 Chinese "gangsters" back to China, accused of extortion, human trafficking, kidnappings, armed robberies and running prostitution rings. After hearing for most of my life about "the ugly Americans," it's now the turn of the Chinese to be ugly. There are some 250,000 Chinese migrants working on various construction jobs in different countries, according to a BBC report that I heard. They don't mingle much with the local population, so they lead very lonely lives, and they need to be "serviced" (the BBC commentator's word) with such things as prostitution and gambling. There's already a lot of organized crime in China itself, and it's followed the Chinese construction workers to Africa. The 37 extradited Chinese are charged with various crimes. They allegedly targeted other Chinese, kidnapping businessmen for ransom and sometimes burying victims alive. They lured women to Angola, promising well-paid jobs, but then forced them into prostitution. China Daily and BBC

Angola's Chinese-built ghost town

Just as China's organized crime is following the Chinese workers to Africa, so is China's real estate bubble and ghost cities. Kilamba is one of several new ghost cities being built by Chinese construction firms around Angola. It spans 5000 hectares (12,355 acres), it consists of 750 eight-story apartment buildings, a dozen schools and more than 100 retail units. It was designed to house up to half a million people when complete, but the apartments cost $120-200,000, while the average Angolan earns less than $2 per day. So the apartments are almost all empty, and likely to remain so. BBC

Germany's Angela Merkel tries to halt anti-Greece panic

September is expected to be a crucial month in the euro crisis. Greece has already had two bailouts, and now a third one is being discussed. Over the summer most people realized that that won't be enough, and in fact that nothing will be enough, and so it's becoming increasingly discussed, especially in Germany, that Greece should leave the eurozone, and go back to the drachma currency. It's not that everyone wants this to happen; it's that the politicians and bankers are coming to believe that it's a smaller disaster than the alternative of trying to keep on bailing out Greece. On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to quell the growing panic by emphatically stating that Greece must remain in the eurozone:

"We are in a very decisive phase in combating the euro debt crisis. My plea is that everyone weigh their words very carefully."

This was two days after Greece's prime minister Antonis Samaras said:

"Toxic statements, from wherever they come, can only do damage. Is there any businessman who will make an investment in euros to get it back in drachmas? The recovery of the economy is of critical importance if we are to achieve our goals."

However, Merkel also said that Greece will not get any further bailout money unless it sticks to its austerity commitments, while Samaras is begging for a two-year delay in the austerity measures, something that would require an additional 22 billion euros in bailout money. So, in fact, the two leaders are about as far apart as they can be at this point.

There's been relatively little news about the euro crisis recently because everyone in Europe is on vacation in August. But that should be changing soon, as the crisis enters what Merkel calls a "decisive phase." . Bloomberg and Deutsche Welle

China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

According to China's state-sponsored China Daily:

"By any standard, the US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's China policy, as outlined on his official campaign website, is an outdated manifestation of a Cold War mentality.
It endorses the "China threat" theory and focuses on containing China's rise in the Asia-Pacific through bolstering the robust US military presence in the region.
And by stating that the US "should be coordinating with Taiwan to determine its military needs and supplying them with adequate aircraft and other military platforms", the Republican challenger has also gone so far as to provoke China over its sovereignty of the island."

So here we have a nation, China, which for well over a decade has been preparing a massive military buildup for an attack on the United States, which has been developing long-range missiles specifically designed to attack American cities, which has developed an anti-carrier missile specifically designed to destroy American aircraft carriers, which has threatened all of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific and central Asia with vast military threats designed to confiscate their land (Hitler's Lebensraum policy). But every time anyone points out this massive military buildup, or China's obvious intention to launch a nuclear missile attack on the United States, they're called a "war monger" with a Cold War mentality. Be prepared for peace in our time. China Daily

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 27-Aug-12 World View -- China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality' thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (27-Aug-2012) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Aug-2012 27-Aug-12 World View -- China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

Angola sends 37 Chinese gangsters back to China

Angola's Chinese-built ghost town

Germany's Angela Merkel tries to halt anti-Greece panic

China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Aug-2012
27-Aug-12 World View -- China condemns Mitt Romney's 'Cold War mentality'