Xinhua News: Guizhou’s New Bridge Opens
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The New Old China
China Deflation. . .
The Covid Crackdown and now the trade war have created massive issues for the Beijing economy. How will the US and China work together to get through this? We have seen how the old round robin of revenge works in trade wars. We see some preNixon China emerging and we don’t know if the US and China are drifting apart or closer together. Deflation in China is nothing to sneeze at though:
China’s falling prices are a more profound problem than U.S. inflation (yahoo.com)
US Congress and China
An ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”
What about doing business in China. Here is food for thought:
U.S. trade with China has declined, even as Beijing deals with strains on its own economy.
US Congress on Business in China
Admin:
I try to stay out of politics with the Toiurguizhou Web site. After ten years in business, this is the only “Dot Com” I know of that isn’t blocked. Well this last post might be considered a little political, but desperate times call for desperate measures . . .
Why?
One of the best performers ever.
One of the best performers I ever saw in China was about 2004 in Guiyang. Her concert was sold out and was supposed to start at 8pm. But first, the introductions:
There were a massive number of important party officials that needed to be introduced before the concert. I was impatient because I saw a storm moving in and there were about 10,000 people in the stadium, all waiting in anticipation. I thought it would be a huge storm and I thought we would get drenched. A good friend of mine was the translator.
The host read the life story of each official, maybe 20, and my friend translated. My friend was an excellent translator and said her translation for each official was about 10 or 20 words, when the Chinese version was 100 or 200 words for each person. When I teased her later about her abbreviated translations, she said: “Nobody cares about the introductions . . .” She was right. These introductions went on a really long time, over a half an hour. Then the warm up band played a little while, and then Coco finally came on about 10 PM. There was a huge storm on 3 sides of the stadium and I had hoped it would pass.
Coco was fearless and came out as it started raining, and then the lightening. There was a lot of lightening. Finally a big lightening bolt hit nearby and took out a lot of lights. The complete sound system was burnt up. Oh well. I heard 15 minutes or so. It was another adventure finding my ride home, but that is another story.
Coco was a huge star. It is such a shame to lose her.
Keeping up with China
This article details youth unemployment. Weakness in the Chinese economy is feared:
China’s youth unemployment hits a record high, deepening its economic scars
Condi and Hillary along with Jon Stewart
This is a pretty good article . . .
The Ultimate Competitor
During the Beijing Winter, Olympics February 4 to February 20, 2022, I was watching sports on TV and, of course the news. In the middle of those two weeks of competition I saw the Russian leader show up in Beijing. He wasn’t there to cheer on the Russian Olympic Team. He came to talk about friendship and alliances with the Chinese leader. Ukraine was on their minds and perhaps a little “Chinese Island” which was wrongfully separated from the mainland. These two guys announced that they were friends and would be working together going forward. That little Chinese island was really part of China, as much as the Ukraine was really part of Russia . . . same, same.
I remember thinking “What are they doing here?” The Russian team has been banned for cheating in prior Olympics. Perhaps the Chinese leader was using the Olympics as a prop, a “media event” to call attention to the friendship of the two countries. Russia and China were going forward into the future as cooperating friends. That made sense. Russia has natural resources and a lot of land. An alliance between China and Russia would be mutually advantageous. What better way to advertise this alliance than with the Olympics?
Still I was put off by the Russian Leader, a “Notorious Thumper” and a cheat, coming to share the limelight at one of the greatest competitions of good will in the world. The Olympics, the event that had banned the Russian Team.. Do we know what the two leaders were planning? Perhaps another media spectacle to call attention to themselves. We don’t know, but they were very likely planning something . . .
“Sports” is an activity that is used to promote human accomplishment, the ultimate competition. Yet we have other competitions as humans, like education, the arts, science, and technology. All of these go better with teamwork. Almost every aspect of human culture and accomplishment goes better with teamwork. I will always remember a music teacher that I met at Oakland University who told me that no matter how good of a musician thatyou are, you are still limited. You can’t make music as well as a good band when all the musicians are “on,” a TEAM.
We have seen this kind of teamwork create excellence, greater than one person can achieve. We have teachers traversing the world, creating the best education. We have seen this in science and technology when smart people from all countries work together, collaborating to advance humanity. These competitions are making better lives for us all when we do it right. It takes more than one person to create a blockbuster movie that spans cultures around the world. This is where communications technology shines. “The Media” can enhance our lives, make a lot of money, as well as promote friendships, teamwork, and competition.
But what commands more attention and makes the most money? No more dancing around this subject . . . The biggest competition is:
Lyrics:
War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh
War huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again y’all
War, huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
Oh, war, I despise
‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives
I said
War, huh good God y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, just say it again
War whoa Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Oh war, is an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction, then destruction who wants to die
War, good God, y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, say it, say it
War, uh huh, yeah, huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker
War, it’s got one friend that’s the undertaker
Oh, war has shattered many young man’s dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can’t give life it can only take it away, ooh
War, huh, good God y’all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding tell me
Is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there’s got to be a better way
War, huh, good God y’all
What is it good for?
You tell ’em, say it, say it, say it, say it
War, good Lord, huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it, nothing
War, it ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker
Back from the Dead ! From Guiyang with Love
“Back from the Dead!
Dear Reader, In case you wondered – no, Laoguiyang isn’t quite dead yet. Perhaps you thought, after having read the last post on this…”
Check It Out
https://www.fromguiyangwithlove.com/
{
Thank you so much for posting. As far as “Back from the Dead”, remember that its never over until its over, and then its still not over; Not until you say it is. ! I was retired by old age and COVID to living in Northern Michigan, but I still love Guiyang.
Hang in there. You are doing great work.
Jack
(Admin of Tourguizhou.com)
}
Werewolves of Huaguoyuan
Starve people, lock them up on the night of a full moon, call
it a “festival”, and the werewolves were bound to come out:
Huaguoyuan is having some trouble.
Li Xin, Sixth Tone, 9-8-22
Guiyang Lockdown Makes a Supersized Community Go Hungry
Sixth Tone
Residents at Huaguoyuan Community say they are running out of food amid COVID-19 restrictions.Residents of a supersized housing complex in the southwestern Guizhou province, also known as Asia’s largest residential community, have complained of dwindling food supplies and hunger amid the COVID-19 lockdown in a familiar story that has played out in several cities over the past months.
Several residents at Guiyang’s Huaguoyuan Community, which is home to 500,000 people, said they were either running out of supplies or had gone without any food for few days after their compounds were locked down Saturday, according to social media posts. Some have even made desperate pleas to neighbors asking for any leftover food.
“An older resident at Huaguoyuan Area 1 hasn’t eaten anything for three days,” read a screenshot from messaging app WeChat posted on microblogging platform Weibo. “Please help to spread the word out or send some food.”
The city of Guiyang has reported 301 coronavirus cases as of Wednesday in the latest flare-up that has triggered lockdowns in other parts of southwest China, including cities in Sichuan province and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Around 23% of the city’s symptomatic cases were linked to the housing complex, local authorities said, as several districts and communities remained cordoned off Thursday.
Lockdowns, along with passport-like health codes, have been an integral part of China’s “zero-COVID” policy since the start of the pandemic. Several major cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Sanya have gone into lockdowns in the past nine months alone, with some 33 cities currently under some form of restriction, according to Caixin Global.
Such restrictions have often resulted in the disruption of supply chains, hindering logistics and deliveries of daily essentials. On Wednesday, Guiyang’s pandemic control committee apologized to Huaguoyuan residents, pledging to improve distribution and resolve food shortage issues.
Located in downtown Nanming District, Huaguoyuan claims to be China’s largest urban village redevelopment project and has a total construction area of 18.3 million square meters. The compound has become Guiyang’s major tourism landmark, featuring a shopping mall resembling the White House and hundreds of high-rise buildings.
The lockdown in Huaguoyuan has drawn the ire of users on social media, with many sympathizing with residents and criticizing the local government’s food distribution plan. A related hashtag on Weibo has been viewed over 12 million times as of Thursday afternoon.
“This is surreal. We live in 2022 and yet there are people starving in provincial capital cities like Guiyang,” commented a Weibo user surnamed Lin under a local media report.