The following table compares China with the U.S.:
.
.................................................China....................United States
Age......................................A million years??........ About 200 years
Size...................................9.598 million sq km......9.826 million sq km
Population.............................1,322 million...................302 million
GDP......................................$8,182 billion...............$13,000 billion
GDP/Capita...............................$6,300...........................$44,000
Military Expenditures................$81 billion......................$528 billion
Military Expenditures
Age......................................A million years??........ About 200 years
Size...................................9.598 million sq km......9.826 million sq km
Population.............................1,322 million...................302 million
GDP......................................$8,182 billion...............$13,000 billion
GDP/Capita...............................$6,300...........................$44,000
Military Expenditures................$81 billion......................$528 billion
Military Expenditures
as %GDP...................................4.3%*............................4.1%
China and the U.S., thus, are about the same in land area, with China having one billion more people than the U.S. (* The 4.3% for Chinese Military Expenditures as % of GDP comes straight from the CIA report, but a simple calculation of the above results in a figure of less than 1%, and my analysis shown below, using higher amounts than officially reported, also ends up around 1%.)
Additionally:
China and the U.S., thus, are about the same in land area, with China having one billion more people than the U.S. (* The 4.3% for Chinese Military Expenditures as % of GDP comes straight from the CIA report, but a simple calculation of the above results in a figure of less than 1%, and my analysis shown below, using higher amounts than officially reported, also ends up around 1%.)
Additionally:
........................................................China..............United States
Energy Consumption Ratio...................1..............................9
Tobacco Use.....................................36%.........................24%
Meat Consumption/Capita/Year.......104 pounds...........269 pounds
Paper Consumption/Capita/Year.......73 pounds............730 pounds
Water Use/Capita/Year................116,000 gallons....484,500 gallons
Vehicles/Capita..................................0.0016.....................0.774
The U.S. uses a lot more energy than China, but, because of the population disparity and the type of energy, Guardian Unlimited reported on June 19, 2007 that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Also because of the population difference, China eats more meat (67 million tons versus 38 million tons), consumes more grain (380 million tons to 260 million tons) and uses more steel (258 million tons versus 104 million tons) than the U.S. The Chinese internet population grew by 53% from 2007 to 2008 to 210 million, and will surge past the U.S. this year. As the economy further improves and censorship is relaxed, the growth should be even more spectacular. Oh yes, China already has more cell phones (461 million to 219 million), television sets and refrigerators. With only 12 million cars, versus 140 million for the U.S., China has 90,000 traffic deaths each year, while we kill less than 50,000 on our roads. I’ve been there. I believe it. Ah, my day in Hangzhou could just as well have been my last on Planet Earth. See Chapter 6.
Where China is truly trouncing the U.S. is in trade. First, a possible surprise…Germany is the #1 exporter. By mid-2006, China had supplanted the U.S. for #2, with exports surging by 27% from the previous year. Germany should be overtaken by 2009. The trade deficit between China and the U.S. in 2006 was $232 billion. China did increase overall imports by 20% in 2006 to $792 billion. So what did the U.S. do? We went to the World Trade Organization and complained. Okay, there are some valid copyright and patent issues worthy of resolution, but, the overall attitude should be to take stock of our deficiencies and rectify them.
To no one’s shock, here is the reason why China is so successful: low cost. But, higher quality is also a key. China exported $14 billion worth of furniture in 2006, surpassing Italy for #1. A beautiful executive chair from Italy wholesales for $348 in America. The Chinese price is $56, for essentially the same chair. A 23 year old farmer, Zhu Kanglin of Anjin, in 1993, begged, borrowed and persevered a sum of $3000 to start a chair factory. Today, he has 1000 different office chair models…not chairs, models. His workers toil up to 10 hours per day through six days a week to make $185/month. The equivalent Italian worker makes $1000/month.
Three particularly amazing examples of growth can be mentioned:
o Shenzhen, on the China side, was a fishing village of 25,000 in 1979, a short metro train to Hong Kong. As an experiment in capitalism, but using Chinese socialism, this location that year was designated as an industrial and business center, growing by 2008 to 9 million people living in town, with an additional 9 million in the immediate urban area.
o In 2002, China decided to convert the seedy gambling town (the only site with Hong Kong horse racing where gambling is allowed in China, although various mainland cites are now beginning to be approved) of Macau to compete with Las Vegas. In 2006, revenues of close to $7 billion surpassed Las Vegas, shot passed $10 billion in 2007, and surged beyond the State of Nevada in 2008, with Wynn Macau, MGM Mirage, the second Sands (the Venetian, with the world’s biggest casino), second Mirage and two Shangri-La/Traders leading the way. The 1400 gambling tables of 2006 will increase to 4,000 by 2009. The ten year plan is such that by 2012, the gambling revenues of Macau could well double that of Las Vegas. Sheldon Adelson of the Sands is the new Stanley Ho, although his daughter, Pansy Ho Chiu-king, is in partnership with Mirage. Adelson, though, is now in the midst of bankrupty. All of which galvanized Las Vegas to commit $40 billion by 2012 to build more magnificent palaces for their losers to spend more, as Macau only attracted 27 million victims last year, while Sin City drew 39 million. The Chinese lose more elaborately and quickly in craps, roulette and baccarat, while Americans contribute more slowly with slot machines, poker and black jack.
o In 1985, the U.S. and China both conferred 70,000 bachelor degrees in engineering. In 2000, the U.S. number dropped to 53,000 and China’s increased to 220,000. Worse yet, if you toss in Japan and South Korea, the bachelors degrees in engineering go up to 380,000. Then in 2008 this difference increased. Not that engineering is necessarily crucial to the future of a nation, but this growing discrepancy most definitely is a warning signal.
The economy should be the fear, but the singular apprehension about China seems to be as a dangerous military threat. So let’s look at defense expenditures. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation showed that the 2005 military budget for the United States was $419 billion, with Russia second at $65 billion and China third at $56 billion. The U.S. accounts for almost half the world military outlays, and alone exceeds the combined total of the next 42 highest spending countries. So the U.S. pays out seven and a half times more for the military than China, according to those figures, or 33 times more per capita.
It is said, though, that much of the China armed forces budget is hidden. In 2003, the published amount was $25 billion. The CIA said it could have been $65 billion, and, considering relative purchasing strength, perhaps as much as $114 billion. The U.S. Department of Defense, when reporting on their $419 billion budget for 2005, speculated that the Chinese actual amount was $90 billion. Even at that escalated level, the U.S. commits 4.6 times more than China on military expenditures. Thus, the U.S. spends 4.1% of our GDP on the military, while China’s percentage is 1.1%. Further, on a per capita basis, the U.S. sets aside $1638/person for defense, while China provides only $68/person. This is not the 33:1 ratio indicated in the previous paragraph, for the 24:1 figure uses data from a more suspicious source.
Worse yet, that U.S. budget above does not account for wars, nuclear weapons research and sundry other military-related items. For FY2008, President Bush has asked for $861 billion to cover the DOD, plus veterans’ affairs, homeland security and war costs. China announced its military budget for 2007 at $45 billion. Thus, on this basis, using official statistics, the U.S. spends nearly twenty times more than China for warfare. There must be a more effective way to wage peace than to ridiculously outspend your rivals.
So U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ questioning of Chinese officials on November 5, 2007, about why they are spending so much money on arms build-up could have had monumental impact if he had instead said, look, friends, the U.S. will reduce defense expenditures by $100 billion next year. You think you can cut yours by $10 billion? Now, that would be a Gorbachev-like one-upmanship that could have set the table for total disarmament in a decade. (My first Huffington Post article on May 29, 2008 treats this subject.)
China and the U.S. are both Republics. So is Iran. However, there are republics and there are republics. At least China appears to be on the road from dictatorship towards democracy.
-Energy Consumption Ratio...................1..............................9
Tobacco Use.....................................36%.........................24%
Meat Consumption/Capita/Year.......104 pounds...........269 pounds
Paper Consumption/Capita/Year.......73 pounds............730 pounds
Water Use/Capita/Year................116,000 gallons....484,500 gallons
Vehicles/Capita..................................0.0016.....................0.774
The U.S. uses a lot more energy than China, but, because of the population disparity and the type of energy, Guardian Unlimited reported on June 19, 2007 that China had overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Also because of the population difference, China eats more meat (67 million tons versus 38 million tons), consumes more grain (380 million tons to 260 million tons) and uses more steel (258 million tons versus 104 million tons) than the U.S. The Chinese internet population grew by 53% from 2007 to 2008 to 210 million, and will surge past the U.S. this year. As the economy further improves and censorship is relaxed, the growth should be even more spectacular. Oh yes, China already has more cell phones (461 million to 219 million), television sets and refrigerators. With only 12 million cars, versus 140 million for the U.S., China has 90,000 traffic deaths each year, while we kill less than 50,000 on our roads. I’ve been there. I believe it. Ah, my day in Hangzhou could just as well have been my last on Planet Earth. See Chapter 6.
Where China is truly trouncing the U.S. is in trade. First, a possible surprise…Germany is the #1 exporter. By mid-2006, China had supplanted the U.S. for #2, with exports surging by 27% from the previous year. Germany should be overtaken by 2009. The trade deficit between China and the U.S. in 2006 was $232 billion. China did increase overall imports by 20% in 2006 to $792 billion. So what did the U.S. do? We went to the World Trade Organization and complained. Okay, there are some valid copyright and patent issues worthy of resolution, but, the overall attitude should be to take stock of our deficiencies and rectify them.
To no one’s shock, here is the reason why China is so successful: low cost. But, higher quality is also a key. China exported $14 billion worth of furniture in 2006, surpassing Italy for #1. A beautiful executive chair from Italy wholesales for $348 in America. The Chinese price is $56, for essentially the same chair. A 23 year old farmer, Zhu Kanglin of Anjin, in 1993, begged, borrowed and persevered a sum of $3000 to start a chair factory. Today, he has 1000 different office chair models…not chairs, models. His workers toil up to 10 hours per day through six days a week to make $185/month. The equivalent Italian worker makes $1000/month.
Three particularly amazing examples of growth can be mentioned:
o Shenzhen, on the China side, was a fishing village of 25,000 in 1979, a short metro train to Hong Kong. As an experiment in capitalism, but using Chinese socialism, this location that year was designated as an industrial and business center, growing by 2008 to 9 million people living in town, with an additional 9 million in the immediate urban area.
o In 2002, China decided to convert the seedy gambling town (the only site with Hong Kong horse racing where gambling is allowed in China, although various mainland cites are now beginning to be approved) of Macau to compete with Las Vegas. In 2006, revenues of close to $7 billion surpassed Las Vegas, shot passed $10 billion in 2007, and surged beyond the State of Nevada in 2008, with Wynn Macau, MGM Mirage, the second Sands (the Venetian, with the world’s biggest casino), second Mirage and two Shangri-La/Traders leading the way. The 1400 gambling tables of 2006 will increase to 4,000 by 2009. The ten year plan is such that by 2012, the gambling revenues of Macau could well double that of Las Vegas. Sheldon Adelson of the Sands is the new Stanley Ho, although his daughter, Pansy Ho Chiu-king, is in partnership with Mirage. Adelson, though, is now in the midst of bankrupty. All of which galvanized Las Vegas to commit $40 billion by 2012 to build more magnificent palaces for their losers to spend more, as Macau only attracted 27 million victims last year, while Sin City drew 39 million. The Chinese lose more elaborately and quickly in craps, roulette and baccarat, while Americans contribute more slowly with slot machines, poker and black jack.
o In 1985, the U.S. and China both conferred 70,000 bachelor degrees in engineering. In 2000, the U.S. number dropped to 53,000 and China’s increased to 220,000. Worse yet, if you toss in Japan and South Korea, the bachelors degrees in engineering go up to 380,000. Then in 2008 this difference increased. Not that engineering is necessarily crucial to the future of a nation, but this growing discrepancy most definitely is a warning signal.
The economy should be the fear, but the singular apprehension about China seems to be as a dangerous military threat. So let’s look at defense expenditures. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation showed that the 2005 military budget for the United States was $419 billion, with Russia second at $65 billion and China third at $56 billion. The U.S. accounts for almost half the world military outlays, and alone exceeds the combined total of the next 42 highest spending countries. So the U.S. pays out seven and a half times more for the military than China, according to those figures, or 33 times more per capita.
It is said, though, that much of the China armed forces budget is hidden. In 2003, the published amount was $25 billion. The CIA said it could have been $65 billion, and, considering relative purchasing strength, perhaps as much as $114 billion. The U.S. Department of Defense, when reporting on their $419 billion budget for 2005, speculated that the Chinese actual amount was $90 billion. Even at that escalated level, the U.S. commits 4.6 times more than China on military expenditures. Thus, the U.S. spends 4.1% of our GDP on the military, while China’s percentage is 1.1%. Further, on a per capita basis, the U.S. sets aside $1638/person for defense, while China provides only $68/person. This is not the 33:1 ratio indicated in the previous paragraph, for the 24:1 figure uses data from a more suspicious source.
Worse yet, that U.S. budget above does not account for wars, nuclear weapons research and sundry other military-related items. For FY2008, President Bush has asked for $861 billion to cover the DOD, plus veterans’ affairs, homeland security and war costs. China announced its military budget for 2007 at $45 billion. Thus, on this basis, using official statistics, the U.S. spends nearly twenty times more than China for warfare. There must be a more effective way to wage peace than to ridiculously outspend your rivals.
So U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ questioning of Chinese officials on November 5, 2007, about why they are spending so much money on arms build-up could have had monumental impact if he had instead said, look, friends, the U.S. will reduce defense expenditures by $100 billion next year. You think you can cut yours by $10 billion? Now, that would be a Gorbachev-like one-upmanship that could have set the table for total disarmament in a decade. (My first Huffington Post article on May 29, 2008 treats this subject.)
China and the U.S. are both Republics. So is Iran. However, there are republics and there are republics. At least China appears to be on the road from dictatorship towards democracy.
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