The United States is Finlandized out of fear of China to Dragoon into Policies that takes Beijing’ interests into Account.

Here is Some Mindsteroid Must-Read from letters@chronicle.utah.edu. There’s little to fear.
As future leaders of the United States, it’s important for students to study historical phenomena. This can educate upcoming leaders on world trends to avoid in the future.
One such phenomenon swept small, yet strategically significant states during the Cold War. The term “Finlandization” refers to the Soviet Union holding power over Finland’s foreign policy during the war.
Moscow used its military power, coupled with the West’s disinclination, to defend small states like Finland, to dragoon Finns into policies that took Moscow’s interests into account.
If the United States is not careful, it risks Finlandizing with respect to China for economic reasons. That is, it risks purporting friendliness toward the Chinese outwardly because it fears China’s power secretly.
China runs stabalization process on its currency, which guarantees that the Yuan trades within certain parameters. This process involves China extracting dollars from its trade surplus. Normally, these dollars would be sold in the foreign exchange market, which would drive down the price of the dollar. However, to counteract this, China eats up U.S. Treasuries bonds. When the dollar decreases in value, China buys Treasuries bonds to reinforce it.
These economic facts permit China to manipulate its currency free from reproach. They conflate to give China a sort of financial nuclear option against the United States, and force the United States into policy making from China’s back pocket.
Congress should enact an excise tax on imported Chinese goods, and should forbid the Chinese government from making further purchases of U.S. Treasuries. These actions would level the playing field in trade practices, crack down on currency manipulation and reduce the risk of Finlandization.
Some forecast a trade war with China in the event that Congress sanctions the state. Others wonder how the United States would be able to finance its debt if China is not there to buy Treasury bonds. As for the latter, according to a World Bank report, China hasn’t bought U.S. Treasury bonds at as rapid a pace in recent years, making it unlikely that the United States would suffer if it forbade China from bond purchases.
The former fear derives from a more basic fear, namely, that China is becoming the world’s economic superpower. It is true that China’s economy could soon eclipse the U.S. economy in terms of gross domestic product. With 1.29 billion people — four times the population of the United States — China should have a larger economy, if it is remotely efficient.
The more relevant figure is the purchasing power parity, which takes into account standard of living and the value of produced goods. Here, the United States, with a PPP of $48,147, is worlds ahead of China, whose PPP is just $8,394.
China’s economic growth is overstated. The country still heavily relies on state-owned industries; that is, it props up certain sectors of the economy while punishing others. It is not sufficiently capitalist to support its current rate of expansion.
China moved precipitately from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. The same transition made long-term growth impossible for the Soviets. China’s labor laws are lax, as are its environmental regulations. Both workers and the environment are degraded, which affects growth rates, according to the World Bank. China’s economy is export-based, too, and features low consumer demand; slow economies elsewhere in the world or self-sufficient states pose a threat to China’s growth.
Regime type also matters. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show in “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty” that economic growth is only sustainable when coupled with democratic political institutions. This is because incentives to innovate are nonexistent when liberties are restricted. China’s central government channels resources away from the people and toward elites while placing burdens on the backs of the people alone.
China looks to follow the trajectory of Soviet Russia. Rather than long-term economic growth and political reform to boot, the Chinese are apt to experience short-term prosperity and eventual decline.
We, as future leaders of America, must understand these lessons of history so that when the time comes to address China’s status on the world stage, we can act from an informed position and end up on the right side of history.

To Stop IDF Suspending Israelis: Tourist must bring their own Police along while visiting Israel

To Stop IDF Suspending Israelis: Tourist must bring their own Police along while visiting Israel

The definition of sociali…

The definition of
socialism is: “a centrally planned economy in which the government
controls all means of production.

Here is Some Mindsteroid Must-Read:
The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said in a statement published on its official website that the floating band in the inter-bank spot foreign exchange market will be enlarged from 0.5 percent to 1 percent effective April 16.
To keep the exchange rate stable, the PBOC has set a daily reference rate for the yuan and it will be allowed to fluctuate only to the daily limit on either side of the reference rate. The trading range was widened to 0.5 percent from 0.3 percent in May 2007.
It also raised the spread between dollar selling and buying prices offered by the foreign exchange-designated banks to their customers to 2 percent of the reference rate, from the current level of 1 percent.
News of this announcement was widely supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it promoted market transparency and economic stability. From CBS Market Watch:
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, welcomed the move.
“This underlines China’s commitment to rebalance its economy toward domestic consumption and allow market forces to play a greater role in determining the level of the exchange rate,” Lagarde said in a statement.
The scale of the widening is bigger than the 0.7% the market had expected, according to Ting Lu, a China economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in emailed comments.
Earlier this week, China Securities Regulatory Commission increased the quotas for foreign institutional investors from $30 billion to $80 billion. This move highlights a strategic economic shift from an export model to a consumption model. From Bloomberg News:
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, has pledged this year to free up control of the yuan and liberalize interest rates as the government deepens reforms to revive growth and offset slowing exports and a cooling housing market. China needs to rely more on markets and the private sector as its export- oriented model isn’t sustainable, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in February.
“More action on opening up their markets to outside investment is definitely a positive,” Jeff Papp, a senior analyst in Lisle, Illinois at Oberweis Asset Management Inc., which oversees about $700 million, said in a phone interview. “It’s not a huge amount. They’re taking a small-steps approach to see how markets will react with more participants.”

UNLEASH YUAN AS WORLD SECOND CURRENCY

Here is Some Mindsteroid Must-Read:
The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said in a statement published on its official website that the floating band in the inter-bank spot foreign exchange market will be enlarged from 0.5 percent to 1 percent effective April 16.
To keep the exchange rate stable, the PBOC has set a daily reference rate for the yuan and it will be allowed to fluctuate only to the daily limit on either side of the reference rate. The trading range was widened to 0.5 percent from 0.3 percent in May 2007.
It also raised the spread between dollar selling and buying prices offered by the foreign exchange-designated banks to their customers to 2 percent of the reference rate, from the current level of 1 percent.
News of this announcement was widely supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it promoted market transparency and economic stability. From CBS Market Watch:
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, welcomed the move.
“This underlines China’s commitment to rebalance its economy toward domestic consumption and allow market forces to play a greater role in determining the level of the exchange rate,” Lagarde said in a statement.
The scale of the widening is bigger than the 0.7% the market had expected, according to Ting Lu, a China economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in emailed comments.
Earlier this week, China Securities Regulatory Commission increased the quotas for foreign institutional investors from $30 billion to $80 billion. This move highlights a strategic economic shift from an export model to a consumption model. From Bloomberg News:
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, has pledged this year to free up control of the yuan and liberalize interest rates as the government deepens reforms to revive growth and offset slowing exports and a cooling housing market. China needs to rely more on markets and the private sector as its export- oriented model isn’t sustainable, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in February.
“More action on opening up their markets to outside investment is definitely a positive,” Jeff Papp, a senior analyst in Lisle, Illinois at Oberweis Asset Management Inc., which oversees about $700 million, said in a phone interview. “It’s not a huge amount. They’re taking a small-steps approach to see how markets will react with more participants.”

WOULD WEN JIABAO FUCK FALUN GONG OR FOR SCAVENGING QIGONG

Here is some Horsemanure Worth-Loathed:
The Chinese regime’s Premier Wen Jiabao has been pushing for ending the persecution of Falun Gong with reparations going to members of the spiritual practice, according to a source in Beijing.
His proposal has been opposed by Zhou Yongkang and the faction led by former regime paramount leader Jiang Zemin. Jiang initiated the persecution in 1999, and Zhou, as Public Security Minister (2003-2007) and head of the powerful Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (2007-present), has been heavily involved in implementing Jiang’s campaign. Hu Jintao is said not to have commented on Wen’s proposal.
When Wang Lijun, the former police chief for Chongqing and the right-hand man for Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, attempted to defect at the U.S. Consulate on Feb. 6, he brought international attention to the regime’s forced live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
Wang is believed to be heavily implicated in this atrocity. In a speech Wang gave in 2006, he bragged about having overseen “thousands” of organ harvesting operations as the police chief of Jinzhou in Liaoning Province, although Wang did not specifically mention harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners.
Click this tag or http://www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. Intra-CCP politics are a challenge to make sense of, even for veteran China watchers. Here we attempt to provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?
Bo Xilai was governor of Liaoning Province from 2000-2004. Forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners was first discovered in 2006 in Liaoning, and the province has been termed the “epicenter” of organ harvesting in China.
Wen denounced the organ harvesting and Bo Xilai’s involvement in it during an internal meeting at Zhongnanhai regarding the Wang Lijun incident.
“Without anaesthetic, the live harvesting of human organs and selling them for money—is this something that a human could do?” Wen said at the meeting of Party leaders, according to the source. “Things like this have happened for many years. We are about to retire, but it is still not resolved.”
“Now that the Wang Lijun incident is known by the entire world, use this to punish Bo Xilai. Resolving the Falun Gong issue should be a natural choice,” the source quoted Wen as saying.
Searches Uncensored
The report that Wen has asked top Party leaders to redress the case of Falun Gong finds a kind of corroboration in the recent behavior of China’s Internet.
Normally, terms relating to the practice or the persecution of Falun Gong are among the most tightly censored on China’s Internet, but, in the third week of March, searches that formerly had been blocked were fruitful.
Someone within the Chinese regime allowed searches that treated Falun Gong as legitimate or exposed misdeeds that were part of the persecution—what might be expected by an effort within the CCP to support the attempt to redress Falun Gong.
Around 2am on March 21 (Beijing time), Baidu uncensored searches for “Zhuan Falun”, the fundamental book of Falun Gong teachings. Baidu’s search results also showed information from the official Falun Gong website, including images of Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi, the Falun emblem, and images of Falun Gong practitioners practicing the meditation exercises.
More information was opened up around 8 pm on March 23 (Beijing time), when Baidu search results for “Bloody Harvest.” “Bloody Harvest” is the book by David Kilgour and David Matas detailing their investigation into the forced, live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. Baidu showed information regarding the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, including an article about a press conference for the book.
Also on the evening of March 23 (Beijing time), an article entitled, “Witnessing the process of live organ harvesting” appeared on Baidu when searching with the key words “Wang Lijun live harvest.”. This article discusses the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the live organ harvesting.
Also on March 23, searching on Baidu with the key words “False Fire” brought up a video program produced by NTD Television that debunks the Chinese regime’s propaganda regarding the purported self-immolations by five Falun Gong practitioners on Tiananmen Square in 2001. The NTD video shows that the incident, which was very heavily reported on by state-run media, was a hoax.
Shi Zangshan, a Chinese affairs expert in Washington D.C., told The Epoch Times that both Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao lack sufficient political and moral power to fight Jiang’s faction if they only use corruption and internal struggle as the tools.
Shi held that Hu and Wen should continue to expose the crimes of Jiang Zemin and Zhou Yongkang. Hu and Wen will gain the moral high ground in the Party’s infighting, and, as public opinion turns against the Jiang faction, Hu and Wen