The nuclear energy industry has a bad rap. Accidents at Fukushima Japan and Chernobyl Russia, using 1950’s technology, scared citizens and politicians into thinking that nuclear energy is both dangerous and dead. Even with these massive events, the fact is that nuclear was always RELATIVELY safe. We say relatively because all systems have flaws and failures but nuclear is far superior to coal or even natural gas and wind power. However, in the 1970’s and 1980’s much research was done…
For most of the last 50 years the United Front (aka the Central United Front Work Department, UF, UFW, UFWD and CUFWD) had five broad “bureau’s” each with large budgets and direct connections to the Chinese Government, Politburo and Communist Party. However, by 2019 President for life Xi Jinping had doubled the size this highly successful government agency to 12 “bureaus”, as shown on the right. If you just skim the list you will not be that impressed but if…
To get directly to the point the United Front is the official Chinese governments propaganda arm. The United Front is very powerful, in nearly all countries and intentionally opaque to non-Chinese government officials. The term ‘United Front’ can be confusing when it relates to China. 100+ years ago United Front referred to the alliance between China’s two ruling parties, the Kuomintang (KMT, now mostly in Taiwan) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, now ruler of all Chinese territory except Taiwan). …
Lets start by explaining that yes, you can acquire Ontario high school credits while in China, mostly through schools that have paid to be be certified by the various Ministries of Education. On its face, that sounds like a good idea for two reasons: It brings in revenue to the school system in the form of certification fees It provides a Canadian ‘how to think’ curriculum in a part of the world where education frequently relates to ‘what to think’ So…
The “Yield Curve” is nothing more than a line between the dots on a graph of interest rates. At the start of the graph (on the left) is very short term interest rates and at the end of the graph (on the right side) is longer term interest rates. When long term interest rates are lower than short term rates it means business is expected to DECREASE over time. When the graph trends down, it is called an “inverted yield…
One-China is an understanding that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the Communist Party of China (CPC) has complete legal and moral authority over both the Chinese mainland and break away island of Taiwan. How it came to be is a fascinating story but One China has been a diplomatic football ever since it was formulated in the early 1970’s by Chinese and Canadian diplomats. From 1971 through through the early 2000’s regional flair ups have lead many countries to…
‘One China’ is a policy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that requires other nations to accept that the CCP is rightfully in total control of both the Chinese mainland and the nearby island ‘nation’ of Taiwan. The history of how One China came to be is a fascinating one. Brief History of One China In the early 1900’s China was ruled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT) but a civil war began in 1946, after years…
Google built Android from scratch in about 3 years of serious work. With China’s: penchant for stealing intellectual property unlimited budgets massive talent pool how long do you think it is will take China to develop a solid mobile OS? Not to mention that the newest copy of anything is better than the first because the developers learn from mistakes in the original. As we explained in our recent article: US President Trump Just Killed Google Android, the US China…
When China began the ‘free-marketization’ of its economy in the 1980’s it was clear that China was going to be an economic powerhouse. They had an excellent blue print to follow in capitalist British Hong Kong and a singular drive to raise its citizens from the poverty of its communist past. However, few had predicted back then that China would look so completely inward for growth as they are today. It is clear that while foreign markets like the United…
You might have heard that British people are fond of tea and to buy tea from China in the 1800’s they needed something to trade. However, the Chinese wanted very little the Brits had to offer. One thing Chinese citizens did like was opium (yes, that is the same drug that is behind the opioid crisis today). Fortunately for Britain, it effectively ruled India from the 1750’s on and took control of India’s opium business from that point on. This…
This topic is a departure from our usual focus on politics, tech and China but we thought it made an excellent point in a funny way you would like. As a… lets go with ‘gruff’ person myself, I sadly see tiny parts of Coleman Sweeney in me (pun intended!) and I have signed up for organ donation too. Be an asshole and sign up! In most countries you just have to fill our an organ donor card or sign the…
Canada has a pushy trading partner called China and that “partner” is throwing its weight around currently by: Removing China’s (nasty) ambassador to Canada “…Lu has made a series of damning remarks about Canada-China relations in recent months”… SOURCE . Arresting Canadians in China on what appears to be spurious grounds “…The retaliatory arrest of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on spurious national security grounds… have brought Canada-China relations to their lowest ebb since the establishment of diplomatic relations…
China is Canada’s third largest trading partner but it is a very distant third: The US and Europe account for 60% and 8% of Canada’s exports respectively China accounts for just 2.9% of Canada’s exports and 6% of Canada’s imports 25% of those exports are raw “mineral products” like copper and potash 10% of those exports are surface materials like wood, fish, and canola Canada imports three times as much from China as it exports to China Exports to China…
Today there are already about 60,000 Chinese manufactured vehicles entering the US and Canadian automobile market each year, some of which may surprise you; Buick Envision ($32,000) Cadillac CT6 Plug-In Hybrid ($75,000) not the standard CT6’s cancelled for US and Canada sales in 2018 Volvo S60 & S90 ($36,000 and $48,000) However, what you don’t see is a single Chinese brand like BYD (serious Telsa competitor), Chery (former Chrysler partner), or Dongfeng (sold 4.1 MILLION cars in China in 2018)…
There are many that think Huawei is just a puppet of the Chinese government and an equal number that think the Huawei bans and bad talk are nothing more than hype designed to stifle a non-Western competitor. We recently wrote two articles explaining some of Huawei’s background: 10 Short Answers To Why Huawei is so Scary To Western Countries Who Owns Huawei? A Fascinating Story but neither our previous articles nor the political hype have clearly explained why countries should…
There are three main factors in our calling for the US economy to stall in the coming months, which will give China the upper hand in trade negotiations: 1 – Government Spending Tax Cuts Stimulation Has Run Its Course The US economy has been booming for the last two years because of historic federal government spending under President Trump: “Trump May Be The Most Fiscally Reckless President In American History. Trump’s behavior on everything and anything having to do with…
The goal of a trade war is to increase access to some other countries markets. However, we can simplify the logic by reducing down from a country scale to an individual business scale. At the single company scale, Company A withholds a key product or increases price on that product because they want something from Company B, perhaps increased sales effort of some key line. At some point the cost becomes too much for one or both of the parties…
From an American perspective, China has a strange confidence the belies and critical weakness that is just below the surface. US President Donald Trump is fond of pointing out that China sells much more to the US than the US sells to China. He believes that this trade imbalance gives him unlimited power to dictate Chinese policy and that belief has lead to the US initiating a trade war. Chinese President Xi Jinping knows that his country has an enormous…