Let's start with the coupons:
"Shan, 23, concedes that discounts get her to consume more than she would otherwise. Her bag is stuffed with McDonald’s coupons and other discount cards.
“I’m obsessed,’’ she said. “Whether it’s at work or home, I’m dreaming of the next deal.’’
Look who else is dreaming of deals:
Goldman Sachs, the investment banking giant.... traded war stories at a spicy Chinese restaurant on a recent evening.
Also see: China's Best Seller
Why would the Chinese let that cabal of thieves into their country is beyond me.
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Or these cretins:
"China opens door to US banks to form securities ventures" by David Barboza, New York Times / January 8, 2011
JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley said yesterday that they had each won approval from Chinese regulators to form joint ventures in the country, potentially giving them a bigger role in China’s booming securities business.
Related: BANKERS GONE WILD
WALL STREET'S MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITY FRAUD DESTROYED BOTH THE US AND EU ECONOMIES!
And now they are going to work on the Chinese.
The two firms are the latest global banks to win the right to team with local players to underwrite stock and bond offerings in China. Eventually, the joint ventures will be able to sell stocks to Chinese citizens and institutions....
Wall Street banks seem content to form joint ventures....
Wall Street is eager to expand in China....
To illustrate how lucrative China can be, Citic Securities earned a $935 million profit in 2009, even though the country’s stock market was among the worst performing that year.
Another local securities firm, Guotai Junan Securities, earned $910 million. Ten of the largest players together earned about $6.4 billion in profit, according to the China Securities Association.
Yup, LIFE is GOOD if you are a BANKSTER!
“This is a platform,’’ Zili Shao, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan China, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We must have this capacity or else our franchise will have a gap’’ in the firm’s global offerings....
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Related: Slow Saturday Special: JPMorgan Chase's Catch
Now they have hooked another one!
Also see: Disney’s plans for China park advance
US consumer office opens in China
Visit stirs hope for US-China deals
And with all this financial wheeling and dealing there should BE NO WAR TALK, right?
"Gates visits China to discuss weapons" by Associated Press / January 10, 2011
BEIJING — China’s rapidly developing defense capabilities are worrisome to the United States, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said....
Related: Korea Bar the Gates
About the only thing that would make me want to keep Gates is this:
Lieberman won’t seek his 5th term
Lieberman For Defense Secretary?
Then you might as well call Netanyahu president, AmeriKa!
Washington is concerned about a new ballistic missile that could theoretically hit a US aircraft carrier nearly 2,000 miles out to sea. China has also apparently beaten US estimates to develop that weapon....
Who is the CIA taking in the football games this weekend?
Just want to know because then I will bet the opposite.
So how many "estimates" can those guys get wrong?
“They clearly have potential to put some of our capabilities at risk,’’ Gates told reporters traveling with him to Asia. “We have to pay attention to them; we have to respond appropriately with our own programs.’’
More COLD WAR for the "defen$e" indu$try?
And NO ONE can STAND UP to the USraeli empire it seems!
China is still years behind US capabilities in radar-evading aircraft, and even by 2025 the United States would still have far more such aircraft flying than any other nation in the world, Gates said.
If the bankrupted and worn-out empire lasts that long. I doubt it will; I doubt it has five more years left.
China said that it does not pose a threat and that its military forces are purely for defense.
As opposed to AmeriKa's which is purely an offensive and occupying power.
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"US, China defense officials work to mend military ties; Gates’s proposal for cooperation gets tepid reply" by John Pomfret, Washington Post / January 11, 2011
BEIJING — One of China’s top generals said yesterday that it was up to the United States to change its policies if it wants better ties with China....
AGREED!!!!
Minister of Defense Liang Guangjie denied that China’s military modernization — and its development of systems such as an aircraft-carrier-killing ballistic missile, antisatellite weapons, and a new stealth fighter — posed a threat to the United States.
We spend MORE on MILITARY than the ENTIRE WORLD COMBINED!
“We cannot call ourselves an advanced military country,’’ Liang told reporters. “The gap between us and advanced countries is at least two to three decades.’’
Liang reacted tepidly to Gates’ proposal that the US and Chinese militaries engage in a wide-ranging strategic dialogue on nuclear posture, cyberwarfare, and North Korea....
Liang also reiterated the People’s Liberation Army’s commitment to pursuing joint work with the US military on counterterrorism, counterpiracy, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. But those issues had been agreed upon already....
Despite Liang’s responses, Gates — who has dealt with China for decades and, as a senior CIA official, was one of the architects of an earlier, very productive, intelligence relationship with Beijing — pronounced himself pleased with the talks....
Liang’s lukewarm reaction to Gates’s proposals reflects a continued uncertainty within the PLA about whether to embrace better ties with the United States; it also underscores the sense that the PLA was strong-armed by China’s political leadership into welcoming Gates on this trip....
But President Hu Jintao travels to Washington next week for his second — and probably last — summit with President Obama and, as part of his legacy, needs to have military ties restored. Hu is expected to step down in 2012.
Gates and others in the US government have long argued that the United States and China need to improve military ties in order to lessen the possibility that miscalculation or misunderstanding could lead to war.
I'm sure some people in AmeriKa are keeping their fingers crossed.
The Obama administration got a taste of the potential dangers less than two months after coming into office when Chinese merchant ships menaced and then narrowly missed ramming a US Navy reconnaissance vessel in international waters off China’s southern coast.
Then spit it out.
WTF is a SPY SHIP doing near China anyway?
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And look what the PLA showed him:
"Gates visits nuclear base, leaves China" by Anne Gearan, Associated Press / January 13, 2011
MUTIANYU, China — China invited Defense Secretary Robert Gates inside its nuclear warfare headquarters yesterday, giving him a rare glimpse into control of weapons that could one day be launched at the United States.
Both the United States and China have long-range missiles that could reach the other’s shores. Both nations say they have no intention of using the weapons that way....
I will HOLD MY OWN GOVERNMENT to that statement!
Of course, that is the ONLY WAY a WAR COULD BE WAGED between the two.
We can't invade China, and they can't invade us.
US leaders say they are concerned about China’s secrecy as it pursues sophisticated conventional weapons that seemed aimed at confronting the United States....
WAR DRUMS are GETTING LOUDER!!!!
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Need more convincing?
"China reports it can reprocess atomic fuel; Breakthrough could expand its energy supplies" by Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press / January 4, 2011
BEIJING — Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially boosting the supplies of carbon-free electricity to keep the country’s economy booming, state television reported yesterday.
Isn't that a good thing (unless you are Iran?)
The breakthrough will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China’s nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to be new fuel, CCTV said.
Several European countries, Russia, India and Japan already reprocess nuclear fuel to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, reduce waste, and safely close the nuclear cycle....
China overtook the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
They are LEAVING US in their dust, Americans!
But it is heavily dependent on coal, a major pollutant.
Also see: Where Coal is King
It has 13 nuclear power plants in use now and ambitiously plans to add potentially hundreds more.
Reprocessing nuclear fuel costs significantly more than using it once and storing it as waste. It is also controversial because extracted plutonium can be used in nuclear weapons....
The Chinese already have nuclear weapons, and we have way more than them -- but it's the agenda-pushing, war-promoting thought that counts, right?
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"Events for Chinese leader aimed at better ties" by Associated Press / January 17, 2011
BEIJING — Chinese leader Hu Jintao will be feted in Washington this week with a state banquet at the White House and other pomp usually reserved for close friends and allies — all intended to improve the tone of relations between a more assertive and prosperous China and the US superpower in a tenuous economic recovery.
A recovery only for the rich.
The shaky trust between the United States and China has been eroding recently because of an array of issues — currency policies and trade barriers, nuclear proliferation and North Korea. Both sides seem to recognize the need to recalibrate relations.
The United States is one of China’s biggest markets, with $380 billion in annual trade largely in Beijing’s favor. Washington increasingly needs Beijing’s help in managing world troubles, from piracy off Africa to Iran’s nuclear program and reinvigorating the world economy.
Hu sounded a conciliatory tone in a rare interview with US newspapers....
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Related:
"Some big questions remain: Who will cook? Who is coming to dinner?
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I'm really not interested in a rehash of relations with Bush and what the cooking preparations are, sorry.
And as it turns out the Chinese have the same problems we have:
"Cut Communist Party partying, China says" by Associated Press / December 30, 2010
BEIJING — China plans to crack down on lavish parties and seminars organized by government officials, hoping to placate a public angered by corruption and accounts of sex- and booze-fueled fetes held at taxpayer expense.
Related: Pentagon Job Placement Class
Along with vast improvements in quality of life for most Chinese, China’s booming economic growth has led to an ever-larger gap between rich and poor and a surge in corruption and public criticism.
That is because they are following our model.
The Communist Party leadership sees any public discontent as a threat to government stability....
What government doesn't?
Lavish official tours to Las Vegas and other places cost taxpayers about $58 billion every year, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Just goes to show you that WHATEVER your government is called they are ALL the SAME!
President Hu Jintao gave a speech in April warning officials of the temptations of beautiful women, money, and power....
I guess I never succumbed because I have none of them right now.
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Related:
"China’s exploding wealth has created a culture of secret mistresses and second wives.
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Also see: Toll evader sentenced to life gets retrial
Time to start evading the Boston Globe.
