And just what environment is THAT?
The strange economic environment that says all economic growth is good and that privatization of everything is a politically (and religiously) correct scenic walk around the world?
What do you think is wrong with the picture painted here? I see PLENTY wrong with it. I saw scenes of this on a direct China TV feed yesterday here in TO. Interesting, and then they cut to pick and videos of Chairman Mao's hometown as it is today. Highly amusing.
Today's spelling lesson, one more time. is
E Q U A L S
C O L O N I A L I Z A T I O N
And I gotta point - this is high end propaganda! Very, on the part of the Washington Post .. in it is a "hidden message" to the power brokers about what has transpired.
NO, the Chinese have NOT Pulled outta the dollar just, cuz when it does it's bye bye US citizen share in the global economy. But eventually, the Chinese will drift over into the EURO. WATCH.
For China to contend it is not part of the market economy is just hogwash. Is that plain enough for everyone.
Veegermatic
U.S., China Sign 10-Year Agreement To Work Together on Environment
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 13, 2007; Page D01
XIANGHE, China, Dec. 13 -- The news from the third session of Cabinet-level economic talks between the United States and China was more about what negotiators didn't achieve than what they achieved.
Unable to reach an agreement on major financial services and trade tariffs issues during two days of meetings outside Beijing, U.S. and Chinese officials instead focused on something a little easier to collaborate on: the environment.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., at the close of the meeting Thursday, said the two countries signed a 10-year agreement to work together on clean technology and sustainable natural resources. The countries also announced the completion of joint study on air pollution, efforts to increase the use of biowaste fuel, and a pledge to collaborate to stop illegal logging.
"China and the U.S. recognize that working together we can be more effective in achieving energy efficiency, energy security and a cleaner environment," Paulson said.
With the United States acting as chief customer to China's growing industrial economy, the two sides recognize that it is central to each nation's interest that they work together in "maintaining a stable, secure and prosperous global economic system," Paulson said.
In previous sessions of the strategic economic dialogue, U.S. officials said they were close to getting agreement from the Chinese on two major issues: increasing foreign ownership caps for Chinese banks, which had remained stuck at 25 percent for years; and the elimination of tariffs, some as high as 16 percent, on imports of energy services and technologies.
On these subjects, U.S. officials would only say that the dialogue continues and that China has said it is conducting "careful assessment" of this issues.
Paulson's Chinese counterpart, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, said one of the major achievements of the dialogue was moving the conversation beyond short-term, hot-button issues to working together to achieve longer-term strategic goals.
"Both sides have come to realize that with the rapid development of economic globalization and further progress of bilateral economic and trade relations China-U.S. economic ties will exert greater influence," Wu said in her closing remarks.
The strategic economic dialogue was launched in the fall of 2006, a time when Congress were threatening to impose massive tariffs on Chinese goods if the China did not allow the value of its currency, which is pegged to the dollar, to rise more rapidly. China has argued that doing so too quickly might cause instability in its economy.
There was no breakthrough on that issue at the talks and during the two-day day session on this topic. However, on the first day of the talks, China's next commerce minister turned the tables on his U.S. counterparts by engaging in something that until recently had always been an inside-the-Beltway specialty: spin.
"Unscientific" was how Chen Deming described the idea that a radical revaluation of China's currency could help fix the widening trade gap between his country and the United States. He said it was irresponsible to push for a rapid increase in the yuan's value against the dollar, an argument frequently made by U.S. officials and members of Congress.
"If we were to see excessively fast appreciation of the . . . currency, then it will cause repercussions for the global economy, global financial markets," Chen said. "And, ultimately, it won't serve all of us any good."
Chen's message was not new, but the manner and venue in which he said it were. His off-the-cuff remarks were made at a news conference.
Paulson, in an interview with a small group of reporters, said Chinese officials' willingness to speak out reflects the growing trust between the two parties. "To the extent they are disagreeing, it's really good to make sure they are not disagreements about nothing. . . . [It's] so easy for there to be a misunderstanding or misinterpretation," he said.
Since the Communist Party took power in 1949, China's leaders have avoided engaging critics in public at all costs. When they appear at briefings held by the State Council or Foreign Ministry, they typically repeat verbatim what they have said in writing.
For example, in the previous two rounds of the talks, Chinese delegates kept a low profile and made their points through the state-run media, which are mouthpieces for the government. That has changed as China continues to face criticism about the safety of its food and other products in media reports published and broadcast around the world.
"There's a frustration that the Chinese feel that they are not understood . . . . They feel as though they are working very hard," said Mike Leavitt, the U.S. secretary of health and human services. Leavitt said he has heard many times from Chinese officials that the media reports are unfair and exaggerated but that doesn't mean the officials do not recognize there is a problem. "Complaining about the media and making a rigorous response are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Earlier, Wu talked about a growing protectionism in the United States and included the media in her patriotic call for parties involved to do their part to keep the relationship on good terms for the benefit of their own country.
"I hope that the U.S. administration, Congress and the media will heed the voice of the business community. I hope they will not lose sight of the larger interests of the United States," Wu said.
t was unclear from the context whether Wu -- who earlier in the week told U.S. officials that the foreign press had "hyped" the safety problems, damaging China's reputation -- misunderstood the concept of freedom of the press in the United States or whether she had purposely implied that the American media are just as pro-U.S. as the Chinese state media are pro-China.
China's efforts to out-spin the United States were evident in the separate news conferences held during this week's talks. Calling China "a bit of an anomaly," Paulson in his news briefing turned attention back to the yuan and said that other major economies have grown up together for the most part and have market-determined currencies.
"China is not yet at a state where it makes sense to have a market-determined economy, but yet it is a very significant part of the global economy," he said. "So to be integrated in terms of trading of goods and services and having a currency that is not market determined, it is a challenge."
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