7 thoughts on “When You’re Too Socialist For The Chinese”

  1. “I think the labour laws are outdated – the labour laws induce sloth, indolence rather than hard working. The incentive system is totally out of whack.”

    “F’ckin Racist Teabaggers!”

  2. When I visited China and Vietnam last March, I couldn’t help but notice how entrepreneurial the people were. It seemed everyone was working hard and trying to sell something (often crap but at least they were trying). Their governments are at least nominally communist but the people I encountered were very capitalist.

      2. When I was in Vietnam, our guide told us the following (as close as I can recall): “Following reunification in 1975, we were a socialist country. You know what socialism is? It’s where if I work hard and you don’t, we get the same thing. So no one worked hard. In the 1990s, the government changed the rules and people who worked hard could profit. Things are much better now.”

        It seemed that just about every house and building that we passed had a little shop where people were trying to sell things, be that food, crafts, or merchandise. The people work hard and many foreign companies have built factories there. Supermarkets were rare but there were many smaller local markets that were packed. Visiting those markets was an interesting experience.

        Saigon was said to be a country of 8 million people and 4 million motor scooters (and both numbers appeared low to me) with a lot of new construction. The air was fairly polluted because of all those scooters (especially the Chinese made scooters which while cheap, the Vietnamese called junk) but the economy appeared to be doing well. If they have any environmentalists in China and Vietnam, it appears they’ve been told to sit down and shut up.

    2. I just got back from China. It was a very interesting trip. I would recommend a visit.

      I asked our Chinese guide if China was a Communist country. His reply was “Of course” He thought a second and then said “well, socialist might be a better description” A few seconds more then he stated “we are mostly capitalist”.

      My general observation is that the people are too smart to be Communist and too greedy to be socialist. The Communist government is busy trying to figure out how to control China, bring the country into the 21st century, and remain in power. Regarding the latter I suspect that they can have any two.

  3. Frankly, I don’t know why the EU bothered. It sounds to me like they’re really desperate and clutching at straws, if they’re trying to beg money from China. As to China, I think this rejection shows they’re just not that stupid. The EU isn’t willing to make (or perhaps even, is unable to make) a deal that’s favorable to China (which is what any such activity would have to be to interest China).

    It’s not a matter of the EU being too socialist or not. It’s rather a matter of the deal simply not being worth the effort of making the offer. Here’s hoping the US isn’t that stupid either.

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