Street Talk: US Economic Recession Hit Chinese Village

Millions of migrant workers in China lost their jobs as a result of the US economic recession and had to return home




One thing that truly surprised me during my recent trip back to China was the big impact of the ongoing financial crisis, originated in the US and soon spread globally, on Chinese people’s life. As one local official in Henan told me, the financial crisis “affected even a brick plant in a village.”

How so? I couldn’t help but ask. “Well,” the official said, “because of the financial crisis, Americans are buying fewer goods from China, and therefore many Chinese plants closed. Many migrant workers lost their jobs and had no money to build new houses in their home village, and thus the decline of sales of bricks.”

Just by looking around, I couldn’t tell that the economic recession in the US had hit China hard. Restaurants in Beijing were full of eaters like always, while supermarkets were crowded and stuffed with plenty of products, so many that some of them piled up along the stairway. On the surface, Chinese people were living a happy and prosperous life and enjoying ever growing purchasing power. What I didn’t see, however, were the huge flow, usually in millions, of job-less migrant workers, from coastal and eastern area to their inner-land hometowns, which had become the No.1 headache for many local governments in the past couple of months.

One of my friends from Guangdong told me that one town there was practically lawless as unemployed migrant workers were robbing everyone they can in the streets. Such robberies were so common that local police no longer bother to launch any investigation or law enforcement effort. “They now only do something when people are murdered,” my friend said. In other places, local governments were trying everything they can to make sure that returning migrant workers can get a job or at least do not make trouble, people told me.

Hearing these stories made me wonder: is the US the only country in the world that had been buying products from China? Or is most stuff made in China actually made for American consumers? Maybe. The current economic crisis has been a strong testimony of the far-reaching impact of globalization, so much so that what happened in Wall Street would end up being reflected in a brick plant in a remote village half the world away.

Chinese Bloggers on Obama Victory: Admiring American Dream, Concerned about Sino-US Relations

One Chinese blogger blogs about Obama's election win







Obama’s victory in yesterday’s presidential election taught a great lesson about American dream and democracy to many Chinese bloggers, whose enthusiasm in blogging about this historical moment is manifest in the thousands of blogs appearing in the past less than 24 hours.

They recognized the power of American dream and ideas, America’s achievement in overcoming racial conflicts, and the value of democracy. Some bloggers expressed admiration for these American values, exclaiming “dreams will come true!” and calling such a success story an example of a “positive culture.” Obama's victory even inspired one blogger to imagine the possibility of a Chinese American president of the US.

Blogger Yao Xiaoyuan writes that because of this election, Chinese people will like the United States more and more, out of their admiration for the “universal human values represented by the United States.” However, not many bloggers used Obama’s case to advocate applying American values to China. The American dream stays American.

To some Chinese bloggers, the outcome was a surprise. Yang Hengjun, for instance, thought it was more possible to have a white woman than an African-American man as American president.

Meanwhile, many bloggers discussed the implication of Obama’s presidency to China’s interests. In this regard, the picture is not as rosy at all.

“Once the [American] economy turns better, I believe the Democratic Party will talk with us about trade protection,” one blogger writes. Another blogger concurs, concluding that China will face more pressure in energy security and decline in export due to Obama’s energy and economic policies.

These bloggers, however, failed to notice Obama's close tie with Hawaii, a state heavily populated by ethnic Chinese, which may influence the new president's approach to China.

Chinese Netizen not Big Fans of Obama

Comments left on Baidu.com chat room, one of the most popular BBS in China, offer both good and bad words about the two American presidential candidates, who are battling their final days of the election campaign. But it is clear that, for many Chinese people, Barack Obama is not the ideal new president of the United States. Here are some of reasons that Chinese netizen say why they don’t favor Obama.

Perhaps the most important reason is that to some Chinese people, Obama is good at shouting slogans and talking empty but lack of real competence. As put by one comment: “History tells us Chinese not to trust an eloquent but inexperienced man with anything important.”

Another concern among the netizen, oddly enough, is that Obama seems to be anti-democracy and is likely to promote socialism. In order to distribute wealth around, some netizen say, “he has to have absolute power” and “control people’s ideas,” which will lead to “potential dictatorship.”

Some people think that the overwhelming support of Obama and harsh attitude toward McCain, as well as the scrutiny of Joe the plumber in American media is the work of the Obama campaign and thus reason that Obama is very intolerant and repressive. There are also people resenting him because he is “ugly,” or he is charming, but lack of ability.

On the other hand, quite a few posts in the chat room shout “go Obama!” One post claims that over 70 percent of Chinese support Obama. Some say that Obama will become the greatest African American in history, that his success is a great example of living the American dream.

These comments are only a fraction of tons of online comments regarding the candidates and should not be taken as representative of Chinese public opinion. There are also a lot of misunderstanding or simply ignorance of the politics of American presidential election in those comments. What is presented here is at best a glimpse of Chinese people’s opinion on Obama.

View online comments on baidu.com:
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Why Babies?!

San Lu formula was found contamined in a recent public health incident

I grew up in China getting used to fake and poor quality goods. They were just everywhere. I never expected my shoes, for example, to last more than one year, and most of the time did not assume the NIKE sweater I was wearing to be genuine. I learned not to trust certain products, such as health supplements, produced in China, and I probably would not purchas baby formula of Chinese brands had I had my baby in China.

If I somehow managed to live with poor quality clothes, shoes and appliances, since it is simply the reality of the market, I was always scared of fake drugs and contaminated food. But never before, was I so ashamed of China’s notorious fakes and counterfeits. This time, it was the melamine-tainted San Lu baby formula that killed four babies and sickened over 10,000.

While watching photos of little babies lying in hospital with IV sticking to their little head, my heart hurt. I can’t help but ask: what is wrong with our people? What made them so obsessed with making a little more money that they even harmed our little babies?!

There is an old saying in Chinese: even animals as cruel as tigers won’t hurt their own child. It is also common among wild animals to situate their young members in the very center of the entire group to protect them from predators. Needless to say, babies are the most precious human being. They are the future of every nation, every group of people. So how can someone ever try to make profits at the price of baby’s health, even life?

It is said that the melamine that harmed so many babies was likely added by people at the milk collection centers, where milk from dairy farms was sold to formula factories. It is appalling to realize that those people who actually put in the chemical may well know that the very milk they were poisoning would be used to make baby formula.

Aside from tightening regulations, removing high-profile officials, and arresting a bunch of bad guys, we as a nation should really ask ourselves: what went wrong? What makes us so ruthless in making money that we even hurt ill people, and now, babies? Just how deep we have fallen down the moral cliff? Can we ever climb up back?

There are some deeper and more severe problems of Chinese society way beyond sloppy market regulations, incapable officials and corruptions. When a nation starts to see its babies harmed on a large scale by its own adults, something is seriously wrong.