China's trade surplus surges 73 percent

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

Just last month, China announced plans to buy $4.3 billion of U.S. technology as a way to show how serious it is about reducing the ballooning trade gap with the U.S.

So it must have come as a mixed blessing in Beijing to see that China's antigravity trade surplus soared again in May to the third-highest monthly level on record, according to government figures released Monday.

The surplus hit $22.5 billion, up 73 percent from last May, the Chinese customs agency said on its Web site. Exports jumped 28.7 percent to $94 billion, while imports rose 19.1 percent to $71.6 billion.

China has promised to narrow its yawning trade gap under pressure from Washington and other governments, but economists say multibillion-dollar surpluses are likely to continue.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_bi_ge/china_trade_surplus

[pinto]

1. There was a great cable TV special that highlighted China's growth.

I think it was the CNN piece about the world's oil economy(?).

An odd set of circumstances. The world's largest nation growing in leaps and bounds. In the market for lots of basic supplies, oil, steel, cement, etc. Echoing the old Soviet state in gradual democratization - though far from that famous collapse - and slowly acquiescing to democratic reforms to meet citizens' desire for some of the benefits of Western capitalism - a better standard of day-to-day living, products and private enterprise. Cars, clothes and cash. While joining the world as one of the largest environmental crises in terms of air and water pollution.

I've always thought the fall of the Soviet regime was as much about washing machines as it was about the benefits of democracy. Both have some weight. It is the same with China, in my opinion.

Given that, I'd really like to see a level table where we could all work on the results of growth, industrialization and the big picture sans narrow partisan differences.

There *is* a big picture. Everyone knows that. The sooner we get to the table, the better.

One of my big bones about this Administration is it's reluctance to step outside its own tunnel vision of the world as 'good or evil', 'with us or against us', and sit the heck down with our world neighbors.

[David__77]

2. It's fallacy that only Western-style capitalism can create prosperity.

There are multiple economic models which generate economic growth. Some are better suited to certain phases of economic development however. For instance, Soviet growth rates were spectacular during basic industrialization and accumulation of capital. But the investment-heavy model wasn't so well suited at higher phases when breakdown began to occur.

Furthermore, there is no reason that capitalism must be coupled with Western-style democracy. I think that's the major error among conventional political opinion in the US and elsewhere. Many Soviet citizens thought likewise, and presumed that once they adopted Western political norms, they would rapidly catch up with Western Europe and the US in terms of consumption; quite the contrary was the case, of course.

[pinto]

3. I agree with some your points. Capitalism in Russia has supported

the well-known Russian mafia, while broad based democratization has lagged. Many ordinary folks seem to miss the wage, price and cost of living controls of the old Soviet state. It may well be the same in the evolving Chinese state.

The young people featured in the CNN piece were pretty clear, though, on their desire for a better standard of living. In the snips aired, independence was as much about having an apartment, a car and some spendable cash as well as some privacy and measure of self determination.

I didn't mean to conflate the two - democracy and capitalism - but wanted to note that the push for a better standard of living in totalitarian states seems to coincide with some small measures of democracy as well as larger measures of capitalistic economies.

I don't think one solely relies on the other, i.e. self rule and capitalism. Yeah, it's not black and white.

Thanks for your response.

[Skink]

4. Chinese Capitalism is not Democratic.

Proving that any Government can claim Capitalism. Democracy is something that the people must stand for.

[pinto]

5. Agree.