China tops U.S. Other Countries Say

[Bronco_Beerslug]

A communist dictatorship viewed more favorably than the U.S.,
is this the legacy of the Bush administration?

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China tops U.S., other countries say
Poll finds that dictatorship has a better image

June 24, 2005

BY WILL LESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The United States' image is so tattered overseas, two years after the Iraq invasion, that China, which is ruled by a communist dictatorship, is viewed more favorably in many countries, an international poll released Thursday found.

The poor image persists even though the Bush administration has been promoting democracy throughout the world in recent months and sent hundreds of millions of dollars in relief aid to Indian Ocean nations hit by the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami.

People in 11 of the 16 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press rated China higher than the United States. People in India and Poland were more upbeat about the United States; Canadians rated the two about even.

"Clearly, with or without this poll we know we have a public diplomacy challenge, and that challenge is not lessening by the day," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Countries that rated the Unites States lower also were more likely to question the war in Iraq and the U.S. efforts regarding terrorists.

The overseas image of the United States slipped sharply after the Iraq invasion in 2003, the Pew polling found, and it has not rebounded in Western Europe's Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

The U.S. image remains relatively low in Muslim countries like Jordan and Pakistan, but has gained in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, which benefited from U.S. aid to tsunami victims.

The polls were taken in the United States and 15 other countries from late April to the end of May with samples of about 1,000 in each country.

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/pew24e_20050624.htm

[Spider]

you know what is worse ? 320 Million People in china are under 14 years of age .... More People under 14 , then all of America .........we could Push China around right now , but what in 20 Years ?
See this tax cut Bush gave us + the War in Iraq , has forced us to sell T bills to Chinia , to pay for everything ...... We are already dependent on China ..........
We got along road ahead of us , as it is right now we are dependent on the M.E . , and now China ......those tax cuts wil cost us a hellva lot more then they ever gave in the end ........

[Spider]

add to it all this outsourcing , we could be ****ed in 20 years ........
your Kids wont grow up in the Same America , that you grew up in .Coutrsey of Bush .....
Bush is killing our America ........ I saw this comming a mile away .......... But everyone knew Bush was good for our Country , They chose to ignore the warning signs ?
Greed and fear is what did it , those 2 things continue , they will be our downfall ..
Greed in Tax cuts ,and Fear of Saddam ...... a guy that couldnt even Defend a chunck of dessert the size of California .......... But yet he was the Boogie man , People like Errand scared ****less . Oh Bush please protect us from Saddam the Boogey man

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Bush is killing our America ........ I saw this comming a mile away .......... But everyone knew Bush was good for our Country , They chose to ignore the warning signs ?

Yep.

And the bush monkeys continue to cheer Smirk on for the sole purpose of getting a "win" for "Team GOP" and for getting even with those damn people with brains.

But look on the bright side, §Pide®:

In another 5-10 years, the U.S. may be just another Argentina, but at least gays won't be able to get married.

:D

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

The Chinese challenge

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/opinion/27krugman.html

Fifteen years ago, when Japanese companies were busily buying up chunks of corporate America, I was one of those urging Americans not to panic. You might therefore expect me to offer similar soothing words now that the Chinese are doing the same thing. But the Chinese challenge - highlighted by the bids for Maytag and Unocal - looks a lot more serious than the Japanese challenge ever did.

There's nothing shocking per se about the fact that Chinese buyers are now seeking control over some American companies. After all, there's no natural law that says Americans will always be in charge. Power usually ends up in the hands of those who hold the purse strings. America, which imports far more than it exports, has been living for years on borrowed funds, and lately China has been buying many of our I.O.U.'s.

Until now, the Chinese have mainly invested in U.S. government bonds. But bonds yield neither a high rate of return nor control over how the money is spent. The only reason for China to acquire lots of U.S. bonds is for protection against currency speculators - and at this point China's reserves of dollars are so large that a speculative attack on the dollar looks far more likely than a speculative attack on the yuan.



So it was predictable that, sooner or later, the Chinese would stop buying so many dollar bonds. Either they would stop buying American I.O.U.'s altogether, causing a plunge in the dollar, or they would stop being satisfied with the role of passive financiers, and demand the power that comes with ownership. And we should be relieved that at least for now the Chinese aren't dumping their dollars; they're using them to buy American companies.

Yet there are two reasons why Chinese investment in America seems different from Japanese investment 15 years ago.

One difference is that, judging from early indications, the Chinese won't squander their money as badly as the Japanese did.

The Japanese, back in the day, tended to go for prestige investments - Rockefeller Center, movie studios - that transferred lots of money to the American sellers, but never generated much return for the buyers. The result was, in effect, a subsidy to the United States.

The Chinese seem shrewder than that. Although Maytag is a piece of American business history, it isn't a prestige buy for Haier, the Chinese appliance manufacturer. Instead, it's a reasonable way to acquire a brand name and a distribution network to serve Haier's growing manufacturing capability.

That doesn't mean that America will lose from the deal. Maytag's stockholders will gain, and the company will probably shed fewer American workers under Chinese ownership than it would have otherwise. Still, the deal won't be as one-sided as the deals with the Japanese often were.

The more important difference from Japan's investment is that China, unlike Japan, really does seem to be emerging as America's strategic rival and a competitor for scarce resources - which makes last week's other big Chinese offer more than just a business proposition.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a company that is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government, is seeking to acquire control of Unocal, an energy company with global reach. In particular, Unocal has a history - oddly ignored in much reporting on the Chinese offer - of doing business with problematic regimes in difficult places, including the Burmese junta and the Taliban. One indication of Unocal's reach: Zalmay Khalilzad, who was U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan for 18 months and was just confirmed as ambassador to Iraq, was a Unocal consultant.

Unocal sounds, in other words, like exactly the kind of company the Chinese government might want to control if it envisions a sort of "great game" in which major economic powers scramble for access to far-flung oil and natural gas reserves. (Buying a company is a lot cheaper, in lives and money, than invading an oil-producing country.) So the Unocal story gains extra resonance from the latest surge in oil prices.

If it were up to me, I'd block the Chinese bid for Unocal. But it would be a lot easier to take that position if the United States weren't so dependent on China right now, not just to buy our I.O.U.'s, but to help us deal with North Korea now that our military is bogged down in Iraq.