A FEW THINGS ABOUT CHINA THAT WILL SURPRISE YOU

NewsChina is the English version of China Newsweek, which is not related to Newsweek.  I've long wondered why NewChina pretty much reports it as it is, with little propaganda, as such.  I don't yet have this answer.

The August 2013 issue (cover to the left) was particularly surprising.  You can read the details by clicking on that link.  Let me summarize five article in a row, from pages 34 to 51:

Exam Boot Camp:  

• My Chapter 3 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity (Kindle edition is $3.99) reviewed the seriousness of the South Korea college entrance tradition.  
• Daechidong moms pray 1.5 hours/day for 100 straight days before that fatal date, when the country goes into a hold mode to allow 700,000 students to have no problems getting to the exam site.  South Korea has the second  highest suicide rate in the world, and getting worse.  Most of the victims are students.  Greenland has three times the suicide rate of South Korea.  China is #7, but you got to wonder about how accurate this is.  USA?  #33.

• Well, China might be even more fanatic.  Nine million students took this exam in June.  Here to the right are parents wishing their children well at the site of the exam.  Does this ever happen in the USA?  This article reports on Maochangtan Middle School in Liuan City, located 545 miles west of Shanghai.  There are 10,000 high school seniors, with 13 hotels dedicated to families of these students from outside the city, usually child and mother. Students pay up to $7800/year for tuition.  They study from 6AM to 11PM.  Why do they come here?  In 1999, 98 students passed the exam.  In 2012, 7,626, 80%, passed.  Successful teachers earn bonuses of up to $8,000 (annual salary is about this amount) for successful students.  The worst teacher gets fired!
• Mothers, students, teachers...everyone feels this process is crazy, but the Chinese system forces this effort if you really want to succeed in life.

Worked to Death

• In Japan was once known as karoshi, or overworked-to-death.  They don't work so hard anymore.  Such is progress.
• In China, white collar workers in their 20's are dropping dead from high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, cerebrovascular diseases and death from fatigue.  The term "mattress culture" is endemic, for those who sleep at work to keep up.
• Again, to keep up and keep your job, they have no choice but to give up on life.

Paying the Price

• Remember the 49ers of the 1800's gold rush?
• Chinese miners from Shanglin County ran out of places to mine for gold in their country, so many of them went to Ghana.
• Regulations in that country prohibit foreign miners.  However, beginning in 2006, 12,000  local residents of Shanglin paid off landowners and village chiefs to do the mining.  Unfortunately, the Ghanaian bribery system is not the same as in China, and the national government recently began kicking out Chinese gold miners, partly because these miners were ruining the environment.  These 158 are waiting be deported.
• Next?  Zimbabwe or Cambodia.  What a life!

Up for Review

• China is the fastest growing pharmaceutical market (to be $162.5 billion/year).
• But there are only 120 government employees to screen 6,000 new pills/year.  In comparison, the US FDA has 3,300 staffers with far fewer applications.
• Bribing is a tradition, but the bureaucracy is almost impenetrable, with downright stealing of the process a given, for Chinese companies end up selling the products much more cheaply without providing royalties.
• What a mess, as people are dying from the lack of pharmacological options.
• Don't get ill in China.

Swiss Bliss

• Last year the U.S. had a $315 billion trade deficit with China.
• Switzerland for years had a $2 billion trade surplus with China, but since 2010, this surplus has mushroomed to +$10 billion.  Why?  Read the article.

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Tropical Storm Flossie came and went.  No serious problems.

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