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2007-05-22 China-Japan-Koreas

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Posted by Zenster 2007-05-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 When the Romans made a bridge, I understand that the engineer who built it got to stand under it while it was used for the first time. It made sure he did the best job he knew how to do.

Those in our government who have a hand in protecting our food imports from china should have to subsist solely on food imported from China.

Posted by gorb 2007-05-22 03:49|| 2007-05-22 03:49|| Front Page Top

#2 OK, the excessive bold and ALL CAPS makes this a kooky post. Our own government is not to blame, Chinese exporters are to blame. Radical ideas like starting a trade war are not the solution.

Posted by gromky 2007-05-22 07:00|| 2007-05-22 07:00|| Front Page Top

#3 I blame consumers who insist on buying Chinese crap. You get what you pay for.

Posted by Excalibur 2007-05-22 10:09|| 2007-05-22 10:09|| Front Page Top

#4 dumb asses never should have done business with the commie scum in the first place, we need OUT of China ASAP. Let the greed heads suffer for their own averic, cause the Chinks will fuckem in the end, just like they always do.

Posted by Lampedusa Omemble3870 2007-05-22 10:09|| 2007-05-22 10:09|| Front Page Top

#5 Well, I do blame our government. They set the rules of the game and the actors (Chinese exporters, US importers and consumers) maximize their profit under those conditions.

Posted by ed 2007-05-22 10:18|| 2007-05-22 10:18|| Front Page Top

#6 excessive bold and ALL CAPS makes this a kooky post.

Bah! Caplock Joe has more caps in one sentance than in my whole post. If the bolded portions don't leave you feeling outraged, then you aren't paying attention. Yes, my major point is that China is to blame, but a central role of our own government is to protect us. If not from toxic and tainted foods being foisted upon us by our enemy, then what?

If the recent immigration bill proved one thing, it's that our government is infested with money grubbing politicians who will stop at nothing to finance their campaigns or get re-elected. The conniving of Paulson and Bolten at loosening up Chinese trade to the immense profit of their Wall Street cronies simply stinks.

China proves over and over again that it is unqualified to participate on the world stage (read: WTO). China manipulates its currency and gives itself a host of other unfair advantages that not only increase its profit but also hollows out the industrial base of America and other countries as well. This has lead to incresingly centralized production of certain key products in China. Not a good policy when one considers the Chinese proclivity for cutting corners. From a longer version of the same article:

It is not just that food from China is cheap, said William Hubbard, a former associate director of the FDA. For a growing number of important food products, China has become virtually the only source in the world.

China controls 80 percent of the world's production of ascorbic acid, for example, a valuable preservative that is ubiquitous in processed and other foods. Only one producer remains in the United States, Hubbard said.

"That's true of a lot of ingredients," he said, including the wheat gluten that was initially thought to be the cause of the pet deaths. Virtually none of it is made in the United States, because the Chinese sell it for less than it would cost U.S. manufacturers to make it.

So pervasive is the U.S. hunger for cheap mports, experts said, that the executive branch itself has repeatedly rebuffed proposals by agency scientists to impose even modest new safety rules for foreign foods.

Much like Japan's government colluded with its corporations to put several important American industries out of business (television, VCR, modem and specialty ceramics manufacturing among them), so too is China now using similar techniques to monopolize output of vital products. With China's piss poor track record, this should be cause for major alarm. Some of the only food-related regulations making across Bush's desk deal with bio-terrorism. Yet, somehow, this administration is willing to ignore the implications of allowing our communist enemy undue influence over the production of critical food processing ingredients and other materials. What happens when China decides that the United States has become a military target? Who's to say that this is not the case right now? Like I said, this is terrorism lite and we'd best be doing something about it. Just as manufacturing of DRAM ICs, color plasma flat screens, monocrystalline fighter jet turbine blades and other military hardware represent items critical to our national security, food production most certainly falls into that category as well. How much should we be willing to place control over such important products into our enemy's hands?

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-05-22 12:43|| 2007-05-22 12:43|| Front Page Top

#7 Not a political laft-right issue. NY Times and Reuters have been running almost daily articles on same. The only really surprizing thing is that US Gov hasn't moved to ban all Chinese food/additive imports. US companies would probably cheer, and no arguments from anyone. Buying cheap chinese shirts isn't the same as worrying your kid will get sick/killed from poisoned food

Posted by Weird Al 2007-05-22 17:36|| 2007-05-22 17:36|| Front Page Top

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