I have a friend who's married to a pretty smart doctor, who happens to be Chinese. Well, and a lot of other acquaintances from Asia. Yesterday, I visited with the doctor one for a few hours, happening to catch the luck of the moment.
So I ask questions like this, open ended and respectfully: "What would you tell me if you really intended to help me understand what things are like in China today?"
Well, since her parents live in China, but want to come here once in a while for a month or two, and play with their grandkids, it started out with the crazy bureacracy. They are both just as pissed as Hades over that, in regard to both the American and Chinese departments concerned. I was trying to be respectful, so I didn't ask them if they had paid the required bribes. They did say they had tried to get Jon Huntsman to help them out, and that he had written a letter for them. . . . with apparently no favorable results.
She noted that when Obama went to China he included a remark on the situation, and got applause, saying he was going to open the doors in the United States for Chinese tourism. Millions of Chinese millionaires today want to just come to LA, go to disneyland, and then ride the bus to Vegas. They hate the anti-terrorist airline crap, and literally refuse to come here just for that. Harry Reid wants to build a MagLev train from LA to Vegas. Such a train would make LA/Vegas THE destination for Chinese tourists. She says Chinese gamblers don't flinch with huge stakes and binges, and will gamble for all they're worth.
She said that the Chinese millionaires are all buying Buicks, and are the reason for the huge GM profits currently.
She says that the one-child policy has been relaxed a little. If you live in a rural area, it's a two-child policy now. And exceptions are being granted to folks who can afford two.
She says that because the policy took effect in the late seventies and that it has created a huge excess of men in the marriageable age, who are desperate now to marry someone. Families with one male child are now willing to pay huge fortunes to smugglers who can get a bride smuggled in for their son. Right now, the main source of smuggled brides is North Korea, where there are huge numbers of women who consider the chance to both get out of the country, and marry prosperously, to die for.
She also says that we( me and my wife) are just not going about things the right way. If we want to adopt a chinese kid, we can do it, but should not go about it the regular way. We just need an inside track, or chinese facilitator, instead of an American one. Kinda scary, though, laying out a bunch of money without recourse.
She says the Chinese govt is not going to rock the boat, geopolitically. Says the leaders recognise their common cause with the US market for their business, and will not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Doesn't mean they don't think we're terminally stupid, does mean they(The Chinese business class) would even favor Ron Paul as President, on his economic policies. They don't call him "Austrian School", but "Confucian School" in economics.
So I ask questions like this, open ended and respectfully: "What would you tell me if you really intended to help me understand what things are like in China today?"
Well, since her parents live in China, but want to come here once in a while for a month or two, and play with their grandkids, it started out with the crazy bureacracy. They are both just as pissed as Hades over that, in regard to both the American and Chinese departments concerned. I was trying to be respectful, so I didn't ask them if they had paid the required bribes. They did say they had tried to get Jon Huntsman to help them out, and that he had written a letter for them. . . . with apparently no favorable results.
She noted that when Obama went to China he included a remark on the situation, and got applause, saying he was going to open the doors in the United States for Chinese tourism. Millions of Chinese millionaires today want to just come to LA, go to disneyland, and then ride the bus to Vegas. They hate the anti-terrorist airline crap, and literally refuse to come here just for that. Harry Reid wants to build a MagLev train from LA to Vegas. Such a train would make LA/Vegas THE destination for Chinese tourists. She says Chinese gamblers don't flinch with huge stakes and binges, and will gamble for all they're worth.
She said that the Chinese millionaires are all buying Buicks, and are the reason for the huge GM profits currently.
She says that the one-child policy has been relaxed a little. If you live in a rural area, it's a two-child policy now. And exceptions are being granted to folks who can afford two.
She says that because the policy took effect in the late seventies and that it has created a huge excess of men in the marriageable age, who are desperate now to marry someone. Families with one male child are now willing to pay huge fortunes to smugglers who can get a bride smuggled in for their son. Right now, the main source of smuggled brides is North Korea, where there are huge numbers of women who consider the chance to both get out of the country, and marry prosperously, to die for.
She also says that we( me and my wife) are just not going about things the right way. If we want to adopt a chinese kid, we can do it, but should not go about it the regular way. We just need an inside track, or chinese facilitator, instead of an American one. Kinda scary, though, laying out a bunch of money without recourse.
She says the Chinese govt is not going to rock the boat, geopolitically. Says the leaders recognise their common cause with the US market for their business, and will not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Doesn't mean they don't think we're terminally stupid, does mean they(The Chinese business class) would even favor Ron Paul as President, on his economic policies. They don't call him "Austrian School", but "Confucian School" in economics.
