Posted on 11/28/2014 1:20:27 AM PST by rjbemsha
They are young, wild, free -- and very, very rich. These wealthy Chinese students go to school in the day and flaunt their social status during private meet-ups at night. These lavish gatherings feature posh venues, designer handbags and blinged out shoes, ladies in stiletto heels and sexy skirts and, of course, supercars -- plenty of them. Maserati, Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghinis you name it -- they're all on display in neat rows.
“I have three Ferraris, this is my newest one,” an interviewee told producer and host Kristie Hang at a supercar meet-up in the San Diego valley in California. When asked why he had chosen to buy his latest US$270,000 (S$350,000) car, he said, “I’m just studying in California and this car is named California… very romantic.”
Another male student, who was just 20 years old, also admitted he kept his Lamborghini on the down low, and would drive another [cheaper] car to school.
But why the secretive meet-ups? Hang said that the Chinese government is “touchy” about exposing how the children of the elite live. Hence, these youngsters would secretly organise meet-ups using the popular Chinese app, WeChat. According to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April 2011, rich Chinese — those with assets of more than 10 million yuan — have about 3.6 trillion yuan (US$564 billion) invested overseas.
Zhong Dajun, director of the non-governmental Dajun Center for Economic Observation & Studies in Beijing told the Associated Press ... it is mostly corrupt government officials who transfer entire fortunes overseas because they have been illegally acquired and "they have fears and feel guilty."
(Excerpt) Read more at sg.news.yahoo.com ...
And yet, the businessman never had such a large role in China until today. Once they decided it was glorious to be rich, shortly before the Richard Nixon era, they had to take a seat at the table of capitalism even while showing socialist table manners.
This thread is useless without pictures of “ladies in stiletto heels and sexy skirts “!!!!!!!
But they are Chinese ladies.
Anyhow, if Chinese quasi-capitalists must spend lavishly, what better place to do it than the USA.
You bet.
And the modern capitalist economic system they’ve imported and adapted is vastly different from the traditional Chinese economy. For one thing, hundreds of millions of Chinese have climbed well above poverty for the first time in their history, with reasonable prospect of doing even better in the future.
Seems to me this is a VERY positive trend, even if it does unjustly empower the Party, who are seen, rightly or wrongly, as responsible.
Given their huge success over a 2000 year period as businessmen whenever they left China and were out from under the thumb of the mandarins, Chinese obviously have a talent for business. It’s a very good thing for China and the world that they’re finally being allowed to exercise it at home.
“Why are these idiots in the US?”
Have a daughter that recently graduated from Arizona State. She says that foreign students, primarily from Asia and the Middle East, are “all over the place”. As in the article, she says most have expensive hot cars and Diplomatic license plates, meaning immunity from traffic violations. Why do American Universities put up with these people? Simple, foreign students typically pay cash, up front, for their education. They’re cash cows to use a business term.
There are certain virtues fomented under a Buddhist belief system, which is mostly what China has had in the last couple millennia or so. That in itself does not make the religion “true” but it mirrors some qualities of Judeo-Christian ethics.
From an economic standpoint they are doing better, even while making a very sloppy job of it from environmental standpoints (the hyper polluted Yangtze, the smog filled Beijing).
If it were not for the Judeo-Christian fueled blessings of the West, China never would have gotten into this position. There would be no trade partner worth the efort. This may be dawning on more and more Chinese people.
“But they are Chinese ladies.”
I like Chinese “ladies in stiletto heels and sexy skirts “!
Don’t blame the corporations because American workers can’t compete.
Yeah, unions didn't have anything at all to do with that now did they? /s
What's good for university profit margins isn't necessarily good for America. Especially when american students are sacrificed to make way for chinese idiots/criminals with dubious qualifications. I can understand why Chinese idiots want to come to America, but I can't understand why Americans want Chinese idiots to come to America.
No argument here. I was merely stating a fact, not defending or condoning it :)
Nothing changes. The ruling elite in China are toppled in a “peoples revolution”. The victors establish themselves with an even greater concentration of power and wealth. Que up The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
To get capital in China, and avoid "problems" with the bureaucracy, you need to be connected to a senior Party official.
Communism evolves into a feudal aristocracy. Same deal with the "oligarchs" of Russia. Where did they come from? Where did they get the capital they needed to buy up "privatized" industries?
Chinese friends, now American citizens, told us that Chinese worship money at all levels and having more money. My college students say that Chinese students in the Business department cheat to get their grades. But I know Christian Chinese students who are NOT like that so regeneration makes a difference.
In China the mandarins were on top, a group that never existed anywhere else. The peasants came next, then warriors and merchants. Merchants traditionally were viewed as semi-criminal, with no real right to their gains, and were plundered at their whim by mandarins or the Emperor.
Putting the mandarins on top produced stability for 1,300 years. The mandarins were the intellectuals of China. Which type of people are the source of subversion and revolutionary agitation? By giving intellectuals a path to wealth and power, you remove them as a source of revolutionary agitation.
Mao, the son of a wealthy farmer, under the mandarin system, would have risen to high rank within the system, instead of overthrowing it.
I’m not entirely sure Chinese history can be called one of “stability,” given its Change of the Mandate of Heaven every couple of centuries and the general resultant loss of 25% to 50% or more of the population before a new dynasty took hold. Not to mention many complete or partial conquests by barbarians.
But I do get your point. Few of the dynasties were founded by mandarins. Usually by a soldier or even peasant.
The greatest disruption of China in the 19th century was the Taiping Rebellion, with perhaps 50M people killed. It was led by a guy who had failed the exam multiple times. Had he passed, it’s likely nobody would have ever heard of him.
As you say, the same would probably have been true of Mao. Co-opting the most competent of your potential opponents is always a wise move.
Something, BTW, America has always excelled at. That Jackson and Sharpton are still the most prominent black “leaders” may have something to do with this.
Any competent and intelligent black person today will have multiple organizations falling all over themselves to recruit him/her. Including conservative ones. Why lead a revolt against “the system” when the system wants to invite you in?
“Because anything that is associated with “Western values” is banned. “
Where did you observe that? I work with Chinese and found they have over 300 million people that live better than the average American.
They flaunt their social status during private meet-ups at night.
Saaaay that sounds like D.C. at night.
Yeh at least they are not on welfare and don’t have 12 illegitimate kids in tow.
Yeah, but we paid Gruber a fortune and he still didn't shut up. :)
But your larger point holds - it would have been a lot cheaper to buy off the radicals than pay for their schemes like Obamacare, the EPA, and the Great Society.
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