Bill Gates says China has created brand-new form of capitalism (and praises Communist leaders)

Agence France Presse ^ | January 29, 2005

[HAL9000]

China has created brand-new form of capitalism: Bill Gates

DAVOS, Switzerland, (AFP) - US software giant Bill Gates has high praise for China, which he says has created a brand-new form of capitalism that benefits consumers more than anything has in the past.

"It is a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer its the best thing that ever happened," Gates told an informal meeting late Friday at the World Economic Forum in this ski resort.

He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead".

Manufacturers have created "scale economies that are just phenomenal", in part owing to companies there and elsewhere on the planet designing good products, Gates said.

Looking ahead, he added: "You know they haven't run out of labor yet, the portion that can come out of the agriculture sector" was still considerable.

"It's not like Korea, Korea got to a point where, boom, the wages went up a lot," he said, adding "that's good, you know, they got rich and now they have to add value at a different level.

"They're closer to the United States in that sense than they are to where China is right now."

Gates continued by heaping praise on the current generation of Chinese leaders.

"They're smart," he said with emphasis.

"They have this mericratic way of picking people for these government posts where you rotate into the university and really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country and then you rotate back into some bureaucratic position."

That rotation continued, Gates explained, and leaders were constantly subjected to various kinds of ratings.

"This generation of leaders is so smart, so capable, from the top down, particularly from the top down," he concluded.

[GSlob]

Educated antillectuals (mandarins, products of bureacracy/school complex) have been ruling China for 2000+ years, with short interruptions. Sometimes they were successful in running a reasonably peaceful and more or less prosperous society, at other times not. Nothing new to see there, move along.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Gates new capitalism, Mussolini's third way:
Modern Leftism as Recycled Fascism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1181490/posts

[Bush2000]

Odd that he would say this, considering he branded the GPL as "communistic."

You OSS guys have a helluva nerve complaining about Gates when your own software props up the Chinese state at zero cost to the Communists ...

[HAL9000]

An article from France? Not buying.

Yes, it's difficult to comprehend that an American would lavish such high praise on Communist tyrants. I hope Bill Gates will issue a statement that he was misquoted.

But if turns out that the quotes are accurate, they are deplorable and disgusting.

[snowsislander]

Yes, it's difficult to comprehend that an American would lavish such high praise on Communist tyrants. I hope Bill Gates will issue a statement that he was misquoted.

While it is conceivable that it is an echo chamber, it appears to me that there are many articles popping up on this; look at #73 where I cite three.

There are plenty of others; from China woos foreign investors, spurns forex pundits: China also won strong praise from US software giant Bill Gates, who told an informal meeting it had created "a brand-new form of capitalism", adding that for consumers it was "the best thing that ever happened". "This generation of leaders is so smart, so capable," Gates commented.

From Beijing reaches out to rest of world: Earlier this week, the Chinese Government received strong praise from US software giant Bill Gates, who told an informal meeting that China had created "a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer it's the best thing that ever happened". "This generation of leaders is so smart, so capable, from the top down, particularly from the top down," Mr Gates said, pointing to a process of rotating top civil servants on a merit basis through universities so they could "really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country".

From Bill gates says short the dollar !!: Gates described China as a potential ``change agent'' for the next two decades. ``It's phenomenal,'' Gates said. ``It's a brand new form of capitalism.''

[cynicom]

I aint fooled. Gates and his family were never worth countless billions. I may have 2 million but I am poor by Gates standard.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Our free system has let Mr. Gates become wealthy beyond the dreams of Midas, yet here he extolls one of the vilest governments on earth.

Incredible.

[He Rides A White Horse]

It seeems Bill is praising them because he wants to do business with them.

Sure. Imagine the great tools he could offer the regime. Computers that nark out their users when questionable words or sites come up. Maybe branch out into personal surveillance. Big horizon there for a person as ambitious as Gates.

[ThanhPhero]

He is just trying to sell them something over there. You don'6 sell if you say bad things about your client, especially if they are true.

[snowsislander]

He is just trying to sell them something over there.

According to everything that I have read (for instance, see my posts #73 and #85 in this thread), he was not in China at the time and he was not addressing the Chinese directly. Instead this was something that he said while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

[orangelobster]

"He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead". "

In other words, sweatshops without medical insurance or legal rights for the employees. Sounds like Gates is losing touch with reality.

[Golden Eagle]

But if turns out that the quotes are accurate, they are deplorable and disgusting.

Total agreement. But let's not forget it's been less than a month ago that Gates was criticizing communism, if you recall.

Bill Gates calls free culture advocates communists

[familyop]

Bush2000 wrote:
"You OSS guys have a helluva nerve complaining about Gates when your own software props up the Chinese state at zero cost to the Communists ..."

Some of the following information (further down) contains pearls for anyone who is in systems administration, development, and even administration--especially the PDF file about "Open Source Licensing." It might even keep some of you out of trouble in your work. There are some surprises for you. The following will probably not please the political/social followers who only push either Linux or Microsoft software, though.

Secure open systems are used by most if not all governments. Our US Government uses such a system in some of its critical offices, and it's a system that works with crypto for about everything.

First, the bad news for religious/pecuniary followers of Microsoft:

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-09-03-007-10-SC

NSA Backdoor in Windows Crypto API found
Sep 3, 1999, 17 :51 UTC (10 Talkback[s]) (5730 reads)
(Other stories by Andrew Fernandes)

[ Thanks to Malte Cornils for this link. ]

"Microsoft Installs US Spy Agency with Windows"

"Between Hotmail hacks and browser bugs, Microsoft has a dismal track record in computer security. Most of us accept these minor security flaws and go on with life. But how is an IT manager to feel when they learn that in every copy of Windows sold, Microsoft has installed a 'back door' for the National Security Agency (NSA - the USA's spy agency) making it orders of magnitude easier for the US government to access their computers?"

"While investigating the security subsystems of WindowsNT4, Cryptonym's Chief Scientist Andrew Fernandes discovered exactly that - a back door for the NSA in every copy of Win95/98/NT4 and Windows2000. Building on the work of Nicko van Someren (NCipher), and Adi Shamir (the 'S' in 'RSA'), Andrew was investigating Microsoft's 'CryptoAPI' architecture for security flaws. Since the CryptoAPI is the fundamental building block of cryptographic security in Windows, any flaw in it would open Windows to electronic attack."

IMO, the Linux General Public License stinks and is legally viral. But the BSD License is encouraging for the free market while being open for the purpose of disallowing dirty tricks.

...now, the bad news for Linux preachers but good information for all you. You'll probably find the following to be very informative.

Open Source Licensing: What Every OEM Should Know
A Wasabi Systems white paper
Jay Michaelson
Vice President & General Counsel,
Wasabi Systems Inc.
http://www.wasabisystems.com/pdfs/GPL.WhatOEMsShouldKnow.pdf (Adobe Acrobat file)

Here's a shocker for you. Things have not been as they seemed. Look behind the smoke.

"As far as I know, Microsoft has not tried to restrict the freedom of programmers." --Richard Stallman

List: macbsd-general
Date: 09/02/1994 18:26:42
(developed into a flame fest between Stallman and open systems developers)

Both Stallman and Gates have sought to devalue developers and small business owners to nearly nothing.

[EGPWS]

Sounds like he's intent on maintaining a business in a communist slave state at this point.

He is a business man, savvy at that, not a politician dictating who, where , or when to do business, or a man of the cloth professing spiritual dogma.

To defame Bill Gates and what he has achieved is to defame what our business system is and what it is that has made it the greatest in the world.

[EGPWS]

Overall, the average Chinese person is superior to the average American in that they have a greater capacity for work. We were like that for the longest time, but then sometime during the 70s it began to change.

Excellent point AlbionGirl!

Back in '98 I experienced this "fact" first hand while visiting Hong Kong and Beijing.

However, I might say, the average Chinese isn't superior to the average American, their mind set toward fulfillment through work is however.

[MarkL]

The new capitalism. Capitalism without civil rights or liberties. Slavery, in other words.

You know, the exact same thing ran through my head: "Slave Labor."

Mark

[durasell]

Yes, but he's still annoying.

[longtermmemmory]

Gates is just kissing up because he fears the chinese will make a free or adopt an open source OS.

[Uncle Vlad]

The new capitalism. Capitalism without civil rights or liberties. Slavery, in other words.

You're right, there's nothing new about it at all. It's the same type of capitalism practiced by the 19th Century American robber-barons. Been there, done that.

[xm177e2]

Bill Gates should read Bill Gertz's new book about how China armed Iraq. Illegally.

Unless China armed Saddam with some bootleg copies of XP, I don't think he's going to care.