Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Middle Class Job Losses Batter Economy
Associated Press | January 2 2006 | Associated Press and Vicki Smith

Posted on 01/02/2006 4:19:44 AM PST by ventana

AP Middle-Class Job Losses Batter Workforce Sunday January 1, 8:53 pm ET By Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press Writer Middle-Class Job Losses Batter Workforce As Companies Slash Payrolls, Send Jobs Overseas

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Thirty years ago, Dan Fairbanks looked at the jobs he could get with his college degree and what he could make working the line at General Motors Corp., and decided the GM job looked better.

He still thinks he made the right choice. But with GM planning to end production of the Chevrolet SSR and shut down the Lansing Craft Centre where he works sometime in mid-2006, Fairbanks faces an uncertain future.

"Back when I hired in at General Motors 30 years ago, it seemed like a good, secure job," said Fairbanks, president since June of UAW Local 1618. Since then, "I've seen good times and I've seen bad times. This qualifies as a bad time, in more ways than one."

Many of the country's manufacturing workers are caught in a worldwide economic shift that is forcing companies to slash payrolls or send jobs elsewhere, leaving workers to wonder if their way of life is disappearing.

The trend in the manufacturing sector toward lower pay, fewer benefits and fewer jobs is alarming many of them.

"They end up paying more of their health care and they end up with lousier pensions -- if they keep one at all," says Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney. As wages and benefits drop, "it's the working class that's paying the price."

West Virginia steelworkers are all too familiar with the problem. The former Weirton Steel Corp., which 20 years ago had some 13,000 employees, today has just 1,300 union workers left on the job.

The steel mill has changed hands twice in two years, and just last month, Mittal Steel Co. told the Independent Steelworkers Union it would permanently cut the jobs of 800 people who'd been laid off since summer.

Larry Keister, 50, of Weirton, W.Va., has 31 years in the mill that his father and brothers all joined. His son tried, but got laid off quickly.

"I'm too old to go back to school. I've worked there all my life," says Keister, who drives a buggy in the tin mill. "I went there straight out of high school. It's all I know."

Though Keister is safe for now from layoffs, he wonders what will happen to the hundreds of friends and co-workers who will be jobless by the end of January.M

Gary Colflesh, 56, of Bloomingdale, Ohio, said there are few jobs in nearby Ohio or Pennsylvania for workers to move to.

"They're destroying the working class. Why can't people see this?" asked the 38-year veteran. "Anybody who works in manufacturing has no future in this country, unless you want to work for wages they get in China."

Abby Abdo, 52, of Weirton, said workers once believed that if they accepted pay cuts and shunned strikes, they would keep their jobs. Not anymore.

"Once they get what they want, they kick us to the curb," he said. "There's no guarantee anymore. No pensions. No health care. No job security. We have none of those things anymore."

Fairbanks of the Lansing GM plant said the changes are going to force a lot of people to retrench to deal with the new economic reality. For some, it will make it harder to send their children to college or be able to retire when they want. For others, it will mean giving up some of the trappings a comfortable income can bring.

"You're going to see lake property, you're going to see boats, you're going to see motorcycles hit the market," he said. "People get rid of the toys."

Economists agree the outlook is changing for workers who moved from high school to good-paying factory jobs two and three decades ago, or for those seeking that lifestyle now.

"It was possible for people with a high school education to get a job that paid $75,000 to $100,000 and six weeks of paid vacation. Those jobs are disappearing," says Patrick Anderson of Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, Mich. "The ... low-skill, upper-middle-class way of life is in danger."

General Motors Corp. has announced that it plans to cut 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008. Ford Motor Co. is scheduled to announce plant closings and layoffs in January that could affect at least 15,000 workers in the United States and Mexico, analysts say, and is cutting thousands from its white-collar work force.

GM and Ford have won concessions from the United Auto Workers that will require active and retired workers to pick up more of their health care costs, and DaimlerChrysler AG is seeking similar concessions.

Thomas Klier, senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, says the transition for manufacturers toward leaner, lower-cost operations has been going on for some time. But the bankruptcy of the nation's largest auto supplier, Delphi Corp., pushed the issue into the headlines.

Its 34,000 hourly U.S. workers could see their pay cut from $27 an hour to less than half of that, although the company is still trying to work out a compromise unions will support. Workers also could have to pay health care deductibles for the first time and lose their dental and vision care coverage.

Delphi worker Michael Balls of Saginaw, Mich., hears the argument that U.S. companies' costs are too high to compete with plants that pay workers less overseas, but he doesn't buy it.

"I think if Delphi wins, they lose," he says. "If I'm making $9 an hour, I'm not making enough to buy vehicles."

Unfortunately for workers like Balls, the old rules no longer apply in the new global economy, says John Austin, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Brookings Institute.

"We're in a different ball game now," Austin says. "We're going to be shedding a lot of the low-education manufacturing jobs."

Some of those workers are likely to try to move into the growing service sector, Austin says. But he says the transition can be tough, even if the jobs pay as well as the ones they had -- and many don't.

"Pointing out a medical technician job is available if they go back and get a certificate doesn't solve the issue today for those 45-year-olds who are losing their jobs at Delphi," he said.

Dick Posthumus, a partner in an office furniture system manufacturing company in Grand Rapids, Mich., says that "basic, unskilled manufacturing is going to be done in China, India, places like that because we are in a global world, and there's nothing anyone can do about that."

His company, Compatico Inc., buys much of its basic parts from South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and China, where Posthumus has toured plants he says rival modern manufacturing plants in the U.S. But the company still saves its sophisticated parts-making and assembly for its Michigan plant.

"The manufacturing of tomorrow is going to look somewhat different from the manufacturing of yesterday," Posthumus says. "It doesn't mean that we no longer manufacture ... (But) it's going to be a painful adjustment."

Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this story.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: ap; employment; freetraitors; globalism; greed; hosts; jobs; nomyyob; party; pity; union; work; workers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 221-240241-260261-280 ... 781-797 next last
To: Mr. Bird; Havoc
"And I doubt your Mexican national is less productive; it is likely he is extremely productive on the margin, which is why he has the job now."

LOL! Guess you haven't had to call Dell or HP for support lately?

Offshoring has increased quite a bit... taking salaries, taxes, purchasing power out of the hands of many middle class citizens. Only ones not to suffer consequences are the CEOs and the BODs.

241 posted on 01/02/2006 3:44:00 PM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: MojoWire
The keystone of America is freedom, and that includes the freedom to move your business anywhere around the world one would choose.

Once you move your business from a free country to a communist, socialist or totalitarian dictatorship, do you expect the American people to protect it for you? To make sure you don't get ripped off by the communists? To pay you for your business if revolution destroys it or government takes possession of it? If pirates attack the ships carrying your goods?

What is your compact with the American people in return?
242 posted on 01/02/2006 3:44:40 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 229 | View Replies]

To: rbg81

"Best of luck in the Phillipines. Hope you don't get taken hostage, shaken down by the "authorities", killed by Marxist/Islamist rebels..."

Just for the record, that's only on southwestern Mindanao and the islands to the southwest.

Philli is mostly Christian.

Davao City was rated as "most livable Asian city" for most of the last 10 years.


243 posted on 01/02/2006 3:47:54 PM PST by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: hedgetrimmer

Cnina is the enemy of tghe US, economicall and militarily.


244 posted on 01/02/2006 3:48:57 PM PST by TXBSAFH ("I would rather be a free man in my grave then living as a puppet or a slave." - Jimmy Cliff)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 242 | View Replies]

To: Havoc
It is (treasonous) when doing so .... (buying foreign products) undermines your countrymen.

Have you ever traveled to a foreign country for vacation or holiday rather than here in the U.S.?

You, then, have contributed as much if not more that I to the economy of that foreign country, and in your logic, have acted treasonously toward the U.S.

245 posted on 01/02/2006 3:52:00 PM PST by Edit35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 166 | View Replies]

To: Havoc

Excuse me. Anyone can afford a college education. Especially someone with a UAW job.
Not only that, anyone in a job can go acquire more skills to make themselves more valuable to their employer.


246 posted on 01/02/2006 4:06:23 PM PST by hubbubhubbub
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
LOL! Guess you haven't had to call Dell or HP for support lately?

Why is it so damned difficult for non-business owners to see the world through a business owner's eyes? I never said, not once, that the Mexican/Portagee/Chinese/Madagascaran/insert-your-favorite non-American-here replacement worker provides outstanding service to the bitter, petty, and universally myopic Free Republic isolationist. What I have said, every time, is that they are more productive. On the margin. Which means they add to the overall profitability of the business.

This does not mean they work harder; it does not mean they are better looking; this does not mean they will steal your wife and corrupt your children. It means that the very unemotional machinery of business has determined that exploiting their labor is more efficient than exploiting yours. Get over it. And if you don't like calling India to service your Dell, stop buying their computers.

247 posted on 01/02/2006 4:08:01 PM PST by Mr. Bird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 241 | View Replies]

To: ventana
"Anybody who works in manufacturing has no future in this country

Not true, while those same folks are losing jobs here in Michigan there are southern states whose citizens are reaping the rewards of choosing not to succumb to the idle promises of the U.A.W.

In terms of auto manufacturing jobs, there is very little being sent overseas that is produced then imported back to the U.S. What is happening is that manufacturing jobs are being created overseas in an attempt to establish plants, jobs and ultimately buyers of our cars. Prime example being Canada.

These bogus stories also neglect to tell of the widespread development of foreign plants (Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc....) in "NON-UNION" friendly states since it is a well known fact that the Japanese are not willing to have to deal with unions.........

Here in Michigan the economy is tanking and all our Canadian Socialist governor the perky Granholm can think of is raising taxes. In terms of major manufacturing, our state is dying and the only way it can be turned around is if the state starts offering tax-free incentives for new and existing manufacturers and turning the state into a "Right to Work" state......

248 posted on 01/02/2006 4:12:18 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (I break for pikas, swerve for skunks and accelerate for possum......squirrels I just shoot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hedgetrimmer
Once you move your business from a free country to a communist, socialist or totalitarian dictatorship, do you expect the American people to protect it for you?

Certainly not. Nor do I support that bill, forget its name, which guarantees U.S. companies which choose to locate overseas.

What I do believe, however, is that there is a lot, a lot of downside to moving a company abroad.

Confiscation of the entire business, for example.

There is also possible armed revolution to consider. Poor labor, and poor supply chains to get raw materials.

Moving a business to the third world is not this panacea that everyone paints it out to be.

A businessman must calculate all the risks. Some are worth it and some are not.

But we as American citizen business owners should be free to make that choice.

Furthermore, for all those people who hate foreign products, consider that fact that each time you vacation overseas, you are sending more money $$$ to foreign countries than I likely spend on foreign products here in the U.S. in one year, expecially for an expensive $8,000-$10,000 vacation, which is not that unusual these days.

249 posted on 01/02/2006 4:15:37 PM PST by Edit35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 242 | View Replies]

To: MojoWire
Well blow me down with a feather.

Didn't know it would take so much! ;-)

Are you really contemplating going to war with a country because they have cheaper labor than us?

LOL! Get real, don't you know anything about the Chinese Communist Party?

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Check this short clip out, from Chi Haotian, Chinese Defense Minister, in a secret 2005 speech to their General Staff that was fortunately leaked: War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

... These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined “not to be buried by either heaven or earth” no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage.

Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, they enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, “The Party’s leadership is prompt in making decisions. Once a decision is made, it is immediately implemented. There’s no wasting time on trivial things like in capitalist countries. This is our advantage.” Our Party’s democratic centralism is built on the tradition of great unity. Although fascist Germany also stressed high-level centralism, they only focused on the power of the country’s executive, but ignored the collective leadership of the central group. That’s why Hitler was betrayed by many later in his life, which fundamentally depleted the Nazis of their war capacity.

What makes us different from Germany is that we are complete atheists, while Germany was primarily a Catholic and Protestant country. Hitler was only half atheist. Although Hitler also believed that ordinary citizens had low intelligence, and that leaders should therefore make decisions, and although German people worshipped Hitler back then, Germany did not have the tradition of worshipping sages on a broad basis. Our Chinese society has always worshipped sages, and that is because we don’t worship any god. Once you worship a god, you can’t worship a person at the same time, unless you recognize the person as the god’s representative like they do in Middle Eastern countries. On the other hand, once you recognize a person as a sage, of course you will want him to be your leader, instead of monitoring and choosing him. This is the foundation of our democratic centralism.

The bottom line is, only China, not Germany, is a reliable force in resisting the Western parliament-based democratic system. Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany was perhaps but a momentary mistake in history.

Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don’t believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China?

Germany’s dream to be the “lord of the earthÔ failed, because ultimately, history did not bestow this great mission upon them. But the three lessons Germany learned from experience are what we ought to remember as we complete our historic mission and revitalize our race. The three lessons are: Firmly grasp the country’s living space, firmly grasp the Party’s control over the nation, and firmly grasp the general direction toward becoming the “lord of the earth.”

Next, I’d like to address these three issues.

The first issue is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.

Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast, our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.

Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes . It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse, once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It’s not that we haven’t paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue.

But the term “living space” (lebensraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany. The reason we don’t want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West’s association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xins new theory, "Human rights are just living rights," we only talk about “living,” but not “space,” so as to avoid using the term “living space.” From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they could develop outside of China.

The second issue is our focus on the leadership capacity of the ruling party. We’ve done better on this than their party. Although the Nazis spread their power to every aspect of the German national government, they did not stress their absolute leadership position like we have. They did not take the issue of managing the power of the party as first priority, which we have. When Comrade Mao Zedong summarized the “three treasures” of our party's victory in conquering the country, he considered the most important “treasure” to be developing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and strengthening its leadership position.

We have to focus on two points to fortify our leadership position and improve our leadership capacity.

The first is to promote the “Three Represents” theory [8], stressing that our Party is the pioneer of the Chinese race, in addition to being the pioneer of the proletariat. Many citizens say in private, “We never voted for you, the Communist Party, to represent us. How can you claim to be our representatives?”

There's no need to worry about this issue. Comrade Mao Zedong said that if we could lead our allies to victory and make them benefit, they would support us. Therefore, as long as we can lead the Chinese people outside of China, resolving the lack of living space in China, the Chinese people will support us. At that time, we don’t have to worry about the labels of "totalitarianism" or “dictatorship.” Whether we can forever represent the Chinese people depends on whether we can succeed in leading the Chinese people out of China.

The second point, whether we can lead the Chinese people out of China, is the most important determinant of the CCP’s leadership position.

Why do I say this?

Everyone knows that without the leadership of our Party, China would not exist today. Therefore, our highest principle is to forever protect our Party’s leadership position. Before June 4, we realized vaguely that as long as China’s economy is developed, people would support and love the Communist Party. Therefore we had to use several decades of peacetime to develop China's economy. No matter what -isms, whether it is a white cat or a black cat, it is a good cat if it can develop China's economy. But at that time, we did not have mature ideas about how China would deal with international disputes after its economy is developed.

Comrade Xiaoping said then that the main themes in the world were peace and development. But the June 4 riot gave our Party a warning and gave us a lesson that is still fresh. The pressure of China's peaceful evolution makes us reconsider the main themes of our time. We see that neither of these two issues, peace and development, have been resolved. The western oppositional forces always change the world according to their own visions; they want to change China and use peaceful evolution to overturn the leadership of our Communist Party. Therefore, if we only develop the economy, we still face the possibility of losing control.

That June 4 riot almost succeeded in bringing a peaceful transition; if it were not for the fact that a large number of veteran comrades were still alive and at a crucial moment they removed Zhao Ziyang and his followers, then we all would have been put in prison. After death we would have been too ashamed to report to Marx. Although we have passed the test of June 4, after our group of senior comrades pass away, without our control, peaceful evolution may still come to China like it did to the former Soviet Union. In 1956, they suppressed the Hungarian Incident and defeated the attacks by Tito's revisionists of Yugoslavia, but they could not withstand Gorbachev thirty some years later. Once those pioneering senior comrades died, the power of the Communist Party was taken away by peaceful evolution.

After the June 4 riot was suppressed, we have been thinking about how to prevent China from peaceful evolution and how to maintain the Communist Party's leadership. We thought it over and over but did not come up with any good ideas. If we do not have good ideas, China will inevitably change peacefully, and we will all become criminals in history. After some deep pondering, we finally come to this conclusion: Only by turning our developed national strength into the force of a fist striking outward—only by leading people to go out —can we win forever the Chinese people's support and love for the Communist Party. Our Party will then stand on invincible ground, and the Chinese people will have to depend on the Communist Party. They will forever follow the Communist Party with their hearts and minds, as was written in a couplet frequently seen in the countryside some years ago: "Listen to Chairman Mao, Follow the Communist Party!" Therefore, the June 4 riot made us realize that we must combine economic development with preparation for war and leading the people to go out! Therefore, since then, our national defense policy has taken a 180 degree turn and we have since emphasized more and more "combining peace and war." Our economic development is all about preparing for the need of war! Publicly we still emphasize economic development as our center, but in reality, economic development has war as its center! We have made a tremendous effort to construct "The Great Wall Project" to build up, along our coastal and land frontiers as well as around large and medium-sized cities, a solid underground "Great Wall" that can withstand a nuclear war. We are also storing all necessary war materials. Therefore, we will not hesitate to fight a Third World War, so as to lead the people to go out and to ensure the Party’s leadership position. In any event, we, the CCP, will never step down from the stage of history! We'd rather have the whole world, or even the entire globe, share life and death with us than step down from the stage of history!!! Isn’t there a "nuclear bondage" theory? It means that since nuclear weapons have bound the security of the entire world, all will die together if death is inevitable. In my view, there is another kind of bondage, and that is, the fate our Party is tied up with that of the whole world. If we, the CCP, are finished, China will be finished, and the world will be finished.

Our Party's historical mission is to lead the Chinese people to go out. If we take the long view, we will see that history led us on this path. First, China"’s long history has resulted in the world"’s largest population, including Chinese in China as well as overseas. Second, once we open our doors, the profit-seeking western capitalists will invest capital and technology in China to assist our development, so that they can occupy the biggest market in the world. Third, our numerous overseas Chinese help us create the most favorable environment for the introduction of foreign capital, foreign technology and advanced experience into China. Thus, it is guaranteed that our reform and open-door policy will achieve tremendous success. Fourth, China"’s great economic expansion will inevitably lead to the shrinkage of per-capita living space for the Chinese people, and this will encourage China to turn outward in search for new living space. Fifth, China"’s great economic expansion will inevitably come with a significant development in our military forces, creating conditions for our expansion overseas. Even since Napoleon"’s time, the West has been has been alert for the possible awakening of the sleeping lion that is China. Now, the sleeping lion is standing up and advancing into the world, and has become unstoppable!

What is the third issue we should clinch firmly in order to accomplish our historical mission of national renaissance? It is to hold firmly onto the big "“issue of America."”

Comrade Mao Zedong taught us that we must have a resolute and correct political orientation. What is our key, correct orientation? It is to solve the issue of America.

This appears to be shocking, but the logic is actually very simple.

Comrade He Xin put forward a very fundamental judgment that is very reasonable. He asserted in his report to the Party Central Committee: The renaissance of China is in fundamental conflict with the western strategic interest, and therefore will inevitably be obstructed by the western countries doing everything they can. So, only by breaking the blockade formed by the western countries headed by the United States can China grow and move towards the world!

Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.

Therefore, solving the "“issue of America"” is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the white race. We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them. Second, after solving the "“issue of America,"” the western countries in Europe would bow to us, not to mention to Taiwan, Japan and other small countries. Therefore, solving the "“issue of America"” is the mission assigned to CCP members by history.

I sometimes think how cruel it is for China and the United States to be enemies that are bound to meet on a narrow road! Do you remember a movie about Liberation Army troops led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping? The title is something like "“Decisive Battle on the Central Plains."” There is a famous remark in the movie that is full of power and grandeur: "“The enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road, only the brave will win!"” It is this kind of fighting to win or die spirit that enabled us to seize power in Mainland China. It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight each other! The United States, unlike Russia and Japan, has never occupied and hurt China, and also assisted China in its battle against the Japanese. But, it will certainly be an obstruction, and the biggest obstruction! In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle.

One time, some Americans came to visit and tried to convince us that the relationship between China and United States is one of interdependence. Comrade Xiaoping replied in a polite manner: "“Go tell your government, China and the United States do not have such a relationship that is interdependent and mutually reliant."” Actually, Comrade Xiaoping was being too polite, he could have been more frank, "“The relationship between China and United States is one of a life-and-death struggle."” Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology, we still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country.

How have we managed our foreign affairs in these years? Even if we had to put on a smiling face in order to please them, even if we had to give them the right cheek after they had hit our left cheek, we still must endure in order to further our relationship with the United States. Do you remember the character of Wuxun in the movie the "“Story of Wuxun"”? In order to accomplish his mission, he endured so much pain and suffered so much beating and kicking! The United States is the most successful country in the world today. Only after we have learned all of its useful experiences can we replace it in the future. Even though we are presently imitating the American tone "“China and United States rely on each other and share honor and disgrace,"” we must not forget that the history of our civilization repeatedly has taught us that one mountain does not allow two tigers to live together.

We also must never forget what Comrade Xiaoping emphasized "“refrain from revealing the ambitions and put others off the track."” The hidden message is: we must put up with America; we must conceal our ultimate goals, hide our capabilities and await the opportunity. In this way, our mind is clear. Why have we not updated our national anthem with something peaceful? Why did we not change the anthem"’s theme of war? Instead, when revising the Constitution this time, for the first time we clearly specified "“March of the Volunteers"” is our national anthem. Thus we will understand why we constantly talk loudly about the "“Taiwan issue"” but not the "“American issue."” We all know the principle of "“doing one thing under the cover of another."” If ordinary people can only see the small island of Taiwan in their eyes, then you as the elite of our country should be able to see the whole picture of our cause. Over these years, according to Comrade Xiaoping"’s arrangement, a large piece of our territory in the North has been given up to Russia; do you really think our Party Central Committee is a fool?

To resolve the issue of America we must be able to transcend conventions and restrictions. In history, when a country defeated another country or occupied another country, it could not kill all the people in the conquered land, because back then you could not kill people effectively with sabers or long spears, or even with rifles or machine guns. Therefore, it was impossible to gain a stretch of land without keeping the people on that land. However, if we conquered America in this fashion, we would not be able to make many people migrate there.

Only by using special means to "“clean up"” America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. This is the only choice left for us. This is not a matter of whether we are willing to do it or not. What kind of special means is there available for us to "“clean up"” America? Conventional weapons such as fighters, canons, missiles and battleships won"’t do; neither will highly destructive weapons such as nuclear weapons. We are not as foolish as to want to perish together with America by using nuclear weapons, despite the fact that we have been exclaiming that we will have the Taiwan issue resolved at whatever cost. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of "“cleaning up"” America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focus instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country.

From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half of the United States to be China"’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese. But would this work? If this strategy does not work, then there is only one choice left to us. That is, use decisive means to "“clean up"” America, and reserve America for our use in a moment. Our historical experience has proven that as long as we make it happen, nobody in the world can do anything about us. Furthermore, if the United States as the leader is gone, then other enemies have to surrender to us.

Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who knows how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.

We must prepare ourselves for two scenarios. If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack [on the United States], the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States. If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the United States, China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish. That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward fearlessly for the sake of our Party and state and our nation"’s future, regardless of the hardships we have to face and the sacrifices we have to make. The population, even if more than half dies, can be reproduced. But if the Party falls, everything is gone, and forever gone!

In Chinese history, in the replacement of dynasties, the ruthless have always won and the benevolent have always failed. The most typical example involved Xiang Yu the King of Chu, who, after defeating Liu Bang, failed to continue to chase after him and eliminate his forces, and this leniency resulted in Xiang Yu"’s death and Liu"’s victory (during the war between Chu and Han, just after the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) was overthrown). Therefore, we must emphasize the importance of adopting resolute measures. In the future, the two rivals, China and the United States, will eventually meet each other in a narrow road, and our leniency to the Americans will mean cruelty toward the Chinese people. Here some people may want to ask me: what about the several millions of our compatriots in the United States? They may ask: aren"’t we against Chinese killing other Chinese?

These comrades are too pedantic; they are not pragmatic enough. If we had insisted on the principle that the Chinese should not kill other Chinese, would we have liberated China? As for the several million Chinese living in the United States, this is of course a big issue. Therefore in recent years, we have been conducting research on genetic weapons, i.e. those weapons that do not kill yellow people. But producing a result with this kind of research is extremely difficult. Of the research done on genetic weapons throughout the world, the Israeli"’s is the most advanced. Their genetic weapons are designed to target Arabs and protect the Israelis. But even they have not reached the stage of actual deployment. We have cooperated with Israel on some research. Perhaps we can introduce some of the technologies used to protect Israelis and remold these technologies to protect the yellow people. But their technologies are not mature yet, and it is difficult for us to surpass them in a few years. If it has to be five or ten years before some breakthroughs can be achieved in genetic weapons, we cannot afford to wait any longer.

Old comrades like us cannot afford to wait that long, for we don"’t have that much time to live. Old soldiers of my age may be able to wait for five or ten more years, but those from the period of the Anti-Japanese War or the few old Red Army soldiers cannot wait any longer. Therefore we have to give up our expectations about genetic weapons. Of course, from another perspective, the majority of those Chinese living in the United States have become our burden, because they have been corrupted by the bourgeois liberal values for a long time and it would be difficult for them to accept our Party"’s leadership. If they survived the war, we would have to launch campaigns in the future to deal with them, to reform them. Do you still remember that when we had just defeated the Koumintang (KMT) and liberated Mainland China, so many people from the bourgeois class and intellectuals welcomed us so very warmly, but later we had to launch campaigns such as the "“suppression of the reactionaries"” and "“Anti-Rightist Movement"” to clean them up and reform them? Some of them were in hiding for a long time and were not exposed until the Cultural Revolution. History has proved that any social turmoil is likely to involve many deaths. Maybe we can put it this way: death is the engine that moves history forward. During the period of Three Kingdoms [9], how many people died? When Genghis Khan conquered Eurasia, how many people died? When Manchu invaded the interior of China, how many people died? Not many people died during the 1911 Revolution, but when we overthrew the Three Great Mountains [10], and during the political campaigns such as "“Suppression of reactionaries,"” "“Three-Anti Campaign,"” and "“Five-Anti Campaign"” at least 20 million people died. We were apprehensive that some young people today would be trembling with fear when they hear about wars or people dying. During wartime, we were used to seeing dead people. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere, corpses were lying in heaps on the fields, and blood ran like rivers. We saw it all. On the battlefields, everybody"’s eyes turned red with killing because it was a life-and-death struggle and only the brave would survive.

It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we"’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP. Since the day we joined the CCP, the Party"’s life has always been above all else! History will prove that we made the right choice.

Now, when I am about to finish my speech, you probably understand why we conducted this online survey. Simply put, through conducting this online survey we wanted to know whether the people would rise against us if one day we secretly adopt resolute means to "“clean up"” America. Would more people support us or oppose us? This is our basic judgment: if our people approve of shooting at prisoners of war, women and children, then they would approve our "“cleaning up"” America. For over twenty years, China has been enjoying peace, and a whole generation has not been tested by war. In particular, since the end of World War II, there have been many changes in the formats of war, the concept of war and the ethics of war. Especially since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European Communist states, the ideology of the West has come to dominate the world as a whole, and the Western theory of human nature and Western view of human rights have increasingly disseminated among the young people in China. Therefore, we were not very sure about the people"’s attitude. If our people are fundamentally opposed to "“cleaning up"” America, we will, of course, have to adopt corresponding measures.

Why didn"’t we conduct the survey through administrative means instead of through the web? We did what we did for a good reason.

First of all, we did it to reduce artificial inference and to make sure that we got the true thoughts of the people. In addition, it is more confidential and won"’t reveal the true purpose of our survey. But what is most important is the fact that most of the people who are able to respond to the questions online are from social groups that are relatively well-educated and intelligent. They are the hard-core and leading groups that play a decisive role among our people. If they support us, then the people as a whole will follow us; if they oppose us, they will play the dangerous role of inciting people and creating social disturbance.

What turned out to be very comforting is they did not turn in a blank test paper. In fact, they turned in a test paper with a score of over 80. This is the excellent fruition of our Party"’s work in propaganda and education over the past few decades.

Of course, a few people under the Western influence have objected to shooting at prisoners of war and women and children. Some of them said, "“It is shocking and scary to witness so many people approving of shooting at women and children. Is everybody crazy?"” Some others said, "“The Chinese love to label themselves as a peace-loving people, but actually they are the most ruthless people. The comments are resonant of killing and murdering, sending chills to my heart."”

Although there are not too many people holding this kind of viewpoint and they will not affect the overall situation in any significant way, but we still need to strengthen the propaganda to respond to this kind of argument.

That is to vigorously propagate Comrade He Xin's latest article, which has already been reported to the central government. You may look it up on the website.

If you get on the website using key words to search, you will find out that a while ago, comrade He Xin pointed out to the Hong Kong Business News during an interview that: "The US has a shocking conspiracy." According to what he had in hand, from September 27 to October 1, 1995, the Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachëv Foundation, funded by the United States, gathered 500 of the world"’s most important statesmen, economic leaders and scientists, including George W. Bush (he was not the US president at the time), the Baroness Thatcher, Tony Blair, Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as George Soros, Bill Gates, futurist John Naisbitt, etc., all of the world"’s most popular characters, in the San Francisco Fairmont hotel for a high-level round table conference, discussing problems about globalization and how to guide humanity to move forward into the 21st century. According to what He Xin had in hand, the outstanding people of the world in attendance thought that in the 21st century a mere 20% of the world"’s population will be sufficient to maintain the world"’s economy and prosperity, the other 80% or 4/5 of the world"’s population will be human garbage unable to produce new values. The people in attendance thought that this excess 80% population would be a trash population and "high-tech" means should be used to eliminate them gradually.

Since the enemies are secretly planning to eliminate our population, we certainly cannot be infinitely merciful and compassionate to them. Comrade He Xin's article came out at the right time, it has proven the correctness of our tit for tat battle approach, has proven Comrade Deng Xiaoping"’s great foresight to deploy against the United States military strategy.

Certainly, in spreading Comrade He Xin"’s views, we cannot publish the article in the party newspapers, in order to avoid raising the enemy"’s vigilance. He Xin's conversation may remind the enemy that we have grasped the modern science and technology, including "clean" nuclear technology, gene weapons technology as well as biological weapons technology, and we can use powerful measures to eliminate their population on a large-scale.

The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle.

Currently, we are at the cross road of moving forward or backward. Some comrades saw problems flooding everywhere in our country"—the corruption problem, the state-owned enterprise problem, the bank"’s bad accounts problem, environmental problems, society security problems, education problems, the AIDS problem, various appeals problem, even the riots problem. These comrades vacillated in the determination to prepare for the military battle. They thought; they should first grab the political reform problem, that is, our own political reform comes first. After resolving the domestic problems, we can then deal with the foreign military battle problem.

This reminds me of the crucial period in 1948 in the Chinese revolution. At that time, the People's Liberation Army"’s "“horses were drinking water"” in Yangtze River, but they faced extremely complex situations and difficult problems everywhere in the liberated areas, and the central authority received emergency reports daily. What to do? Should we stop to manage rear areas and internal matters first before moving forward, or press on to pass the Yangtze River with one vigorous effort? Chairman Mao, with his extraordinary wisdom and mettle, gave the marching order "Carry on the revolution to the end," and liberated all of China. The previously thought "serious" conflicting problems were all resolved in this great forward moving revolutionary wave.

Now, it seems like we are in the same critical period as the "“horses were drinking water"” in the Yangtze River days in the revolutionary era, as long as we firmly seize the most basic principle of preparing for the military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.

Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China"’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation.

*" " " " " *" " " " " *

Notes:

[1] Sina.com is one of the largest on-line media corporations in China. The on-line survey was launched by sina.com"’s branch Sina Military (jczs.sina.com.cn). It started on February 2 and ended on March 1, 2004 and there were 31,872 persons who filled out the survey. The web page for this on-line survey is at "“http://jczs.sina.com.cn/2004-02-02/1644180066.html"” but this page has been removed and cannot be viewed.

The question was "“If you are a solider, and if are under the orders of your commanding officers, will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war?"” 34% of the visitors answered they would shoot under any circumstances even without permission from their commanding officer. 48.6% of the visitors replied that they would shoot when the lives of themselves or their companies are threatened. Only 3.8% of the participants held they would not shoot under any circumstances. Those who agreed to shoot were mostly under the age of 25.

[2] "“War Is Approaching Us"”

[3] "“Three islands"” refer to Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands, and Spratly Islands.

[4] Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997). Officially, Deng was the leader of the CCP and China from 1978-89. Actually, after Mao's death in 1976 Deng became the de facto leader of China until Deng finally died in 1997.

[5] Hu Jintao (1942-). Leader of the "fourth generation" of CCP officials. In 2003, Hu became President of the People's Republic of China.

[6] Liu Huaqing (1916-). Commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy from 1982 through 1988, vice-chairman of China"’s Central Military Commission (until 1997). Liu is considered to be responsible for the PLA"’s modernization efforts.

[7] He Xin (1949-). Senior Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

[8] "“Three Represents"” states that the CCP represents the requirement to develop advanced productive forces, an orientation towards advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China. It was put forward by Jiang Zemin, former Chinese president.

[9] Three Kingdoms refer to Wei, Shu, and Wu, three countries that overlapped the land of China during the period A.D. 220-80.

[10] "“Three great mountains"” were said according to the CCP to have weighed on the backs of the Chinese people"—imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism.

250 posted on 01/02/2006 4:17:13 PM PST by Paul Ross (My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple...It is this, 'We win and they lose.')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 238 | View Replies]

To: ventana
Ford Motor Co. is scheduled to announce plant closings

I have a friend who I play racquetball with who has worked for Ford downriver for the past 10 years or so as a millwright. With his overtime he is grossing over $110,000 a year and all he can do is say that the Republicans are trying to screw him.........the rich vs. the poor, yada yada yada.....

I have another friend who retired from the navy about 9 or 10 years ago and his wife managed to get him into an electrical apprenticeship at the Chrysler Jefferson Ave. assembly plant. He is now making over $100,000 a year...........

Now you know why your damn cars cost so much.......

251 posted on 01/02/2006 4:23:51 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (I break for pikas, swerve for skunks and accelerate for possum......squirrels I just shoot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RFEngineer
That's a big word in this context! We export quite a lot in goods and services...

B'zzzt! Wrong to the extent of the $700 billion trade imbalance. You are losing sight of that imbalance, and favoring the few trade items we still have an advantage in, and not recognizing that will soon go too if we fail to redress the fundamentals.

The vector of change is clear, and unanswered by the free traders. The US is hemhoraging its life blood. Ignore it at our peril.

252 posted on 01/02/2006 4:26:32 PM PST by Paul Ross (My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple...It is this, 'We win and they lose.')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 191 | View Replies]

To: MojoWire
But we as American citizen business owners should be free to make that choice.

But should you choose to move your business overseas, the American people are not required to grant you corporation status, nor to guarantee that you have all the benefits of an American corporation. You effectively become a foreign corporation at that point, and necessarily should lose any benefit you might have had as an American corporation.
253 posted on 01/02/2006 4:27:22 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 249 | View Replies]

To: Paul Ross

A simple starting point is the fact that 400 dollars of every American car produced under union labor goes toward paying the health benefits for Union workers. That is approximately 3 percent of the value of the average car. This is not an amount based on what it costs to make the car, this is an amount that is inflexible because the Union was able to force it the manufacturers through threats of strikes or actual strikes. I am not monomiacal about Unions, I think I am realistic. The reason Unions are disappearing is because in a free market you have to sell you labor based on what it is actually worth, not based on what you and your fellow Union members think it is worth. There is absolutely nothing about being a Union member that makes you a better employee. All it does is make you a higher paid employee. Toyota, for one, has set up a plant in Alabama, with non union labor and pays them less than their counterparts in Detroit. I certainly don't think there is any dispute that Toyotas are as good as any car made in Detroit. From my own personal experience, the Toyota is a superior car.


254 posted on 01/02/2006 4:28:03 PM PST by Casloy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 181 | View Replies]

To: Casloy
As far as car companies, you're entitled to your opinion. I'll take Chrysler over Toyota, myself.

But it doesn't mean the non-union workers are "better." You have not made a serious, objectively measurable, argument. There are costs to non-union labor too, health costs, what have you. Granted the union will likely be higher. What has that got to do with anything, though? You are just johnny-one-note anti-union bashers. And you apparently could care less about AMERICA.

255 posted on 01/02/2006 4:34:07 PM PST by Paul Ross (My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple...It is this, 'We win and they lose.')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 254 | View Replies]

To: ARCADIA
And most people, in the early years of this nation, lived in cities and did NOT own their own homes. Neither did the poor nor even the lower and middle middle classes own their own homes. Mortgages were with us, even in colonial times and when we first became a country. Do you know why so many very old homes in New England have a small, round piece of ivory in the bottom handrail of their stairases? It was put there once the mortgage was paid off in full.

It wasn't until after WW II, that the full blown growth of home ownership bloomed here and even that was a pale shadow of today's number of home ownership.

And you're going to "protect" that, how? What else are you throwing into your "protecting" pot ?

256 posted on 01/02/2006 4:35:34 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 232 | View Replies]

To: Havoc

Anybody remember that little Texan talking about a gaint sucking sound?

There are no longer American companies. The only thing American about them is they report their earnings in dollars.

My industry went thru this in the late '60's and it weren't no fun.

One thing to remember is that the only thing static about life is change. And this too shall pass. Suck it up is my advise.


257 posted on 01/02/2006 4:43:25 PM PST by Foundahardheadedwoman (I can't spell. As you have no doubt noticed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Paul Ross
No, those pins were NOT cheap at all. As a matter of fact, pins were never all "cheap", until modern history. Why else would the children's' rhyme ( "SEE A PIN, PICK IT UP, AND ALL DAY, YOU'LL HAVE GOOD LUCK." ) have become popular and an admonition, of sorts, to never ignore a pin?

I was merely using Mrs. Adams' requests to her husband, for IMPORT GOODS, to prove that Americans have ALWAYS bought things not made here. Gee, even when more things were manufactured here, many people still bought foreign goods instead.

The Masons were NOT a trade union, in the 18th century; pet. If you're going to attempt to "teach" someone a lesson...don't do so, when you, yourself, know less than nothing at all about the topic. And as one of the heads of the FreeMasonry List, you just brought up a topic which I knew more about, when I was four years old, than you do now. LOL

258 posted on 01/02/2006 4:44:05 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 234 | View Replies]

To: hedgetrimmer
Words have meanings; these are set in stone, written in blood meanings. To abuse words/make of them what you will, ignoring their meanings, is to debase the words and bastardize the English language.

The word "traitor" is a perfectly good word. I neither "hate" it, nor have any other emotional ties to it. I object strongly to the childish and perverted misuse of any and all words.

You should NEVER misuse any word. To do so, only makes you look the fool. So does you lack of proper capitalization; BTW.

I bet you also use the non word "anyways". LOL

259 posted on 01/02/2006 4:51:11 PM PST by nopardons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 237 | View Replies]

To: hedgetrimmer
But should you choose to move your business overseas ...the American people are not required to grant you corporation status (and) you ... should lose any benefit you might have had as an American corporation.

Agreed.

I'm not sure how it works at present, but I agree that the U.S. govt. should not give any financial guarantees, etc. to companies who voluntarily move overseas. (I recall hearing about a U.S. statuted that DOES provide U.S. companies with insurance. If so, it should be scrapped immediately.

You play with fire, you might get burned.

260 posted on 01/02/2006 5:13:39 PM PST by Edit35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 253 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 221-240241-260261-280 ... 781-797 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson