Bush throws down gauntlet to China with Dalai Lama meeting

Agence France Presse ^ | 10-10-07 | P. Parameswaran

[Stonewall Jackson]

Is it too much to hope that they take all of their junk off of our shelves and go home?

[Monkey Face]

China needs to get bent.

[Eyes Unclouded]

Yep. Most favored trading nation, some crazy number in dollar holdings, somehow got alot of nice tech *cough Clinton cough*. Their problems coming in the next decades will be felt elsewhere too, environmental degradation, social uprisings, demographics, face it Mr. Jackson China is here to stay.

: (

[TigersEye]

This will be the first time that a sitting US president will appear with the Dalai Lama in a public event, ...

Because Clinton didn't have the...what do you call them? ... cajones?

Or maybe it's because the Clintons get their biggest cash contributions from Beijing!?!

[onedoug]

“Long hitter, the Lama.”

[TigersEye]

The award "has sent very serious, wrong signals to the Tibetan independence forces, seriously interfered into China's internal affairs and damaged China-US relations," Beijing said then.

I hear it didn't slow down your torturing of nuns and monks in Lhasa prisons.

[george76]

Bingo :

because the Clintons get their biggest cash contributions from Beijing!?!

[antiRepublicrat]

Because Clinton didn't have the...what do you call them? ... cajones?

Not meeting the Dalai Lama since he fled the Chinese would include every president since Eisenhower.

[pandoraou812]

China reacted angrily when the US Congress announced the award last year

Boo hoo to China. I'm with Sassy on her boycott. After reading what they've done to the Tibetans I have nothing to say to them but as another poster said ...get bent. And I bet the Clintons took lots of cash. They need to get bent too.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

This will be the first time that a sitting US president will appear with the Dalai Lama in a public event, ...

Because Clinton didn't have the...what do you call them? ... cajones?

Or maybe it's because the Clintons get their biggest cash contributions from Beijing!?!

Well, the Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959 - plenty of US presidents missed the opportunity to make a statement against China's illegal takeover of Tibet. Kudos to Bush for doing so.

[TigersEye]

Yes it would. Who was the last big lib in the WH. The one who could "feel your pain?" Who does the left hold up as their hero? Today, not 30, 40 or 50 years ago?

FWIW Eisenhower was out of office before or very shortly after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet. In those days (Eisenhower or JFK) had the CIA clandestinely training Tibetan resistance fighters.

[TigersEye]

see post #12

[americanophile]

Please, Bush is bent over by the Chinese...if he wants to throw down the gauntlet he should start banning contaminated Chinese exports and slap trade tarrifs on their products until they start playing by the “free trade” rules.

[montag813]

The award "has sent very serious, wrong signals to the Tibetan independence forces, seriously interfered into China's internal affairs and damaged China-US relations," Beijing said then.

"Internal affairs"? Wasn't Tibet an independent state before Maoist China invaded it? Why isn't that invasion considered an act of genocidal aggression by the Security Council?

[Maynerd]

If there was any justice or logic in the world, the UN and the intelligentsia would be hellbent on freeing Tibet and her Bhuddist monks as opposed to “Palestine” and her suicide bombers.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Isn’t there a FReeper named dial-up lama or something?

[SteveH]

Isn’t there a FReeper named dial-up lama or something?

You mean Dialup Lhama? ;-)

[Caipirabob]

Is it too much to hope that they take all of their junk off of our shelves and go home?

In the short term, yep.

Long term implications? Well, the Chinese, when they manufacture goods for American corporations, subsidize the construction of factories and the "molds" used in any fabrication process. The government owns the molds.

So say you are manufacturing "Star Wars" toys and due to the "quality fade" factor the next batch of "Obi Wan" dolls has a new force power called "Force Lead Poisoning": You jump up and down and tell the factory, "We're cancelling our order!".

Well, you can't just get up and walk away. The Chinese own the molds and you have to start all over again somewhere else, and you can bet it won't be in China. Then you have to start from scratch somewhere else, and your profit margins going to take a beating. So your shareholders are screaming and you'll probably lay off half your lower end staff here at home.

The next day, some nameless Chinese company launches it's new "Star Wares" toy line at half the cost of the goods you've just imported.

Sleep with a dog and wake up with fleas...same old story.

Over the short haul, we won't see much change. Long term? We may see nominal improvements in quality even with "quality fade". Enough to entice manufacturing to remain there. Remember PT Barnum's words...

[Joe Boucher]

President Bush had better be careful, he may screw up his money train from the chi-coms after he gets out of office.