A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....08-12-03...Cheap Chinese Goods are too Expensive

Billie; FreeTheHostages | FreeTheHostages

[Billie]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Mama_Bear, dansangel, dutchess, Aquamarine ~

by FreeTheHostages
Design by Billie

HighRoadToChina has been maintaining a very good Communist China ping list here at Free Republic since July 2002. He is a soft-spoken, deliberate, and thoughtful person. He has hard-won insight into this Communist dictatorship, having been born in Shanghai. He's attended several Free Iraq Freeps, mostly on the West Coast where he lives, but also once attended one of DC Freeps! At a San Francisco Freep, he was there, one of 65 pro-US people facing a throng of 65,000 anti-war protestors. So he does more than just maintain a ping list: he puts his money where his mouth is.

HighRoadToChina's Freeper name comes from a great movie starring Tom Selleck. Like Tom Selleck in the movie, HighRoadToChina is a classy guy and he knows stuff. So let's walk a ways with him.

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Do you really know what you think about China?

Here's a little test for you:

• Is it capitalism when a Communist government lets an American business in and that American company knows it doesn't have to play by free enterprise rules and it has to let the Communists get a big slice of the pie?
  
  
• Is it capitalism when money gets funneled back to the very small, very powerful, and very rich Communists and the Chinese government insists that 50% of every foreign business be owned by the Chinese?
  
  
• Is it capitalism when the Communist Chinese favor the first-arrived American business to keep the company under its control, knowing that it won't speak up and complain about human rights and lose its gravy train, a share of the cheap labor profits?

How'd you do on the test?

HighRoadToChina is grading this test and he's here to tell you that you didn't do very well if you lent an ear to easy solutions to what ails China: the Chinese Communist government.

How long have we heard pie-in-the-sky stories about the 1.2 billion consumer class and how capitalism is going to bring democracy to China? It's not happening. Nixon went to China over 30 years ago. And still it's very much a communist country: 80 percent rural, very poor, with women treated as second-class citizens, a nuclear power founded on a slave economy that literally works young women to death. Sure, in Shanghai and Beijing you can see "progress," many skyscrapers. But you could have seen economic progress in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s too. That was not capitalism either.

Why buy goods from an organized criminal communist society that enslaves its own people, terrorizes neighboring countries, and has long-range plans to rule Asia if not the world? We have to all get educated, the way the good people of Taiwan are educated:

Taiwan represents an example and a spiritual force for the people on the mainland who are suffering. The Taiwanese are Chinese, they're free, they've elected the first democratically-elected president in 5000 years of Chinese history. Just as America is the hope for the world, Taiwan is the hope for the Chinese people.

Let's be the hope for freedom-loving Chinese people.

Why Maintain a China ping list?

Why the ping list? Because HighRoadToChina cares deeply and, well, 'cause frankly a lot of us Americans aren't doing very well on that test!

What I read about China today is very alarming. I feel that people in America don't really comprehend what's going on there. To me, it's like what happened in Pearl Harbor, but this time we could be faced with nuclear weapons.

HighRoadToChina makes a riveting historical comparison:

He notes that in the late 1930s Americans *got it* -- even before we joined World War II, we understood that the Nazi war machine wanted to make slaves of the countries it conquered. Why do we think that when the Chinese Communists undertake the same plan of genocide and slave labor and state control that it's nascent capitalism? If Americans knew not to buy German goods in the late 30's, why don't we stop buying "Made in China" at Walmart today?

Freedom in China: are you buying it? Americans stopped the Germans and Japanese in World War II at great costs. HighRoadToChina would have us safeguard our freedoms now: stop buying cheap, slave labor goods from Communist China.

Just to seal the deal, here's a hopefully memorable photograph of HighRoadToChina with his lovely wife to think of next time you are tempted to buy something with a "Made in China " label!

What did Tibet and pre-war Iraq have in common?

Next time someone tells you that trade with China is leading to great progress, have them consider the facts:

• More than a million Tibetans have been killed under the Chinese occupation as a result of torture, starvation, and execution, according to the Tibetan Government in Exile.
  
  
• More than 6,000 monasteries and their contents, irreplaceable jewels of Tibetan culture, have been destroyed.
  
  
• Tibetans are routinely imprisoned and tortured for non-violently expressing their views. Freedom of religion is severely curtailed.
  
  
• Nuns are brutally raped in Chinese prisons.
  
  
• Population control is routinely practiced on Tibetan women even though there is absolutely no Tibetan population problem.
  
  
• China is encouraging the large-scale settlement of Chinese people into Tibet which is overwhelming the Tibetan population in many areas.

China's trying to finish off Tibet right in front of the world community. We should be ashamed for allowing them to do this. Never again. And that's why HighRoadToChina got active on the Free Iraq rallies to support President Bush's war against Saddam Hussein: it's all about freedom.

HighRoadToChina with a famous radio personality,
Melanie Morgan, at a Free Iraq rally.

You should hear the truth, pride and humanity in his voice as he expresses his delight that the Iraqi people – and he has friends who are Iraqis and he knows their horror stories – earned some measure of freedom. And then he adds with a bit of sadness that Iraq is like Tibet was in 1950. Back then, the Tibetans were crying to the world for help. Nobody came to their help. Over one-fourth of the Tibetan population have since been killed by the Communist Chinese.

Wow, I pretty much shuddered when he uttered that thought. Tibet was so preventable. There are millions of people in China now, yearning for the freedom of Taiwan's way of life. Those cheap goods come at too dear a price. Thanks very much for the reminder and helping us take the high road, HighRoad.

Here's to a great pinglist-keeper, a brave activist, and a very thoughtful advocate for freedom: HighRoadToChina.

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 08-11-03 Military Monday

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

[Billie]

Hi, weinie, are you also going to take on a new name - should we call you Ariana now? :)

Let's all move to California and run for Gov!

[Billie]

LOL! Thank you, Aqua! Geez! Just because that kat was blue and the others weren't. (Seriously, I thought it was pretty funny when I saw that blue cat with those other two - I did clone the others) :)

[Billie]

Thanks, Sistah Bear! It was a nice, series one after a couple of light-hearted, fun ones from Free.

My, wudja look how those flowers grow right out of that pawprint impression. :)

[Billie]

Wow! I think Cal's got the winner with this one! (But I love the one you posted, Aqua) Sorry, Lori, your little doxie looks a little too heavy to *run*. LOL

[Billie]

Oh, such beautiful photos, jw! That little girl could stel anyone's heart! Glad you enjoyed today's profile - and the layout. :)

[Billie]

Oops!
She could STEAL anyone's heart, too. (Maybe T Man won't notice the other post) :)

[LadyX]

How nice to return home from a wonderful time visiting my sister to the Finest, and see little has changed!
HighRoad, it is our honor to spotlight you here where we can get to know you....

Sorry to say I took the 'Slow Boat to China' and missed your posts before - now will look for them. Have friends who have been English language teachers in China for eight years, so have understanding of your desire for the Chinese to have freedom from oppression, and enlightment that there is a better way to live.

Johnny Mac, I see you continue to delight us with your perception and insight into so many things, and this reply today is exceptional and haunting.

Found another Indian child from New Mexico to contrast with your Tibetan darling:

Yes, jwfiv- each child on this earth is His Creation.
How it must grieve Him to see the divisions and strife created
by the evil one in his efforts to separate us from God - - -

One glorious day every Child shall know Him - - -

[Billie]

It's great to hear from you again today, Sistah, and thanks for the mail, too.

Hope you can check in tomorrow to see your Pet Interview. :)

[Billie]

Uh-Oh - watch out for Cal - she's a panda theef. She'll still it quicker than you can blink an i. :)

[Billie]

Afternoon, Wolfie! If you're buying dinner, I'm almost ready - just need to put on my lipstick. :)

[HighRoadToChina]

Thank you for your high compliments. I am not a prophet, but a person who might have a bit more common sense than is common out there. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "There is nothing common about common sense."

Common sense about our insane trading with an avowed enemy of America and freedom that is giving them over $100 billion dollars EVERY year now. Why we should NOT be trading with Communist China.

The simple question that I ask Americans and people in the West: "Would you buy a toy or pair of shoes made in Nazi Germany, made by Jews?" If your answer is a big NO, then stop buying Made in China products!

[ST.LOUIE1]

Afternoon, Wolfie! If you're buying dinner, I'm almost ready -
just need to put on my lipstick. :)

What a cute, little lady you are.

But a bit too little for wolfie....

I'll wait for you to grow up. : )

Hey, I'll take you out for ice cream, how's that? : )

[WVNan]

(((((((Sistah!)))))))

I missed you soooooo much. Of course I know that you were having a wonderful time with Anne.

[ST.LOUIE1]

LOL!

[Aquamarine]

The simple question that I ask Americans and people in the West: "Would you buy a toy or pair of shoes made in Nazi Germany, made by Jews?" If your answer is a big NO, then stop buying Made in China products!

That is an excellent point! I'll pay more attention to what I'm buying in the future!

[Billie]

Hi, Meekie - how I wished I could have written something in Chinese today - the Chinese symbols look like a work of art all by themselves.

[WVNan]

The Israelis and Arabs realized that, if they continued in the same direction things were going, they would someday end up destroying the world. So they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with a dogfight.

The negotiators agreed that each country would take five years to develop the best fighting dog they could. The dog that won the fight would earn its country the right to rule the world. The losing side would have to lay down its arms.

The Arabs found the biggest, meanest Dobermans and Rottweilers in the world. They bred them together and then crossed their offspring with the meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest, strongest puppy from each litter, killed all the other puppies and fed the lone dog all of the milk. They used steroids and trainers in their quest for the perfect killing machine, until, after the five years were up, they had a dog that needed iron prison bars on his cage. Only the trainers could handle this beast.

When the day of the big fight arrived, the Israelis showed up with a strange animal: It was a nine-foot-long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Israelis. No one else thought this weird animal stood a chance against the growling beast in the Arab camp. The bookies predicted the Arabs would win in less than a minute.

The cages were opened. The Dachshund waddled toward the center of the ring. The Arab dog leapt from his cage and charged the giant wiener-dog. As he got to within an inch of the Israeli dog, the Dachshund opened its jaws and swallowed the Arab beast in one bite. There was nothing left but a small bit of fur from the killer dog's tail.

The Arabs approached the Israelis, shaking their heads in disbelief. "We do not understand. Our top scientists and breeders worked for five years with the meanest, biggest Dobermans and Rottweilers. They developed a killing machine."

"Really?" the Israelis replied. "We had our top plastic surgeons working for five years to make an alligator look like a Dachshund!"

[Aquamarine]

Welcome back Lady! You and Johnny Mac are good at discovering the deep secrets of the world and the Spirit.

[lonestar]

I love this story.

Weinie

[Aquamarine]

Hehehe.