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]

Thanks, Sistah! Not sure about Freezie, but 'dis guy has a great time collaboratin'!

However, 'dat guy is off learning 'stuff' on her own and soon will be will be solo'ing, methinks!

[Aquamarine]

Hi TTM, I put Billie the Kat back for you....Kats

[Aquamarine]

Weinie for Governor of California!

[Mama_Bear]

Good morning everyone and Happy Tuesday!

Freezie, thank you for introducing us to highroadtochina. Great job as always. Billie, love your presentation and the panda hostess graphic. Too cute, we are. :-)

Highroadtochina, I remember reading some of the threads about the Free Iraq rally in SF and thinking how much courage it takes for such a small group to oppose 65,000! I know several who attended that rally on the pro-USA side, but actually I consider ALL who stand up and support the US my brothers and sisters, and I praise God you all came out of it unscathed. Many have seen how peace-loving "they" can be when confronted with the truth.

Thanks for being there and for all you do. Welcome to the Finest spotlight. Enjoy your day!

Finest hugs to my sistahs and Finest FRiends.

Go Weinie!! ;-)

[Mama_Bear]

LOL! Perfect graphic!

[FreepForever]

Isn't he great?

Are you kidding? He is at least Governor stuff, if you ask me.

[Aquamarine]

Thank you. I stole it from Calpernia. lol

[The Thin Man]

You remind me of my ship's motto ~ Non Bonum Sed Perfectum

Thank you for the nice compliment...............I think. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

Another graphic for Weinie to use in her campaign.

(Now Weinie please don't be insulted by the girth of this little doxie, I am sure you are much more svelt, but it's the only one I could fine.) :-)

Weinie for Governor!

[The Thin Man]

Hi TTM, I put Billie the Kat back for you

Did you have to? I like it better the other way!

[Billie]

Thanks for coming. :)

[Billie]

P.S. This is totally Billie's fault.

Well, well, well, share the honors, not the blame. LOL!

However, it's true, it's true, it's true. (That is to your "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it....., T Man) :)

[Calpernia]

>>>Weinie for Govenor of California!

Signed, Weinie's Agent.

[Calpernia]

Morning Mama_Bear.

Be back, off to run errands.

[Billie]

Stilling = Stealing

No problem. You were just speaking 'Texan' for Billie.

Darn strate she was! You kud lern, to, if you weren't to stubbern.

[FreeTheHostages]

No bed is perfect?

Wow, that would be appropriate to our discussion of trade with China today. It's a very uncomfortable bed.

[jwfiv]

Miss Freezie, Miss Billie, an elegant and classy profile of our honored guest today...thank you. Very nice...)

HighRoadToChina, I'm pleased to meet you, and wish to say how much I appreciate you prompting us to keep our eyes open to the story between the lines. Great points you make, all of them.

"Before kingdoms can change, Man must change."

It is my hope that China will take the high road, and someday renounce it's fuedalistic and medieval Commie ways. It's people like you that will make that transformation happen.

Congratulations, HighRoad, on being in the spotlight today here at the Finest.

Wishing all our Hostesses, FRiends and Freepers may find themselves groovin' on a Tuesday afternoon...)

Below is a pic of a little Tibetan sweetheart, and then a Buddhist sand painting from that Himalayan kingdom, followed by a Navajo sand painting from AZ...it's always amazed me how similar their sacred art is to each other.

Something beautiful happenin' here...we're all God's children.

[dutchess]

Hi Billie and Free. Wonderful job as always! Free...you always pick the most perfect profiles and "a little bird" said you or doing more and more on your own. Great job sistah!

highroad...thanks for fighting the good fight. All 4 of my grandparents imigranted from Poland...we still have many relatives there who can attest to the horrors of communism. They are just now getting on their feet and beginning to "enjoy" the fruits of capitalismm having been so dependent on government for so long...and not knowing how to take personal responsibility.

[dutchess]

Hey sistahs...hate to "post and run" but mother is "breathing down my neck".....hope to stop back later! (Mama_bear...I'll send you an email later...promise!)

[jwfiv]

Still time to say Good Morning to a fellow Californian...Good Morning, Mama_Bear...)