[Sonny M]

I think china is slowly moving more towards the pinochet model in some respects. It will be a facist state, with power, but in this case its looking to build its economy around manufacturing, which will provide it with jobs, creating wealth for its people, who will then be able to spend it, on chinese made products. The problems that they have and even the chinese admit this, is that they do not create or innovate. They do not invent. They can claim no advantage over intellectual properties or ideas or products. Untill they move towards creatitivity, they will be a source of cheap labor. As america moves more towards a service oriented economy (which is what we essentially have now). China will be the labor. This can't be good for them or us in the long run, especially when cheap labor is easy to replace, while creative visionary's are not. I wish the USA would actually look to fast tracking and moving ahead with our patenting department and FDA. The chinese don't even get the concept of benefiting from your own invention.

[formosaplastics]

Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc. all started out in the 1960's with "cheap labor" and shoddy products and one-party governments as well, but eventually they got rich, better-educated, made high-quality products, and even adopted multi-party democracy. On the other hand, the majority of people living in India today are still poor and illiterate after 50 years of democracy. Recently, a Toshiba executive commented that there was no difference in quality between a laptop made in China and one made in Japan.