Results tagged “us”

Yes, indeedy, change is coming to the US of A and people, you'd better believe it! If Sen. Nancy Jacobs, Sen. Barry Glassman and Del. Wayne Norman, three Harford County, Maryland Republicans, have their way, it is soon going to be ILLEGAL to sell an American or Maryland flag made outside the country (ie., China), and all flags displayed on state property must be manufactured in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Said Sen. Nancy Jacobs to the Baltimore Examiner: "It just seems rather unpatriotic to be buying flags made in China... It's important to a lot of people. Basically, I'm happy that this starts the conversation on buying American." She proposed the general prohibition because she was asked to by "a good friend of mine who happens to be a union leader and who believes very strongly in buying American products." According to the Flag Manufacturers Association of America, the US imports about $5 million worth of flags each year, mostly from China. The association boasts of a wonderful programme that certifies that every step of the flag-making process -- fiber, dyeing, weaving, sewing, staff-making -- is completed in the US so that bored inmates at the Maryland Correctional Enterprises have something to do. Addendum: Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap writes in to inform us that as of late 2007, it's been illegal to sell Chinese-made US flags in Minnesota. Here's what he wrote last year.

Because we know you've all been searching high and low for it, here's a video of President Obama's inaugural address with Chinese subtitles that we found on Chinese video site Youku. The video is complete and includes Obama's references to "fascism and communism" (censored by Chinese media) but the Chinese subtitles leaves "fascism" intact, editing out only the "communism" [insert whatever joke you like here]. For your convenience the full transcripts of Obama's speech, in English and Chinese are included after the jump:

If you were jam packed into Glamour Bar with 600 other people earlier this morning, watching President Barack Obama being sworn in, you might have been a little too dizzy with euphoria (and possibly heatstroke) to notice particular segments of his 18-minute inauguration address -- specifically, ones that likely caused the head honchos in Beijing to collectively cringe.

Thomas Crampton points us to a special fundraiser held Friday night in Shenzhen by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China to benefit orphans. Star of the evening was none other than Presidential-elect Barack Obama's half-brother Mark Ndesandjo. The media spotlight was firmly on him as reporters turned up in full force to get close to Ndesandjo.

Jimmy Carter, the former US president who formalised ties with China 30 years ago, meets Premier Wen Jiabao (温家宝) in the same room where he first met the late Deng Xiaopeng (邓小平). Carter said he visited China as a young man when he was in the navy and always thought of his life and destiny as being "very close to China". Accompanying Carter were other leading former US officials, including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and National Security Advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Youku Buzz points us to this video of Chris Pereira singing The Star Spangled Banner in Chinese. We must say this impassioned rendition of the US anthem brought a single tear to our eye. And this guy is not even American — he's Canadian.

China's "blueprint for a worldwide revolution" according to the US Navy in 1964. [h/t to Mutant Palm]

Reuters has of late been collecting "video postcards" from people around the world sending their wishes and advice to US President-Elect Barack Obama. Here's what they filed from people on the streets of Beijing.

Chinese hackers have "penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials", said a senior US official to the Financial Times:

On each occasion, the cyber attackers accessed the White House computer system for brief periods, allowing them enough time to steal information before US computer experts patched the system.

Continue reading "US says attacks on White House, Obama and McCain networks came from China"

Many Chinese did not follow the American election closely. But political observers say there was little doubt that Obama has captured the imagination and support of young Chinese, particularly those who are studying English and the political systems of other countries.

China is the country most feared by Americans as a potential military threat, according to a recent survey by the Financial Times. While China and the United States both appear to at least be interested in engaging each other to secure peace in the Asia-Pacific region, they are also sizing each other up for the possibility of some kind of military confrontation in the future. Shortly after this high level military exchange was conducted in Hawaii, China announced it would suspend all such future exchanges as a way of protesting the supply of military weapons to Taiwan by the U.S.

Even as news of the sudden closure of the Hong Kong-listed Dongguan-based toy manufacturer Smart Union, a key supplier to Mattel and Disney, continue to hog international headlines, framed against the backdrop of the ongoing financial crisis that has spread from the United States to the rest of the world, Xinhua says it has the "whole truth" on those closures, and makes the case that many other toy factories had been closing since the start of the year and the most recent closures have little to do with economic troubles in the U.S.:

While there are reports that in the first seven months of the year, more than 3,600 toy makers already went out of business in China thanks to factors such as rising wages and material costs.

Continue reading "Xinhua has "the whole truth" on toy factory closures"

In articles written exclusively for AmCham's China Brief magazine, US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have outlined their visions for US-China relations if they were to come to power.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have reduced exports by over eight percent, idled more than 60 coal plants and announced they will lower import tariffs on the commodity, all because of shortages. It’s more than foreign competition and transport prices the country has to worry about — energy supplies within the PRC are dwindling to dangerous lows. We in Shanghai got a taste of what such scarcity might mean when blackouts struck the scorched city earlier this month.

Things are getting heated in the build-up to U.S. Presidential elections this coming fall, and China is a subject that both candidates keep coming back to, and that American voters are eager to hear about. The faltering Olympic organization and burgeoning economy of the PRC have been getting most of the attention, but in the past few days it has been other issues that have turned the attention of the Presidential hopefuls and their supporters across the Pacific.

The Economist has issued its latest Big Mac Index which uses the price of McDonald's hamburgers to compare international currencies. The fast food dish is a funny but apt international measuring stick, since its 31,000 stores in 119 countries make it a widespread global phenomenon. But all those burgers are telling essentially the same story, at least as it relates to China: the yuan is severely undervalued. That might be bad for foreign economic competition, but it’s good for us — the Chinese burger, at $1.41, is the second most affordable in the world, beat out by India for the cheapest spot by a single cent. And people wonder where the Chinese obesity epidemic comes from.

A study released Tuesday by a U.S. research group concluded that China's economy will overtake that of the U.S. by 2035. The report, by economist Albert Keidel of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also announced that China's economy will be twice the size of the U.S. economy by 2050. Under current market estimates, China's GDP now stands at about $3 trillion, compared to the U.S.'s $14 trillion, reports Rob Lever of AFP. Keidel, a former World Bank economist and U.S. Treasury official, predicts that

China's financial clout will spill into every conceivable dimension of international relations... [the United States] will have an important secondary influence, like Europe, but it will need to compromise, and its sphere for unilateral action will be increasingly curtailed.

has been revealed by Thomas Crampton on his blog. Anyone know anything about these guys?

A new documentary film comparing six high school students from China, the U.S. and India calls for reform of the U.S. education system in favor of the more rigorous Asian education systems. Two Million Minutes, a film developed by American venture capitalist Bob Compton, points out that students in China and India work much harder than those in the U.S., score consistently better than American students on international student comparisons, and now pose a threat to American students' job prospects in the U.S. In the movie's trailer, one American high school student gabs about sororities while her Chinese counterpart is featured fiercely practicing her violin.

"Until now, India has been the undisputed world leader in IT Outsourcing (ITO). Now the Indians are looking over their shoulders as China bids to overhaul their lead!"

ABC News: Athletes banned from Beijing opening ceremony