Desperate Americans resorting to antique laws

In its repeated demonizing of China and bullying of China, the Americans have run out of ideas and reasons to oppress and obstruct Chinese exports and trade with the Americans and the Americans have dug into the dark dungeons to bring out a defunct 1974 Trade Act to use against China. Section 301 of this Act ‘allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other restrictions to protect US industries from “unfair trade practices” of foreign countries, such as trade agreement violations or “discriminatory” actions that burdens US commerce.’
 
So what else would the Americans pull out next, what about the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1882? I think this Act will surely work since it was so effective in the past. And Trump and his administration should go further and go back to past practices of their grandfathers. With the glorious reputation of being the head of a Ku Klux Klan, Trump could invoke the power of his grandfather’s Klan to deal with immigration from Asia and Africa and also from Latin America.
 
The Americans have been so civilized in their old ways and should look no further, no need to think harder or work harder. Go back to past practices. It is all about American Exceptionalism and the Americans were and still are the most civilized people in the world.
 
Tillerson is telling the North Koreans that they ‘are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond.’ The North Koreans 2 ICBMs still under testing are an unacceptable threat to the Americans while the Americans flying nuclear bombers over the Korean peninsula is not an unacceptable threat to the North Koreans. The almost daily military exercises outside North Korean soil and sea simulating an invasion are not an unacceptable threat to the North Koreans. The threat of a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea backed by thousands of nuclear warheads is not an unacceptable threat to the North Koreans.
 
What else is new and silly, America?

Xi Jinping – End to Deng Xiaoping’s policy of ‘swallowing bitter fruit’

Many western stereotype writers and politicians have been harping about an assertive China as if China was pushing everyone around in its foreign policies. They have yet to see what an assertive China is like. The truth, China has been adopting a policy of restraint and humility guided by Deng Xiaoping, to work conscientiously in the peaceful development of China and to avoid dispute, in another words, to work hard, even to swallow bitter pills.
 
The western powers especially the Americans and even Japanese thought that this was a sign of weakness and had been pushing China on every fabricated issue they could think of. China’s response was appeasement and walked away from the raw challenge of military power like the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the flying of nuclear armed bombers and recon planes to threaten China and the increasing provocations of violating the territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. Even a pretentious regional power like India thought it was strong enough to brazenly send soldiers into Chinese territories to stop the Chinese from road building works at the Sino Bhutan border.
 
The Philippines under the Aquino govt in collusion with the Americans and Japanese thought they could bully China by setting up a kangaroo court at The Hague to rule against China and to declare Chinese islands as rocks in the ocean, thus cutting away Chinese territorial rights in the South China Sea.
 
Enough is enough. China would not tolerate such violations of its sovereignty and national interests anymore. During the 90 Anniversary of the PLA, Xi Jinping has made an important policy speech to move away from Deng Xiaoping’s policy of avoidance of trouble by not picking up the gauntlet, even when humiliated. Henceforth, ‘We will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time, in any form. No one should expect us to swallow the bitter fruit that is harmful to our sovereignty, security or development interests.’
 
This is a major shift in Chinese policy and overdue. Countries still complaining about an assertive China would be mistaken and would be rudely awaken to see the real assertive China to come. From this speech, Xi Jinping has firmly give notice to the world, to the USA, Europe and little countries like Japan, England and Australia that China would mean business and would not tolerate their nonsense and unreasonable demands and provocations. The constant provocations by the Americans in the South China Sea would be firmly dealt with and with appropriate military response if needed to. China would show the Americans the middle finger on the North Korean issue. It is not China’s problem to deal with the North Korean’s nuclear programme and China would not go along or be pressured by the Americans to undermine its relations with the North Koreans. More firm response would be taken against Thaad deployment in the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese should be more careful with their words and actions on the island dispute in the East China Sea. And India better move its soldiers out of Chinese territory before they be kicked out by force.
 
The China today would take the bull by the horns and face any challenges squarely and militarily if necessary. Little USAs better take note and shut up or would have eggs in their faces. ‘China wants peace, but will not be bullied’, said President Xi Jinping. China would no longer walk away from trouble, provocations and challenges.
 
The world is going to see the real assertive China when its interests are threatened or challenged. This time China would say to the Americans, all options are on the table, including military ones. Not only the Americans can say this, China too would be saying this to the Americans. China would not just be watching idly by should the Americans attack North Korea or any of its allies.

Philip Ang – Beware Ponzi scheme may blow up soon

Philip Ang wrote a piece with figures to support to warn Singaporeans about the risk of the CPF Ponzi scheme blowing up. How reliable were the numbers he put up is debatable as what he could do was to extrapolate from the limited data available. The truth or data as to the financial health of the CPF money is not readily available. The soundness of the CPF savings is as good as the govt’s words, trust me, everything is professionally managed by the best managers money can buy, in good hands, and the money is safe. And it is secret. This is the most frightening part. When the data or truth cannot be told or concealed, should you be worried? Knowing how people like to parrot their achievements, and when there is no achievement to gloat about and no data to show, you better read between the lines and make your own conclusion.
 
The CPF is now like a secret maze, guarded with top secrecy and the public don’t really know what is going on except for some numbers put up occasionally. Is Philip’s concern valid, that this Ponzi scheme is about to blow up? If Philip is right, no Singaporean is spared and the consequences are grave. Imagine a whole life time of earnings of a few million people disappeared in thin air. Just hope Philip is wrong and everything is fine. Trust the govt that everything is fine.
 
There is another Ponzi that cannot escape the passage of time. This is the 99 year lease on HDB flats. Singaporeans are expected to celebrate SG100 in 2065, ie less than 50 years away. By then, many HDB flats would be at the end of their leases and many Singaporean HDB owners would see the value of their flats becoming zero. There is no way to cover up or avoid this rude awakening. The million dollar asset rich Singaporeans would turn penniless overnight comes SG100. Not only that, many would have to be evicted from their flats when the leases expired.
 
Still there is another immigration Ponzi scheme going on when more and more foreigners would have to be brought in to shore up the property market. The influx of more and more people cannot go on and on. It is unsustainable and must come to a halt. Then what? Another big bust.
 
With these 3 Ponzi schemes awaiting to explode, is the future really that comfortable, good and secure for Singaporeans?

Another stupid article - Is Malaysia next after Sri Lanka falls knee deep in China’s debt trap?

This article appeared in The Independent site written by a Veasna Var, a PhD candidate and a Sovinda Po, a masters student. The gist of the article is that many countries are heavily in debt to China for borrowing to build infrastructure and commercial projects in their respective countries. Sri Lanka is supposedly drowning in debt to the tune of US$64b of which US$8b is owed to China.
 
Cambodia also owed 80% of its bilateral debt of US$3.9b to China. Next comes Malaysia, with Chinese firms investing some US$35.6b in projects in Malaysia and another RM56b for a high speed railway linking KL to Singapore. And after signing for RM143b worth of projects last November, Najib is back in China to ask for more funds and more projects. It is China’s fault again! Najib is so gullible and is begging to be duped again and again to get Malaysia into bigger debt? The bomohs in China must be working very hard on Najib to make him fall into China’s debt trap.
 
What is important and often ignored is that the debt is made up of concessionary loans or grants to these countries which means at very favourable interest rates. What is also not mentioned is that these countries are the beneficiaries of investments and infrastructure developments as a result of the loans and grants.
 
The big question, why is this China’s fault? Did the authors understand that it is these countries that went to China to ask for cheap loans to rebuild their countries and to ask China to invest in their countries? Are the leaders of these countries idiots that blindly went to China to ask for cheap money and investment only to end up in huge debts? Did these leaders know what they were doing, why they were taking such huge loans and grants and would end up in big debt if they mismanaged the funds? Is this the fault of China for being generous and helpful to offer cheap loans and investments at the requests of these countries?
 
Did China put a knife at the throat of the leaders of these countries to accept the cheap loans and grants? Who is doing who a favour in such deals and agreements? Who are the beneficiaries of the cheap loans and grants? With the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, did these countries benefit anything at all?
 
And if these countries mismanaged or make losses as a result of these cheap loans and grants and investments, why is it China’s fault? All these silly academics only see one side of the picture, China is benefiting and the countries enjoying cheap loans and investments are the losers, not gainers?
 
Why did not the leaders of these countries go to the West to ask for cheap loans and grants for the same reasons, for more investments? The West would not lend them the money? Or the West would charge them higher interest rates and higher development costs?
 
Are the authors of the article thinking individuals or thinking but with flawed logics, as good as unthinking? Or they have different agenda to paint the generosity of China as black?
 
What do you think? Why are the leaders of these countries forming a beeline to China for cheap loans and grants voluntarily if these are bad for them? Should they be running away? Are these leaders fools and willingly be conned by China? China is not their colonial masters and did not put a gun on their heads and tell them to sign or else as the West did in the past.

Would Boon Wan be twitting like Trump?

Half way through a prepared speech on the reliability of the train, Boon Wan could not tahan anymore and went off the cuff to berate the negative reporting of the breakdown of public transport by the main media. ‘I don’t like the media reporting…Even our main media have turned tabloid. Yes, exciting and so on…frightening figures, headlines.’
 
According to Today’s readers comments, the media were reporting the truth, what were happening exactly on the ground and these were very helpful to commuters who needed to know the real situation and to plan their travel. It would be terrible if the media were to report average of breakdowns over24 hours like the reporting of haze situation and the commuters would be like lost sheep, not knowing what to do.
 
Some comments from interviews conducted by Today, ‘The media is basically reflecting the sentiments of regular train commuters….the updates provided by the media have helped commuters such as herself to plan their commute…I don’t think the media has (exaggerated) recent train delays and breakdowns….)
 
Professor Lee Der Horng of NUS has this to say, ‘…that mainstream media coverage of the recent train delays was an accurate reflection of the situation, and it played a role in getting train operators to come forward and explain to the public the cause of those delays….The media cannot be so blind that when the re-signalling work casuse delays, they’re not reported. I think (in that case) the public would be furious.’
 
Now the media is caught in a vice, between a hard rock and the deep blue sea. How and what should the media be reporting? Or should the media be telling the people just to hear the good stuff…and ignore the bad news?
 
What Boon Wan could do is to follow Donald Trump and go twitting and instruct the train operators to twit as well. Just keep twitting and ignore the main media. It would be better if he could tell the main media to stop reporting on the train delays and all news on public transportation and delays would be available on twitters. That would make the job of the main media easier and commuters would only hear the good news, the good stuff, the right stuff, from twitters.
 
What is fake news and real news is a fine thin line. I am being generous.