China The New

With the recent space mission and space walk I was remembering how not so many years ago we Canada was giving this country aid dollars . Yes they sure have changed at the worlds expense They have no real quality control and their pollution laws are a joke . The recent chemical scares are what we have discovered wonder what we haven't yet .
There lack of concern shown to the concerns of the western world is odd and troubling Tibet , the example and the utter disregard for there own people rights is Amazing . I don,t begrudge them better times and a share of the world wealth just think they have taken too big a piece at any cost and we are too beholding to them to do much .
They are the new leader and we should be prepared as their record is very suspect. If they are were going to be so perfect why was the coverage of the Olympics so controlled people they are a state to fear . They have us all in there back pocket if they want our cooperation just threaten us with the basics of life after all we can't make our own any more . At least the US shared the wealth with us what has China shared with us recently . I believe this is s dangerous slope and advantage we have given them .
Free trade is the main reason and it is something we need to look at . We are losing a unreal amount of our natural resources to them and will have nothing left well they are starting to mine their own . Their country is quite vast and has more then we have been told . What are your feeling This is not meant as a anti Chinese rant just a concern I have with this relationship .

I think they've made such an amazing cultural change in a very short time. They may never fully emulate the West but I expect over time they'll evolve more to what we think of as the norm.

I've been watching China for a while now - I agree they've come a long way culturally in such a comparitively short time. I'm hoping though that while they are emulating the West to a large extent, that they can avoid a lot of our "bad habits", such as rabid consumerism as an example.

Strange country...putting people into space but plowing their firlds by hand or with oxen.
I've always felt that they looked down on outsiders, and consider other countries/cultures as newbies and are condecsending toward us.
Change has to come from within as they don't really care what others think of them.
Great topic.

Yes but are they wrong not to care as we are there bread and butter the rest of the western world, we don't buy they are hungry pretty fast . Rather ironic that 20 yrs ago they were getting Aid from Canada

They are absolutely wrong for not caring imho. Their leaders curtail outside influences but that is becoming impossible to continue doing.
But, as Airt said, we should hope and pray that they don't get caught up in consumerism...or else, we're screwed.

Just a mildly humourous aside - perhaps if they DO get caught up in consumerism it'll mean they'll be keeping all their cheap "disposable" Chinese crap for themselves :twisted:

Or, we can start selling them roadkill packaged as organically feed polar bear meat and see how they like it.

Well, maybe a one-for-one, endangered species for endangered species trade for some panda meat?

Sad to say they are the biggest poachers in the world most of the poached animals end up in China .

From what I've heard, so do a lot of cars stolen from Canada and the US.

They seem to have very little respect for the convention of law unless it suits the power s that be . Most of the worlds counterfeit goods come from there also , this is sad considering they make the real ones also. This wholesale transfer of jobs there will come back to bite us along with the American led charge to open trade up .
Yes third world countries love it as they are know doing what most of our own used to do , so well we collect ui to buy the goods we used to make why is this good for us .

Maybe it's not that bad eh Pavolo? The global workforce is changing. That is the natural evolution of economics.

Used to be everything was made in America
Then it was all made in Japan
Then it was all made in Korea
Then it was all made in China
Notice how all those countries are doing freakin awesome? Notice how they are now the power houses?

Pretty soon, based on the Market implosion in the states...Everything will be made in America again ( only the quality wont be nearly so good)

No I dont think so and most of the shine is coming off China as Wall Mart is getting angry at the amount of returns with in 1 year so are most of the stores. Wall Mart is Chinas biggest freind and supporter . Most people are tired of the domination brought on by American manifactures going there and leaving unemployed here.

As long as the dollar is low, and the Chinese products are cheap...there won't be a real shift.

WalMart could care less about returns...for every return they get,
there's 100x that who just throw the thing in the garbage and forget
about it...leaving WalMart with the profit from the sale. A return
costs them nothing, as they return it to the manufacturer and get
refunded anyway.

I think the only thing that will change the Chinese culture, is the
Chinese people...not the rest of the world. China maintains 1/6th of
the WORLD's population. And they have all been trained from birth
about the way things are SUPPOSED to be...so that's what they believe.

The rest of the world will have small influence on a few
individuals...who may argue for change or improvement...but unless
those people are in positions of power or influence...there is no way
the entire populace will adjust.

Just look at events like Tieneman Square. The government comes in and
slaughters so many people who have protested being oppressed...which
provides a simple message that change will not be tolerated...at least
not yet.

The other thing to keep in mind though, is while China is not
changing...they are also not trying to impose THEIR beliefs/standards
on the rest of the world. They aren't walking around saying "if you're
country won't be communist...we won't do business with you". They
don't agree with the rest of the world's belief in democracy &
capitalism...but they'll take advantage of it for as long as the world
lets them. But why does everyone else think how they live is wrong?
Because it's not how THEY live.

I read an article during the Olympics about a reporter who has lived in
China for about 8 years now. (I THINK it was in a Time magazine). He
said, in general, China is not all bad...that the stereotypes and
rumours that get passed out...are usually from people who don't
understand or who are perpetuating other stereotypes & rumours.
Even if he's only half correct...it would still seem more reasonable to
LEARN about China directly, instead of perpetuating even more issues
that may or may not exist.

Well said.
(except the Returns part....don't they actually cost in terms of company time/effort/etc?)
My mother used to go to China on a regular basis and laughed at the stereotype that westerners had of the people and customs.
We should realize that China is worlds apart from our way of thinking...and it will take a very long time for cultures to mesh.

JTF wrote:Well said.
(except the Returns part....don't they actually cost in terms of company time/effort/etc?)
My mother used to go to China on a regular basis and laughed at the stereotype that westerners had of the people and customs.
We should realize that China is worlds apart from our way of thinking...and it will take a very long time for cultures to mesh.

According to the Documentary I watched about WalMart...in order for an item to be sold BY WalMart, certain protocols must be met.

One is a return policy that if an item is returned, a full compensation of purchase cost & shipping must be provided by the supplier. Whether that supplier gets full costs back from manufacturers (ie. the Chinese companies) is unknown...but it really doesn't effect WalMart.

I was thinking more about the costs in terms of time and effort. Moving money through the account without it sticking is not good business imo.
If the returns from a company are too high it is counter-productive to deal with them I reckon.

walmart actually has contracts that stipulate if the returns exceed X... then Walmart does not need to pay for any of the product.

Also contracts such as unless X% sells...Walmart can return any unsold product for full compensation.

So they indeed do account for returns. I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

oh heck yeah... they actually like more returns on some products because it gets them the rest of the product for free.

Yeah...I thought that's what I was saying.

They do take returns...but they don't dislike them...because it doesn't really effect their bottom line.

Deank wrote:walmart actually has contracts that stipulate if the returns exceed X... then Walmart does not need to pay for any of the product.

Also contracts such as unless X% sells...Walmart can return any unsold product for full compensation.

Correct. They've had consignment worked into all of their contracts for years. Or " mark down " money if something doesn't sell too well, they can just put it on clearance with little or no loss to themselves. When you get as big as they do, and when smaller suppliers decide to sell to Walmart, a times they can unknowingly put themselves ( the small supplier ) can put themselves into jeopardy. It's not uncommon for Walmart to dictate strong arm tactics on small to medium sized suppliers when it comes to the product they buy, since its in such large volumes, it often becomes the sole customer for said supplier. I imagine it was more difficult when it came to Chinese factories, given the huge scale of production many of them are capable of, but Walmart's growth hasn't exactly stagnated too much in the past 10 years , so they may have that ability with them as well.

yeah walmart flexes it muscles real well.. its the arnie of sales world. no one.. and I mean no one, not even the USA government has the kind of power Walmart holds.