2023年5月14日のブログ記事一覧-文明のターンテーブルThe Turntable of Civilization

It is after reading.
October 24, 2010
The beautiful egoism of the T.V. stations, which are among the highest paid in Japan, the politicians, who are also among the highest paid in Japan (although in their case, they will not be safe forever), and the people who have had enough, and those who thought they had enough and loved mirages, overlapped, mingled, melted, and finally, over the last 20 years, reduced the value of Japan's existence to almost zero.　
It's a natural result if you look at the state of commercial television programming and you don't even question it.
They must realize they have continued falling into the lower 90% population.
It would be a reasonable outcome for those who have continued watching it.

Thick Walls Blocking China's Approach　
Even in landmines such as Latin America, where China is increasing its economic influence, the United States still has a trump card to play.
Last year, China overtook the U.S. to become Brazil's top trading partner.
Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and Argentina are now its second-largest trading partners.
Nevertheless, while Asia's overall trade with Latin America (driven exclusively by China) has surged 96% over the past decade, the U.S. has outpaced it with a 118% increase in total value.
According to Sino-Latin Capital, a Shanghai-based investment consulting firm, Chinese investment in Latin America stood at a cumulative total of $12 billion at the end of 2008.
According to the China Economic Review, it is less than Michigan's investment in Latin America.
Culture and geography are barriers to China and Latin America moving closer together.
The U.S. and Latin America are destined to coexist, and China can't compete," said Kevin Casas Zamora, a Latin America expert at the Brookings Institution.
Compared to the appeal of U.S. soft power in Latin America, China is overshadowed.
U.S. soft power is sympathetic through popular culture, language, and ideals.
Most Latin American countries are functioning democracies or aspire to become democracies.
China is trying to increase interest in the Chinese language and culture through its Confucius Institutes (about 300 language schools worldwide, including about 20 in Latin America). However, only a few people in Latin America still speak Chinese, and even fewer talk to Spanish in China.

Even in Africa, as one would expect from a place associated with Obama (everything from restaurants to car washes is named after Obama), soft power has a significant effect.
The influence of American culture permeates all of Africa, from movies to music to fashion.
African students still dream of studying in the U.S. English is a requirement.

Aid improves the image of the U.S.
The U.S. can also be counted on in times of need.
In July of this year, a series of bombings in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, killed over 85 people.
Before the attacks, President Yoweri Museveni had been trading barbs with the U.S. government over the pace of democratization in his country while at the same time strengthening relations with China.
Immediately after the incident, however, Museveni sought help from the U.S. government, not the Chinese government, and received $24 million worth of assistance, including the dispatch of investigators.

Such efforts, in contrast to China's recent political missteps (shoddy construction work in Africa, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, etc.), will help improve the image of the United States.
It also highlights that the U.S. has the opportunity to leverage its many trump cards in the cultural, military, scientific, and economic spheres.

In the two decades since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has been the world's sole superpower, but it has either failed to take advantage of or misused many of its trump cards.
The rise of China is a positive for both the U.S. and other countries in the sense that it forces the U.S. to become more involved in the world.　

The article also points out that the news people at NHK, the executives and programmers at commercial broadcasters, and almost everyone else involved, most of the editorialists at the major newspapers, and the politicians who were skilled at exploiting them were also "the unforgivable ones.
Let's continue.
The U.S. is also taking advantage of Angola's disillusionment with China.
In June, U.S. officials met with Angolan officials about strengthening trade.
Citing the IMF (International Monetary Fund) decision in 2009 to provide financial assistance to Angola, they also suggested that Western financial institutions might offer new loans to the country.

As is clear from this situation, the U.S. is more involved and more diverse.
The U.S. is involved in many parts of the world, not just Africa, through international organizations, humanitarian aid, and military assistance.
Conversely, China has a negligible military presence in Africa, although its ties to Zimbabwe and Sudan have attracted attention.
In Latin America, it has none, and even in its backyard of Asia, it is still overshadowed by the United States.

Take, for example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, Asia's largest security conference, held in July in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
Amid growing concerns over China's military buildup and territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the U.S. statement that China was in check was welcomed.

U.S. President Obama is poised to host the second U.S.-ASEAN Summit this fall.
At the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in July, it was decided to include the U.S. in the East Asia Summit starting next year.
It is reportedly to counter China's influence in Asia.

Last year, the U.S. government expanded humanitarian and military aid to Laos and Cambodia and removed both countries from its trade blacklist.
It should increase U.S. investment.

In July, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Za Kiem said the U.S. and Vietnam would "put aside past rifts" and strengthen commercial and military ties.
Trade between the two countries jumped from $2.91 billion in 2002 to $15.4 billion last year.

The U.S. also signed an agreement with Indonesia in April.
It will accelerate the flow of U.S. capital into Indonesia's economy, the largest in Southeast Asia.
Of course, China still dominates intra-regional trade in Asia.
In 2008, trade with Asian countries other than China reached $231 billion, compared to $178 billion for the U.S.
Nevertheless, most of this trade is in low-value-added intermediate goods.
China buys cheap parts and raw materials from poorer countries and processes them into products for export.
At the same time, China itself exports cheap parts and raw materials to wealthier countries such as South Korea.

This type of trade does not promote technology transfer, which is essential for Southeast Asian countries to improve their technology.
Therefore, countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia still rely on the U.S. for entrepreneurship, technology, and education.
The U.S. also accounts for a much larger share of foreign direct investment in Asia than China.
In 2009, the U.S. accounted for 8.5% of foreign direct investment in Asia, compared to 3.8% in China, or $3.4 billion compared to $1.5 billion in China.

Experts believe that Southeast Asian countries will continue to strengthen their political, economic, and security ties with the United States.
We are not going to waste the opportunity," said Elizabeth Economy, director of Asian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

For more than 20 years, the Japanese media, criminals in the name of the media, and politicians, idiots in the name of the privileged "press club," have been engaged in the worst, most uproarious comedy in human history, "Politics and Money," and the people who have been complicit in it may have become the dumbest people in the history of any nation in existence. I have written many times about the 900 trillion yen in economic losses incurred by the people of Japan, who may have become the dumbest people in existence.
Read on for the rest of the story.

Crude oil imports from the five regional powers account for most of China's trade with Africa, but even in the crude oil sector, the U.S. maintains its dominance.
While 17% of African crude oil is exported to China, the share for the U.S. is 29% (35% for Europe).
In Nigeria, the largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, Western companies are the most significant number of foreign companies partnering in oil projects.
The same is true in the emerging oil-producing countries of Ghana and Uganda.

This trend may continue.
One reason is that China's energy development and infrastructure projects throughout Afrikaans have been the subject of numerous allegations of corruption and shoddy work.

A few years ago, a Chinese-funded $8 billion road construction and mining project was announced in Congo (formerly Zaire). Still, the project has been riddled with allegations of corruption and negligence.
Something similar is happening in Uganda's massive fiber-optic project funded by China.

In 2009, the African Labor Research Network published a report titled "China's Investment in Africa - A Labor Perspective.
One of the authors, Herbert Yaoho, noted that working conditions in Chinese-owned companies operating in the 10 African powerhouses are "among the worst in the world.

Africa Disillusioned with China　

Disillusionment with China is exceptionally high in Angola and Nigeria.
Until a few years ago, both countries had adopted a pro-China stance, lured by the promise of unconditional development loans and a policy of non-interference in their internal affairs.
Total bilateral trade between China and Nigeria doubled between 2006 and 2008, reaching $7 billion (total U.S. trade with Nigeria in 2008 was $42 billion).

But Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (who died in May this year) canceled many projects, citing scandals and delays in progress.
The U.S. did not miss this opportunity.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, exports to Nigeria have increased by 48% since the beginning of this year.
Exports from Nigeria (primarily crude oil) have also expanded by 16%.

The situation is the same in Angola.
According to Rafael Marquez de Morais, founder of the country's corruption watchdog, Maca, "The corruption and lack of accountability that infests our dealings with China is an obstacle to a more sustainable long-term relationship.

A good example is the general hospital built in the capital, Luanda, as the first medical institution since independence in 1975.
The hospital, which was contracted to be built by a Chinese company, "has begun to fall apart four years after its inauguration," said Marques de Morais.
In July, the general hospital evacuated its patients and staff due to safety issues with the facility.

Reread the September 8, 2010 issue of Newsweek, which I had left at work.

Most of all, this article should be read by the editorial writers of the major newspapers, the central and programming people at the T.V. stations, and the politicians.
In the following article, there is not a single mention of the word "Japan.
In other words, remember what you have been doing for the past 20 years through the press clubs and how much you have damaged Japan's national power.

Reporter by Yoannis Gatsionis
Everyone knows by now that modern politics and economics are - in other words - the story of China's rise.
New books are published every week that announces the "inevitable" shift of power eastward, the beginning of the "Chinamerica" era, and the near future of Chinese "domination" of the world, and the major media, especially the economic press, are obsessed with the plot of Chinese global domination.
The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal are awash with articles about China.

However, the argument that China will take over the international community is too shortsighted.
It is especially true when discussing whether China, as a global power, will surpass the United States.

Many stories exist about China funding foreign infrastructure projects and Chinese companies signing contracts to meet their "insatiable demand" for raw materials.
On the other hand, when the West does embark on plans and contracts of similar (or larger) scale, media coverage is rare.

China, indeed is one of the largest countries today.
Yet, one looks at critical economic data or softer forms of influence, such as cultural influence and humanitarian aid. In that case, one can see its power is uneven and often diverted by the United States.

While trade between China, Africa, and Latin America is increasing, the pace of U.S. trade expansion and the broader scope of business are more significant.
China is now the largest trading partner for Asian countries, but low-priced products dominate trade.
The U.S. dominates trade in high-priced products.

The economy alone is far from a hegemony.
The scale of U.S. aid and direct investment in these regions still outstrips China's.
China has been strengthening its soft power in recent years, but even in this area, the U.S. continues to be the sole winner.

No country has ever achieved global hegemony solely based on economic influence," said Charles Onyangowobo, a Ugandan journalist who writes for East African, a Kenyan weekly newspaper.
*I was convinced that this reporter was reading this column.
The U.S. became a hegemonic power because of its ability in education, technology, culture (such as Hollywood movies and music), business, and sports.
China will be a significant country for the international community but will never be a hegemonic power."

Perhaps nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than in Africa.
In this region, China is said to be the tricky winner of "neocolonialism" over resource acquisition.

China provides development assistance to Africa in the form of low-cost products, infrastructure investment, and loans with loose lending conditions, without making respect for human rights a condition of exchange, as in the West.
In return, they get the raw materials that are the engine of economic growth in their own countries.

China's presence in Africa has been increasing in recent years.
However, the fact remains that the U.S. is the largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The U.S. accounts for 15% of Africa's total trade.
China, on the other hand, accounts for 10%.

low-priced products dominate trade and high-priced products

2023年05月14日 21時26分09秒 | 全般