autopilot

I do believe this thread has been hijacked . . .

This is a picture of the Dragon Bridge near Yangshuo. There's a Chinese word for the dog in the picture which translates into "good-eating-dog".

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

Dog and cat is eaten in China. It's not too hard to find them, but they are in no way on the list of things people there typically eat.

Mr Akimoto

Believe me you don't want to eat the authentic food of some countries. I get thoughts of diarrhea when I think of Mexican, Chinese, and Korean food! When I travel, which is 50% of my time, I go to restuarants that cater to American tastes, and they are always packed!

While on the subject of money, the topic of this thread, fiat money is just another commodity like wheat, corn, or the like. It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Take the American dollar for example. It too trades against a basket of currencies for example the Euro, Yen, and others. The currency markets are the most fluid and fastest trading markets in the world besides being the most difficult to follow and understand. In short, the dollar is priced 24/7!

Whether the Yuan will be allowed to freely float or will be restricted to an artificial band isn't know just yet, but I'd bet that its price will be carefully controlled by the Chinese government.

Mr Akimoto

tIANci

Oooooi!!! Who says Chinese eats dogs and cats? Hahahaha ... I will definately NOT eat that. I mean I am not even keen to eat rabbits. I think rabbits are so cute as pets. Anyways, we also eat ... snakes, monkeys, turtles, iguana, flying fox ... hehehe ... I personally would not.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

True story: 23 years ago when I hired into the RTD in L.A. another guy who hired in with me was a recent immigrant from Red China. He told a harrowing story of his journey to come to America. Anyway, the story...... a guy at work had a German Shepard who had a litter of pups. The Chinese fellow whos name is Sut Fu wanted to have a puppy so he took one home. Unfortunately, the puppy got sick as they sometimes do and he died. Sut Fu was really upset, because he really wanted to have a dog. While the crew was taking a break one night and Sut Fu was talking about the tragedy, he said honestly and without flinching "I didn't know what to do about the sick dog. All I ever did with dog before was eat them" and all of us just about died that night!!

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

Casual travelers certainly should be careful, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't eat local food. In China, the safest thing is to stick to hotel restaurants, which unlike the US, are actually some of the best.
I think so too. They're going to keep every advantage they've got, for as long as they possibly can, regardless of what others think about it.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Restricted to a narrow band, it's official and was part of the first announcement, it's just a baby step, again, NOBODY, neither us nor the Chinese, want to do anything dramatic.

Kirk RC

My Feedback: (4)

This won't be received as positive by all but .....the next "Evil Empire" is right in our face and it's not about military might, its about global economics played unilaterally which ultimately allows a country to have military dominance. Why did the US !QUOT!Win!!QUOT! the cold war? Because we had the best weapons yes, buy to a large degree because we had the economic power to out spend them. Unfortunately many US corporations via short term vision are playing right into the hands of PRC and others. The Chinese clearly understand the longterm win at the ultimate expense of the US. The cost of ARF's or clothes at Wal-Mart for that matter, may appear to be a value but at a substantial hidden cost and it's not the COG difference, but ultimately the technology and management info transfer. The real issue isn't just global terrorism but global economics played very unilaterally by countries. Ask our friend from Malaysia how his country responded to the Asia economic currency crisis in the late 90's. Malaysia did what was best for them by fixing the Ringett at an artificial low rate, and told the world to stuff it. Short term they did suffer , and got many nasty rebuttals from the world banking industry our State Department etc etc, but clearly it was the correct longterm decision from their perspective. This months Fortune magazine provides some interesting perspectives. This is just my opinion of course, having some background running an Asian division for a Fortune 50 corp and having lived in Asia for 12 years. IMO bottom line and as a flag waving American it's hard to admit, but the Chinese government has clearly figured out a strategy to play to our short term economic corporate "values" while working towards the ultimate national win. Thats my soap box....and off to build a kit that was produced in the US, costing 30% more then a CMP ARF. Some times you need to take one for the team, plus it will look and fly better.
KirkRC

Kirk RC

My Feedback: (4)

OOP's..... spell check didn't pull over sorry

This won't be received as positive by all but.....the next "Evil Empire" is right in our face and it's not about military might, its about global economics played unilaterally which ultimately allows a country to have military dominance. Why did the US “Win� the cold war? Because we had the best weapons yes, buy to a large degree because we had the economic power to out spend them. Unfortunately many US corporations via short term vision are playing right into the hands of PRC and others. The Chinese clearly understand the long-term win at the ultimate expense of the US. The cost of ARF's or clothes at Wal-Mart for that matter may appear to be a value but at a substantial hidden cost and it's not the COG difference, but ultimately the technology and management info transfer. The real issue isn't just global terrorism but global economics played very unilaterally by countries. Ask our friend from Malaysia how his country responded to the Asia economic currency crisis in the late 90's. Malaysia did what was best for them by fixing the Ringett at an artificial low rate, and told the world to stuff it. Short term they did suffer, and got many nasty rebuttals from the world banking industry our State Department etc etc, but clearly it was the correct long-term decision from their perspective. This months Fortune magazine provides some interesting perspectives. This is just my opinion of course, having some background running an Asian division for a Fortune 50 corp. and having lived in Asia for 12 years. IMO bottom line and as a flag waving American it's hard to admit, but the Chinese government has clearly figured out a strategy to play to our short term economic corporate "values" while working towards the ultimate national win. That’s my soap box....and off to build a kit that was produced in the US, costing 30% more then a CMP ARF. Some times you need to take one for the team, plus it will look and fly better.

tIANci

To be honest not that many Chinese eat dogs etc. In Malaysia we would never think of eating it even as Chinese. Anyways, Koreans eat dogs too, then you have the Brits who eat Haggis, German with their Blood Pudding and much more. Tell you guys something funny ... they got 2 families to see what speciality they eat ... French with their Blue Cheese and Chinese with their Pickled Eggs. Eat was seen savouring it then they exchanged the palatable delights ... the French neary died eating the eggs and the Chinese almost threw up with the cheese. To each their own.

We are all different, once we learn to see and understand the other party life will be much better ... all the patriotic rhetoric will get us no where. Look at the bombings ... its nuts but then it happens as we did not start to understand and start to covert by evolution, it was convert them by revolution. It cannot be.

The new global economy is changing things ... China/Asia is now a big market. Whether we like it or not China is a force to be contend with, economically. We can build up stronger ties or just make it antagonistic. The US went through a period that was extremely ugly ... it is in the past now, look at the US now. Soon China will be the same, it will get there too ... it will be liberal and more open. Things have changed a lot now.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

I'm afraid they would not, as long as Chinese Communist Party exists.
They don't allow Chinese people to vote, have feedom of speech and press,etc.
They sometimes say"from public opinion....", but it's a 100% lie since Chinese
people can not say thier true thinking. It's not a public opinion , but Communint's
opinion.
I don't like to say politics here, but don't be too optimistic about China.
Sorry to hurt your feelings.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

strulag

My Feedback: (-1)

China is also buying up huge commodities corporations worth billions of dollars. Almost everything these days is made there. Almost all american corporations are going there. The math is simple.

China will be the next world power and it won't take them very long.

tIANci

Hurt my feelings? No way ... this is a forum, its about freedom of speech! Hehehe ... let's not forget it an RC Forum. Things in China will improve, it will happen. Its about being optimistic, China is learning about capitalism, they are headed in one direction that we all know ... money is everything.

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

tIANci, keep in mind that when Americans say bad things about China in discussions such as this it's usually about the government, rather than the Chinese people. As for the dog and cat comments, that's just from people who don't know any better. If it weren't for social pressure, there'd probably be people here eating the family pets too. Your comment about cheese and eggs was right on. There's food that's common in some cultures that other cultures can't stand. There's also food from other cultures that if people would just open their minds a bit, they would find quite good. I never had snake in the US, and never thought I would eat it, but the way they cook it in Chendu (or was it Changsha?) is quite nice.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

Yes, I think China will grow and improve as you say.
However, I hope China will spend their economical power
for the people first, not on military strength to threaten
asian countries.
If China had a democratic government, I would say nothing.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

strulag

My Feedback: (-1)

I totally agree with Mabuchi. I used to live in a communist country and I know what's it's like first hand. The only way the communist leaders would give up any power or control is if they were overthrown. And you better believe that with time they will invest tons in weapons to establish their world dominance.

rjbranchii

It may make some models go up in price but it will sure help American and Canadian companies stay in business that are having trouble competeing with sweat shop rate Chinese labor. Not just in the auto industry either. Companies like VectorFlight who have been continuing to fight to bring top quality North American products to market need this kind of relief to continue. Fair market competition is one thing, but when a government like China subsidizes their currentcy to gain an unfair market advantage, that is going over the top. I for one will pay a few bucks more to make our folks in jobs. Especially when we see the top quality stuff that can result and get real local product support like sterling companies like VectorFlight provide. Anyone who isn't familiar with VectorFlight's product support and service owes themselves a search here on RCU to see what the difference is when you make the product vs when its made in China.

bob

Magna

While all these so called western liberal, democratic etc condemning the communist, terrorist, have you ever take a look at the mirror lately and see if you were what you said?

Piper and Tianci is pretty much spot on to each of his own. Despite some of you who have travelled and live in other countries, the moment you see thing not in your way, they are all barbarian, and you must do whatever possible to liberate them. Look at what happen to the US foreign policy on the Iraq invasion. Where are the WMD?

You may say your Japanese or US govt is more transparent, are you sure?

Both of these govt have absolute political interest to advance their own agenda with regards to China and I shall leave it to all the expert here in RCU and out there to comment.

So what the chinese government released info which are controlled. At the end of the day, when a country or society is advancing, the social political advancement will always take a back seat until the economic reached a certain level. Some country may have done it more elegantly and some is not. Given its size and profile, anything the Chinese do will be subjected to a lot of scrutiny.

Look at Singapore, its very very controlled society, so much you can't chew a gum and you get fine for many thing you take for granted. The american was in big hooha when one american kid was caught and whipped for grafitti some many years ago. So they may have been subjected to a lot of controlled behavior a lot more and it does seem sounded extreme even for us in the region. But look at where they are today and ask if the Singaporean proud of what their country achieve. Look at what their education and social level have reached compare to the progress both US and Japan have made?

Same thing for China, they have come a long way. We know because we are close enough in the geographically region to take interest. We were not even allowed to visit them until 80's.

Its always easy when we are the one doing the criticism and for goodness sake, this is a hobby and just because it have a name associated with communism, leave the hypocrisy behind!

tIANci

Piper - you ate snake??!!! Yucks ... I would think twice. Only things I ever ate were horse (race horse breaks leg, horse get shot, I get meat), turtle soup (I will never again, at the bottom of the soup I saw the claw).

Strulag - Chinese communists of today are not the same as those in Europe. Chinese are money driven people. We may not agree with communism but that is what it is there and they WILL change their ways for sure. Rememer all that talk about HK 1997? Life goes on there. HK is still the same.

Let's talk RC!!!

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

I hope they will change their ways to a peaceful way.
Is HK still the same? Yes, outward apperence is the same,
but not at all in fact.
No political speaking or press is allowed in HK, allowed only
if to admire or be for the Communist Party.
What would happen if one disobeyed? He would disapper and
no one would know where he is.
I say again I hope China will grow peacefully.
I remember I have to replace retracts on my ARF made in China.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

forestroke

i think china was doing the right thing by protecting the home market with a conservative exchange rate based largely on the dollar. it not only made chinese exports more price compeitive, it limited the viability of imports. china didn't want foreign goods competing in the local market and for the most part, the chinese couldn't afford foreign products even if they were imported at fair value. they even went as far as setting up special pricing for foreign investment in special zones so that either these products could not be marketed within china or that the spoils are somehow passed back to china. it might sound unfair... but it protected china. i'm sure china didn't want something akin to the trabant, which went from waiting list to obsolete overnight when the berlin wall fell. had they allowed the float 10-15 years ago, that may have been true with most of china's goods. i worked at a companies who up until 10 years ago were offering the same products as those that were selling in the soviet union in the '50s and '60s

but things are changing and chinese goods are competitive these days. in fact, one of the reasons they are considering floating the RMB is because they are confident that chinese companies CAN compete. in RCUNIVERSE terms, they believe that even after the float, our ARFs will still be good value. but i believe that they will be more expensive than before by a significant margin. the reason is that most manufacturing companies in china employ cost-based pricing, which means that unless their prices fall, there would be no reason or margin to lower the price. sure there are indirect ways that costs will go down but they will only come in time.

in conclusion, should the RMB be allowed to be freely traded, it would mean that ARF and engine prices will increase significantly. it may not be directly tied to the appreciation of the RMB, but it will not be immune to its affects as some have suggested.

on another note, the real driver, i think, is that now that the chinese are buying up foreign companies (lenovo purchase of ibm pc division for example) and other goods and assets, they are beginning to feel the pain of the undervalued RMB. by allowing the RMB to increase in value, chinese companies can essentially buy foreign assets at a relative discount. but this game of balancing local interests and protected development with international aspirations is a difficult one and one that china may lose control of if it caves in to international pressure.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Pretty smart post, Magna.
"Communism"? China today is not communist, they are something else entirely. But you throw in that buzzword, "commie!" and you get this instant reaction from a lot of ignorant Americans.
Singapore...a tiny country with a huge population with MANY different ethnicities. They decided they needed a certain type of system just to stay alive, that system has worked for them very well, it does not apply to most other countries...and it has it's advantages and disadvantages, but our basic concept of "American Democracy" would probably not work very well in Singapore. At least they do not have big black spots of gum all over the sidewalk like here in NYC!

Anyway, I don't want to get into politics, but I just wanted to point out that your post was pretty astute, as is fourstrokes.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

Right, China is no longer communist. The government is not communist
but is dictatorship now. They don't regard their people in China as important
, they do only Communist Party themselves. I'm afraid ignorant is you.
I do hope China will improve and grow in peace, but it seems they are planning
to do other things. Their' friendly nation' is the nation that obay them even though
their request is unreasonable.
I'm sorry I have been too much on politics here in RCU, I'll be back to RC next.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

jlkonn

My Feedback: (1)

Gee...
I'm really sorry this thread has taken this political twist.
When I began it I was asking out of curiousity how the ARF phenomena would be affected by a change in the Chinese currency conversion.
JLK

strulag

My Feedback: (-1)

China is not communist? Comunism in China is entirely different then in Europe? I have no idea what you guys are talking about. When there are millions of people working for $2 a day and when most of the 1 billion population lives in conditions that even our poverty standards seem luxurious at the same time that the government is prospering and making billions on export...that IS communism. If it wouldn't be the same it wouldn't be communism.