"Robin S." wrote in message news:4Gcib.221

Excellent post. I work for a company that produces heavy stamping dies (60
ton max, roughly). You should hear the stories...

"His wife and children were brought in to say goodbye. Then they opened the
die."

Mm.. same thing happens with people that get trapped and twisted
between
a subway train and the platform. Their mangled and twisted body stays
alive until it's time to get the trains running again and they have to
jack the train back...

Yes, some Chinese production facilities are very well equipped- with
huge volumes they can afford to use imported machinery from Japan,
Taiwan, Europe and the US, both for productivity and to meet quality
standards. A cash-starved Western enterprise making a fraction of the
number of units might be forced into using worse (maybe imported HF)
machinery. I visited a Chinese factory not long ago with a captive
mold shop and asked them why they used Hitachi EDMs rather than the
domestic product that was half the price. Quality and productivity-
buying the best in the world made sense to them, despite what seems
like rock-bottom pricing to their customers. Compared to a similar
US enterprise, they have very cheap wages, more flexible if not less
regulation, higher taxes, similar energy costs, possibly higher land
costs. Raising capital is probably much easier in the US.

It's interesting that "free(er) trade" seems to directly benefit none
of
the workers in the developed countries (when two developed countries
such
as Canada and the US do it, workers (but not companies and investors)
both lose), when one country is developed and the other isn't the
undeveloped country gains low wage jobs.. and pollution and energy
consumption and requirements for infrastructure). And the developed
country gains profits for corporations.

Current projections for 2040 are that China will have the world's
largest
economy (it's only recently surpassed that of Canada, one of the
smallest
G7 members, but still the US largest trading partner). Followed by the
US economy and (closely) by India. Of course projecting
that far out in advance is sure to be way off, but it indicates the
trends.
Americans will still be richer than Chinese, but by maybe 2:1 rather
than 30:1 or more. Obviously, if that more economically egalitarian
world,
if it comes to pass, will be quite different from today's. The same
projections showed Russia to be relatively insignificant economically.

And, for the paranoid, militarily, an ascendant China will not
acquiesce
to having another nation able to rain death down upon them from space
without possibility of retribution. They are definitely looking 50
years+
into the future. As the march towards a US missile shield and the
militarization of space seem inevitable, we can expect that they will
do at least the minimum required to maintain a credible deterrent.
For the moment, not much is required of them, some modifications to
the reentry vehicles of ICBMs, but longer term, denial of the use of
space for potential foes, and space-based weapons are probably a
necessary security issue for them. Of course the current lurch
towards unilateralism, PNAC and the rest serves to crystalize
the matter.

Which (along with national pride) is probably part of the reason
behind
their ambitious space program, probably resulting in them being only
the
third nation to launch a human being into space, by the end of next
week.
They have announced plans to send a man to the moon, and eventually to
Mars. Although the technology they are using now is old-ish (Apollo
era/
Soyuz for the spacecraft), this is non-trivial. I wonder what the
effect
would be on the West of seeing a Chinese astronaut plant that red flag
with yellow stars on the surface of our one moon, let alone Mars. If
the
initial flight is successful I do plan to toast their accomplishment,
but
we have to think about this tit-for-tat stuff in the military area.
Eventually it will all come home to roost, and announcing plans for
absolute military dominance over a potential foe as a long-
term objective shows some real lack of understanding of human nature.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany