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Obv there isn't a whole lot of govt regulation for manufacturing. The govt spends so much resources censoring the media and internets, but doesn't care if factories use lead paint or poisonous wheat gluten.
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It is called corruption and taking shortcuts.
In the USA culture the mantra is mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet. In China, the mantra is corruption, lunacy mandated from their supreme leader, and even more corruption. They still have many of the aspects of a centrally controlled economy. I heard one story in the USSR where a tractor factory had a build quota of 1000 green tractors. They had no green paint and so the used white paint instead. 1000 WHITE tractors were built. The factory commissar was given credit for ZERO production, convicted of a crime against the state, and sent to a prison camp in Siberia. This lunacy is tame compared to Communist China.... I saw a history channel special of the first Chinese emperor that united China. He started implementing laws on how many times a couple could have sex, what books could be read, and many other arbitrary and lunatic mandates. During the reign of almost every Chinese emperor, crippling corruption and lunatic govt edicts was the norm. When Mao took over, Chinese lunacy reached new heights. China's great leap forward program was so STUPID I'm convinced that MAO was completely insane. Things have not changed much since then. The Chi-Coms still mandate lunatic ideas including what hairstyles people can wear. If you go to the Chinese Olmpics, you can feel good knowing every cab driver has had their haircuts inspected by the govt.... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I sometime wonder if it is a requirement that China selects leaders from their insane asylums...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Leap_Forward
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I also don't understand our foreign policy with them. I know we borrow a crapload of money from them, that's about it.
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I would say it would be more accurate to say they INVEST money in the USA. When it comes to investing, most of the world is a craphole of corrupt govt......with regard to investing...the USA is reletively a garden of Eden. This of course leads to the urban myth that China can sell all the US Treasury notes and thereby collapsing the American economy. There are enough wackos in the USA that believe this nonsense...
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why is our foreign policy with Cuba so much different? If free trade and economic prosperity is the key to defeating communism in China, why wouldn't that work in Cuba?
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Eventually but not until the Castro brothers die. Free trade will benefit both the USA and Cuba...but Cuba would be the biggest winner. Cuba stoled a vast amount of American assets via nationalization when Castro came to power and they should NOT be rewarded for this theft. Then as a result of Cuba imperialism, there are millions of dead people alll over Africa, Central America, and South America. Not to mnetion Castro was a mass murdering dictator. After the Castro brothers die, then we can feel out the next regime whether they are worthy of trade with the USA....or not.