Woodruffâ??s approach seemed very promising at first.   He went to four different continents and countries in order to assess the global impacts of China, the countries being Angola, Brazil, Cambodia, and the United States.

The Angolan segment highlighted Chinaâ??s economic development model in Africa.   The myth perpetrated in this segment is that the development has actually provided a net benefit to the people of Africa.

In fact, the real truth China is practicing a very sophisticated 21st century version of imperialism in which China loans African countries billions of dollars in exchange for encumbering natural resources.   These resources range from oil and natural gas to copper, cobalt, and titanium.   As part of its debt encumbrance strategy, China gets to reduce its unemployment rate by using a large Chinese construction workforce to actually do the work â?? rather than relying so much on the native population.

In this segment, Woodruff makes repeated references to corruption. A blatant error but failed to make it clear how much actual assistance from China billions of offshore bank accounts, instead of the African elite bark. Another highlight of intense poverty Woodruff countriesChina be? Benefitingâ? – Other than the slums of some of the pictures.

This is the absolute worst omission of the African segment is Woodruff? S Name of non-compliance with the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Â Instead, the only thing we get passing reference to China’s assistance to Sudan in exchange for oil. Â In fact, China regularly trades its veto of UN-African resources for protecting the African despots from UN interventions.

What made Woodruffâ??s omission all the more galling is that Woodruff did an extensive interview with Chinaâ??s United Nations Ambassador Wang Guangya.   This is the same reprehensible â??diplomatâ? who has repeatedly blocked UN action on Darfur.  (Wang also has blocked action following the sham Zimbabwe election and the attempts of the West to sanction Iran for its nuclear development).     The failure to confront Wang on the Darfur question was tantamount to appeasement — or, far worse, simple ignorance.

Woodruffâ??s omissions were equally in evidence in his Brazil segment.   The theme Woodruff drew here is that Chinaâ??s increasing consumption for soybeans is leading to deforestation of the Amazon and potential environmental problems.   The biggest problems with this segment were a lack of visual imagery to portray the destruction of the Amazon, and the lack of science and statistics to explain how deforestation in the Amazon is likely to affect the global environment and crop production.

In fact, most of the Amazonâ??s deforestation occurs during the dry season in an orchestrated slash and burn campaign that fouls the skies throughout South America.   Showing that massive environmental carnage — instead of a few big trees being felled — would have made for a far stronger presentation.   Missing, too, was any good explanation of why we should care about the Amazon.   In fact, theAmazon River basin and its rainforest are absolutely critical to the global ecology because they are considered to be the “Lungs of our Planet. “  By recycling carbon dioxide, the rainforest in particular provides more than 20 percent of the worldâ??s oxygen.

Already, more than 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed while the World Wildlife Fund warns that more than half of the forest will be gone by 2030.    According to many scientists, this destruction of the rainforest has the potential to create severe drought conditions not just in South America but also as far north as the American and Canadian farm belts.   The result may well be a global food crisis — high irony indeed given that the destruction of the Amazon rain forest is occurring in the name of increased food production.

Turning to the third segment on Cambodia, Woodruff does a good job tagging the Chinese with at least some responsibility for the Khmer Rouge genocide of millions.   Missing in this segment, however, was any insight into the real reason why China is setting up so many sweat shops in Cambodia.   Too bad Woodruff didnâ??t get his cameras into some of these sweat shops to expose the slave labor conditions!

My other big beef with the Cambodian segment was the failure of Woodruff to mention how China is using its upstream positioning on the Mekong River to dam that river with bullying impunity.  Chinaâ??s dam-happy Mekong River design will eventually include 15 mega-dams.   These mega-dams are likely to create economic and environmental effects that are vast and far-ranging — and Cambodiais at the front lines of this onslaught.

To understand the problem, consider the impacts of Chinaâ??s dams on one of the worldâ??s most fascinating ecological treasures, the legendary Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia. For much of the year, the lake is only a yard deep with a footprint of only a bit more than 1,000 square miles. During the rainy season, however, flow from the Mekong River helps deepen the lake to roughly 30 feet and increases the area of the lake more than five-fold. This turns Lake Tonle Sap into one of the best breeding grounds for fish in the world.

The obvious problem facing the Tonle Sap is that the Chinaâ??s mega-dams are evening out the flow of water and thereby preventing the worldâ??s most fertile natural fishery from realizing its full depth and breadth in the critical fish breeding season. Already, fish catches have declined dramatically.   This is already having a significant negative effect on Cambodiaâ??s fishing economy.

Woodruff clearly saved the worst for last in his discussion of the impacts of Chinaon the American economy. He leads off the segment by helping to perpetuate the myth that Chinaâ??s emergence as the worldâ??s factory floor is the result of cheap, hard-working labor.   (The mouthpiece here is Evan Osnos, Beijing Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune — an otherwise cogent voice. )

In fact, my research has clearly shown that cheap labor is only a small part of the China puzzle.   Much of Chinaâ??s advantage in world markets comes from five unfair mercantilist trade practices that include a complex web of illegal export subsidies, blatant currency manipulation, counterfeiting and piracy that lowers production costs, and lax environmental and health and safety standards that likewise lower production costs.

That China blatantly manipulates its currency seems to be totally lost on both Woodruff and the seemingly clueless Fareed Zakaria.   Indeed, it is Zakaria who helps perpetuate the myth that the Chinese are more frugal savers than American consumers and thatâ??s why China helps the U. S. with its debt by buying U. S. treasury bills.

Note Woodruff and Zakaria: Buy U.S. government bonds are an integral part of the process of financial manipulation.  To maintain Chinaâ? S a fixed dollar link and keep an extremely undervalued yuan, China has the U.S. dollar to repay   Of course, individual Chinese citizens have no say on this issue, but they are just press ganged Chinaâ its economy? s central bank – to keep exports cheap imports from the United States and China would like. (ITA? S is no coincidence the U.S. trade deficit hits record highs on a regular basis.)

Zakaria to understand this failure of the currency manipulation process (and the broader role of unfair trade practices in Chinaâ? S grave of the American markets) makes it perfectly understandable why Zakaria ignorant announces that the U.S. has only two options China:? ride a wave, or whether we think so. â?  In fact, the ThEu. S. Government should do to avoid job losses, the polarization of American Chinaâ? S ‘unfair trade practices. Leveling of playing field would go far to bring jobs back to the U.S.

On that note, it is useful to point out perhaps the biggest myth of the documentary â?? one perpetuated by none other than Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York.   His Honor piously insists that â??the jobs that [China] is creating are low-priced jobsâ? and â??thatâ??s not the kind of jobs we want for our citizens. â?

Mayor Note: While youâ? ‘ve Probably slept in the Chinese moved steadily throughout the value chain in everything from automobiles and commercial airplanes BioPharma. ITA Â? S is not just about cheap toys and sneakers.

My conclusion is that I would like a thorough, fair and balanced look at the critical economic, environmental, military, political and social impact of China t ; lejäänud see in the world. Â All of us are still on TV a couple of puff pieces that leave many of the key points and perpetuate the series is always a very dangerous mu ; DID.

©2008 Peter Navarro

Author Bio Peter Navarro a business professor at the University of California-Irvine, is the author of the best- selling investment book If It’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks and the path-breaking management book, The Well-Timed Strategy. Professor Navarro is a widely sought after and gifted public speaker and a regular CNBC contributor. Prior to joining CNBC, he appeared frequently on Bloomberg TV, CNN, and NPR, as well as on all three major network news shows. He has testified before Congress and the U. S. -China Commission and his work has appeared in publications ranging from Business Week, the L. A. Times, and New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review.

 


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