LyrArc Article Gist
The English Bible in the Texas K-12th grade schools curriculum for children in 2025. Critical for young children is an understanding of how the Christian faith was critical in the struggle against the evil of slavery, and how it was Abraham Lincoln's faith in Christianity that sustained him through the long and difficult struggle to end slavery in the Union, and to preserve the Union. How millions gave up their lives to end the evil of slavery in the Civil War. One passage from the new curriculum for Texas children says- "Even as the use of slave labor grew, opposition to slavery also grew, driven by colonists morally opposed to the practice, often based on their beliefs as Christians." Lyrarc.com has Lincoln's devotional- with parts of the New Testament from a British publisher in the 1840's that show how Lincoln's faith preserved the Union, and created the society in which all men are created equal envisioned by Washington and Jefferson in the 1770's and 1780's, right upto the French Revolution's rallying cry of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite that was heard in America in 1800. It is strange that it is forgotten that for most of the period from 1600 to the 1950's there was never any doubt for 350 years that the US derived it's unique identity and ideals from it's Christian faith, just as China and India have derived their unique identity and ideals from the Buddhist scriptures and the Bhagavad Gita. The novel idea that the Bhagavad Gita and the Buddha should have the same level of understanding for America's children as Christian faith of countless generations since the settlement of North America from 1600 is hard to grasp. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A new review of defense policy undertaken by the British government is outlined in paper, "Global Britain in a Competitive Age." The 100 page report points out that Britain faces a different world situation today and redefines the situation in which nuclear weapons would be used to include biological or chemical weapons attack. It sees the need for Britain to be able to respond to threats of chemical and biological weapons attacks coupled with cyber attacks from countries without nuclear weapons. The report also says other countries "are increasing and diversifying their nuclear arsenals." It identifies a "developing range of technological and doctrinal threats." In response Britain will increase its Trident nuclear warheads to 260 from 180. The report says China presents the "biggest state based threat" to Britain's economic security, and a "systematic challenge" to its prosperity and values. It says China's military modernization and increasing assertiveness in the Pacific region poses "an increasing risk to UK interests." Britain will make more secure its critical infrastructure, including hospitals, power plants and water systems, so that it can confidently trade with China. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
What this Editorial board opinion in the Indian Express is saying is that India should concentrate its efforts on modernizing its economy on a scale that is similar or surpasses that of China because of its access to the latest technologies. Just as China capitalized on the opportunity presented by its entry in the World Trade Organization in 2001, through an economy wide effort to build a manufacturing and export logistics base. India is presented with the opportunity of building its own manufacturing and export logistics base as supply chains are being redesigned in 2023. This requires a longer term plan with clear thinking and concentrated effort with the entire resources of the nation. What looks like a small or gradual shift in supply chain with the US and EU adding India and Vietnam to their Chinese manufacturing base is going to change with every change in world events, as the US concentration of manufacturing in China becomes a situation that is impossible to to maintain. The only logical way for the US and following the US the EU to create a proper balance in its political relationship with China is to change fully its lopsided concentration of manufacturing in China. Biden is only making the initial moves, the EU is only waking up to the need to make its own changes to reduce this concentration. How much distance does the US need to cover to reduce its concentration in China? By a large amount because the shift of manufacturing was excessive and ill advised done as companies in the US raced in a competition to shift outside over 2 decades and simply outdid themselves and performed a disservice to the workers and families of America whom they served. Just for the US to get workers and families to benefit from return of good manufacturing jobs to the US and restore its manufacturing base that has shriveled, it will have to be a massive enterprise, where day by day it becomes more evident that more and more needs to be and accomplished in an accelerated way. What this also means where appropriate to leave a progressively year after a year larger base in India, and also Vietnam, much larger than is envisaged today. This situation is even more acutely felt in Japan which to bring a proper balance in its political relationship with China needs to even more urgently reduce its concentration of manufacturing in China. It must be the task of the Modi government to have a clear view of the road ahead- build the needed logistical base for exports using the latest technologies and set higher and higher targets for manufacturing.  If you look at the map of Asia this is the Global South- India is 60-70% of the Global South with its population of 1.4 billion people mostly young with aspirations for a modern economy like that of the US and Germany. Add to that Indonesia and Vietnam, and other nations already in the redesigned supply chain in 2023 and you have 2 billion people in Asia. Concentrate on this for the next 2 decades for a complete transformation of India, that is what the younger generation demands of its government. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In 2018 China, India, and America are Africa's largest trading partners. India is building 18 new embassies in African countries. Greater openness to trade and investment is leading to GDP growth in Africa, 40% higher than in 2000, which is still low by comparison with Asian countries. The Economist says African countries can benefit by drawing investment from all sides and all countries, so that Africa benefits the most. Chinese investment, and Indian investment can happen side by side with investment from America, Britain and France.

LyrArc Article Gist
Carrie Lam's withdrawal announcement for the extradition bill that sparked the protests comes after 3 months of protests in which Lam could have started conversations and dialogue with protesters. This is now not likely to end the protests as a number of issues have emerged including social, political and economic issues and police action. For China it also raises questions of relations with major trading nations such as the U.S. With the stalled talks on trade and tariffs, and a slowing economy, the last thing China needs is for this to overshadow the bigger issues of economic growth and continued development of its economic potential. Lam's withdrawal decision is received with much skepticism in Hong Kong as this report in the Guardian shows. Coming earlier it could have some meaning, there is now a wider gap in the perceptions of both sides. Beijing sees itself a s wary of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as Mr. Xi points out, and the protestors in Hong Kong not sure of Beijing's intentions. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This opinion in DW.com says Donald Trump has done exactly the opposite of what he said during the election campaign when he was severely critical of China on trade issues. This report cites the many statements in some detail made by Trump about China. During a recent visit to China he says president Trump seemed to go out of his way to show agreement with president Jinping, quite the reverse of what he said he would do during the election campaign. U.S. influence and prestige is seen as declining as a result of president Trump's policies.

LyrArc Article Gist
There is a sense of cognitive dissonance in the states of former East Germany, known as the GDR or German Democratic Republic in the Soviet Union period from 1950's to 1990. The 5 states that formed the GDR continued to build close ties with Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the perception that this would build good long term relations. The crisis in Ukraine with border states of the Soviet Union opting in favor of close ties with the European Union and not Russia have disrupted the economic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Russia. As long as Russia needed the economic ties to build its economy and standard of living the political issues posed by NATO expansion and EU expansion were set aside by Putin and political parties within Russia. The very ties that were supposed to usher in an era of peace in Europe helped strengthen the Russian and Chinese economies. Leading to a point where these two economies were strong enough by 2021 in the midst of the waning pandemic to  assert themselves on political issues where serious differences existed such as expansion of NATO and Taiwan. When the economic relations such as making China a manufacturing powerhouse  was the path taken by American and European business in 1990's, business interests were focused on the declining quality and high wages demanded by unions and workers in the US and Germany. This could be personally witnessed at Apple's factory in Colorado Springs where quality was failing badly in the 1990's. Apple when Steve Jobs returned in 1997 adopted a China manufacturing strategy when its manufacturing operations in the US failed to deliver the quality and cost structure needed for it to expand. The high margins with low costs of manufacturing in China was the strategy adopted by Steve Jobs to compete with Microsoft and turbocharge its expansion. Soon other companies followed. A similar process happened in economic ties with Russia on a smaller scale. Two decades of such expansion whittled down American manufacturing, hurt American workers, hurt European manufacturing and European workers.  This process could not continue- yellow vest protests in France, the protest vote in US midwestern states in recent elections, the protest votes in German elections and fragmentation of parties, made this clear. The US imposed trade tariffs on Chinese products and moved to restrict flow of technologies to China under the Trump administration, accelerated by the Biden administration. President Xi was once of the view that China's ties with the US were important "thousand fold" in the period as late as 2010. Yet this lopsided trade relationship was not beneficial to American workers or American interests as a technologically advanced leader. It is true that American workers and engineers at Apple had failed to ensure American quality competitiveness in the 1980's into 1990's, yet no advanced country or its business can come up with a false narrative that cedes its manufacturing leadership and jobs for the working class of its country. That false narrative is being challenged today by Mr. Biden, Mr. Scholz, and all American and German political parties, and by Mr. Modi with Atman Nirbhar Bharat for local manufacturing. The integration one sees of the port of Hamburg as Chinese export hub with China's economy is one aspect of what has happened. A new leadership is taking its place in Europe and in America that sees clearly the false narrative. The visit of the new Danish prime minister to India is the beginning of the effort to set up a new logistics relationship with South and South East Asia, as Denmark's Maersk is a world leader in shipping logistics for exports and manufacturing. The planned Noida logistics center outside of New Delhi under Gati Shakti integrated development is part of the change happening today as a new supply chain is being built. The unwinding of the one sided trade relationship with China, and its related relationship on energy with Russia, led to the changing perception in Russia and China of the value of the relationship. Political relations superseded economic and cultural relations during Putin's second phase and Xi's second phase with assertive attitudes on NATO, and on Hong Kong, Taiwan under Xi and Putin 2.0. As could be expected Germany and the US were caught flat footed as leaders who were cast in the mold of Putin as a Soviet representative in Dresden, and Xi with his father leading the Communist struggle in the 1930's and 1940's against Chiangkaishek, acted in ways that reflected the Soviet period. Chiang left for Taiwan in 1948 when Mao-tse-tung setup the People's Republic of China. Taiwan and Hong Kong remained important in the perceptions of Xi 2.0, in the effort to build "China Dream" and erase last vestiges of what in Soviet times were seen as western colonialism. US and EU particularly Business and the new IT telecom Business failed to grasp these matters, and historical events such as the opium wars of the 1850's. Business and cultural interests lacked both the inclination to learn and the knowledge of these events in Chinese history and its relations with colonial powers Britain and Japan, and also Russia. In 1900 the Boxer rebellion against ceding Chinese ports to colonial powers Britain, Japan, Russia, ended with permanent colonial settlements in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tsingtao, other Chinese ports. Chinese rejuvenation in the mind of leaders such as Xi from the second generation of Communist leadership, means putting this behind, leading to the action taken in Hong Kong. In some ways as some observers have commented it is as much a problem of the sluggishness of American and European thinking, particularly business interests including in Taiwan, post British Hong Kong, and ignorance of recent Chinese history which was mistakenly thought not to exist or forgotten. This is as much of a problem as the action taken by Putin and moves by Xi Jinping. The great democracies such as India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, were ignored as American and European business interests integrated the American and German economies with China's. In terms of population the population of these regions and related parts of South East Asia such as Malaysia and Vietnam which have a shared cultural history is about 1.5 times the population of China. Travelling through the parts of India's largest state Uttar Pradesh, an Madhya Pradesh one finds how much American and European business interests have failed both their own interests, their own workers and failed the great democracies of the world, by not only not investing in the democracies of Asia, and also of Africa and Latin America and bought into a narrative of China which no longer holds true and may never have been true all along. This is starkly evident in a once in a century pandemic in these great democracies of the world. These democracies have been left to fend for themselves during the pandemic and their leaders facing false narratives in the media such as the BBC and American media outlets even on issues such as vaccination of the largest part of the world's people.           ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The US president has invoked emergency powers that relate to national security based on the fight against fentanyl -with 490,000 American lives lost over 12 years, 5 times that in the Vietnam and Korean Wars combined. And based on enormous trade imbalances that relate to national security with China having $1 trillion trade surplus 12 times the next highest trade surplus of $81 billion of Japan in 2007.

Note that appellate courts upheld the Nixon 10% trade tariffs based on invoking emergency powers also based on trade imbalances that time in the 1980's with Japan. The SCOTUS would be overreaching its judicial power to strike down the president on his main platform in the election, says one expert.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
Like hundreds of thousands of other young migrant workers in China's factories, Yuan Yandong is from a rural area and lived on a farm. Better incomes have brought them to the factories in urban areas. In this case travelling long distance by train from Guangdong province to Shenzhen. As living standards improved across China and the government expressed a keen willingness to encourage workers to exercize their rights to fair wages and working conditons- especially by creating increased awareness of new labor laws in the state run media- migrant workers are becoming restless with conditions they accepted a few years ago. The growing use of cellphones and access to the internet have made news travel faster. A visit to a Foxconn factory shows a young worker, age 24, sitting on a stool 6 nights a week, 12 hours a night, with a quota to assemble 1600 hard drives for American computer storage company EMC, with the pressure to work continuously against the clock for each step in the manufacturing process. Foxconn is known for its highly disciplined nature of work, akin to a military style. Behind the scenes factories like Foxconn employ methods once used in the US at a similiar stage of industrialization, with 500 technical people continuously looking for the most efficient way to organize each step in the production process. Each movement and action of the worker is measured for time taken and process efficiency, according to experts at Tsinghua University in China. This means many factories can use less automation- and so less capital intensive manufacturing- and go to extremes where workers perform like machines. Yuan's ambition is to work only for another 2 years and then use his savings to get into hotel management. His wages are 75 cents an hour, and with the overtime premium about $235 a month. Foxconn announced a 33% raise in wages as a result of worker protests. The mind numbing monotony is becoming less acceptable in a changing China, and worker turnover in such factories is rising. After the initial burst of industrialization in which young migrant workers played a signifcant role in manufacturing, a new chapter in China's development is beginning- one less likely to create the large trade deficits with the US and Europe- which is moving in the direction of a larger domestic market with higher worker wages....

LyrArc Article Gist
NHK shows that over her 16 years as chancellor in Germany Merkel conducted policy that built the overconcentration of trade and investment in China. This policy is now seen as posing serious risks for Germany now that lessons are being learned from the failure of the overconcentration of investment and dependence on fossil fuel supplies from Russia, a policy pursued by Merkel. It was  the deputy chancellor Habeck as Energy Minister who did the remarkable job of getting new supplies from other countries to replace Russian oil and gas. This made it possible for Germany to make it through the winter without supplies from Russia. Germany is now shifting away from this overconcentration in its supply chain in the new security strategy. This may only be the beginning of a larger change in Germany's policies.

LyrArc Article Gist
Russia has 600 billion dollars in reserves and with oil prices above $100, with the Ukraine conflict lifting oil prices for Russian oil exports, there is little that the US and Europe have done to prepare for this situation. The Merkel years were essentially wasted in building a trade based relationship on cheap Russian gas supplies, and the wasted resources under Bush and Obama in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only distracted the US from the major issues relating to China and Europe that it now faces. 

The need is for a new overall structure to be built- for social structure supporting all aspects of infrastructure, and stronger supply chains with local manufacturing. And international structures that include India and other nations of Asia and Latin America, Africa, that would be a framework for the future- a broader framework for peaceful relations.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. China trade and tech rivalry continues with the arrest in Canada of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on U.S. request for extradition. The reason appears to be a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. President Xi has taken steps in the past to protect Huawei, as a top priority, scuttling Qualcomm's acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV. The merger with the Dutch Company would have threatened Huawei in its race to dominate 5G networks.

LyrArc Article Gist
The EU with its $15.4 trillion economy is a bloc comparable in size to the U.S. $19.4 trillion economy. The French State Secretary for Europe, Mr. Lemoyne, says EU does not need to be worried about the way the USMCA, new version of NAFTA was negotiated with pressure from president Trump, as the Europeans are the largest trading power in the world. The EU exports to the U.S. are $252 billion, and up 5% in the seven months of 2018 over the preceding period. The U.S. by comparison exports $153 billion which has remained at the same level with a $600 million decline in the same period in 2018.  President Trump has put pressure on the EU to help improve the trade imbalance. Soya bean exports are pointed to by the EU as this has doubled in 2018, after China responded to U.S. sanctions by limiting soyabean imports. President Trump has stated his intention to impose tariffs on European car imports - trade worth $60 billion- to get the EU to offer concessions.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Trade economists from Ivy League universities, are still peddling the old theories on trade from textbooks that make no sense and have got America in this huge mess that it is in where other countries are ripping America off with unfair trade practices. These economists have turned a blind eye, turned their backs to the great damage done to industrial towns and communities across America for two decades with the loss of manufacturing. Take Irwin's point that the US would have to monitor rates on 13000 tariff line items. This is ridiculous because the US simply needs to monitor the key products such as semiconductors, oil and gas, LNG. In just one negotiation with India the US having a trade deficit DJT states of $100 billion with India- terrible trade. By opening up supply of LNG and oil US can fill India's needs for Oil and LNG and cut the deficit to zero. Who came up with this idea. Indian PM Modi and his trade team. Once it was known that the status quo was unacceptable India came up with its own ideas lets import what we get from Russia from the US. Yes we had discounts from Russia but that was when oil prices were high. DJT's effort to get oil prices down by increasing US production will make it possible for India to get this oil at similar prices. India is a much bigger economy now than during Covid 5 years back India can do this. US and India win-win by doing joint aviation production deals and US gains with sale of F-35 stealth fighters. It is just common sense. Sadly, much of this is common sense that is beyond Ivy League Economics departments at American universities.  Reciprocal Tariffs make a lot of sense because this is how fairness is done- for China, for India. In the case of Mexico, Canada, China, on stopping flow of fentanyl- this reciprocal tariff is not a tariff it is as Commerce Secretarty Luttnick pointed out domestic policy of the United States. Which country would tolerate 490,000 deaths from fentanyl over 12 years and not take domesti policy action. It is not that the policy actions are taken it is that these action should have been taken a long time back. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Two way trade is expanding at 35% for the last 5 years to $15 billion. A new goal is being set for expanding it to $50 billion by 2010. Senior executives of big Chinese infrastructure companies are involved and the exchange is at the highest level, with Bo Xilai, Commerce Minister of China, heading a 200 member delegation to New Delhi. This includes senior executives of Shanghai Electric Power Generation Group, ZTE Corp, and China Corporation Bank. US- India trade growth goals were set by President Bush in a recent visit. With Bo's visit China- India trade growth goals are being set on the same scale. Bo said China and India can learn a lot from each other- "China has a lot to offer in infrastructure development to India and we can learn about developing software, information technology, and how to improve the services sector."

LyrArc Article Gist
Dow Chemical CEO, Anthony Liveris, is co-chair of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, an effort to bring together federal government, industry, universities and other groups to invest in new technologies that would generate good-quality jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness. He writes this letter in the Wall Street Journal to correct two misperceptions. The first, is that government has no significant role in nurturing an environment that is good for business and manufacturing industry. Because other countries, including China, are now operating like companies, it is important not to let the U.S. be in a disadvantageous position. Government has always been involved in its writing of tax and incentive policies, regulations, trade agreements, and creating a climate of certainty. The second, is that the loss of manufacturing capacity and job losses in the last 10 years are different from the job losses in the 1980's. These are not the low tech and less efficient manufacturing job losses of the 1980's, but job losses as a result of moving advanced manufacturing capacity and research and development centers to outside of the U.S. Of the 8 million jobs lost in the last recession, he says two million manufacturing jobs of higher pay and supporting employment in other sectors were lost. His point: its time to focus on expanding manufacturing in the U.S. because manufacturing is the sector with the highest multiplier effect on other sectors. Public-private partnerships are critical to this effort for increasing technology development and increasing investment. This view is supported by other experts....

LyrArc Article Gist
China's prime minister Li Keqiang visited India in May 2013 with a trade delegation to improve trade ties with india. Trade between India and China is growing rapidly, with the growth in imports of telecommunications and power equipment, and consumer manufactured goods. Trade was at $76 billion in the year ending March 31, 2012 and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2015, making China the largest exporter of goods to India, according to Indian government data. The trade is lopsided with India's trade deficit increasing by 42% to about $40 billion in the last fiscal year. India is seeking improved access for its information technology and pharmaceutical companies to the Chinese market to correct the imbalance.

LyrArc Article Gist
Xi Jinping, president of China says at the Davos Forum that world leaders should "join hands and rise to the challenge" from protectionism coming from the new U.S. administration. He called on world leaders to support the Paris climate accords- "to stick to it instead of walking away from it."

LyrArc Article Gist
The impact of coronavirus deaths is higher for men with certain behaviours such as smoking and alcohol consumption. For infections it is not clear that the rate is much higher for men than women. The data from graphs provided by WSJ of global data from different countries shows a higher rate of infection for men in Italy, just about 52% in men in China, but a lower rate for men in South Korea and France. Some of the higher impact of coronavirus death can be explained by habits such as smoking in men- in China smoking for men is ten times that of women. In Italy over twice as many men smoke than women. Researchers say that the prevalence of the receptor that helps the new coronavirus enter human cells is higher in smokers. The other reason researchers say is higher alcohol consumption in men than women. China's data also show more men infected because most of the people in the labor trades such as construction and other work is done by men. This made them more exposed to the pathogen in the local market where the virus originated. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A new security law for Hong Kong is passed at the end of a weeklong session of the National People's Congress. This gives China's agencies powers to police activities in Hong Kong and removes Hong Kong's autonomous status established by a treaty with Britain that arranged the handover in 1997. 2878 lawmakers voted with one dissent. China says it is intended to control separatism, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong. It bypasses Hong Kong governing authorites and the effect is that it removes the "one country, two systems" basis of the handover by the British.  This sets the stage for the U.S. to remove Hong Kong special status in trading relations. The U.S. is joined by Canada, Australia and Britain in expression of "deep concern," and Japan has also said it is "seriously concerned" and "will address the situation in an appropriate manner." Under the U.S. Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 the U.S. treated Hong Kong as autonomous for trade and economic matters. Mr. Pompeo, the Secretary of State for U.S. says this status will no longer continue. As supply chains are being reassessed during the coronavirus, the end of autonomous status for Hong Kong would mean the beginning of a new period in changing economic relations across Asia and the Pacific. ...