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“Wal-Mart currently has thirty-one outlets in fifteen Chinese cities, with 16,000 employees. A company spokesman declined to give sales figures, but published reports have put Wal-Mart's total revenues in China at just under $1 billion. Shoppers at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Changsha are doing their best to raise that number. Corporate affairs manager Jiang Lichun says the store--which opened in June--is doing better than the roughly $60,000 a day originally projected. Wal-Mart has earned considerable notoriety in the United States and elsewhere by paying its workers rock-bottom wages. It's clear the company has adopted the same approach in China. Jiang won't give a figure for what the company pays in Changsha or other cities but says it's a "competitive" rate that's enough to "guarantee the workers' basic existence."
“Wang Meihua (not her real name), a perky salesclerk in her mid-20s dressed in a bright red Wal-Mart polo shirt and blue jeans, says most workers earn about $84 to $96 a month. That's enough to provide spending money for a young person with no dependents, but anyone trying to support a family on that wage would indeed be existing in a most basic fashion.”
Over the past few years there have been an acute shortage in lumber, steel and cement products in the US due to the burgeoning growth of China. According to the 2005 Contractor’s Outlook, entitled, Increasing Material Prices Gouge Construction Industry,
“Last year, exceptionally high construction material price increases caused problems for the construction industry due to the current economic and construction boom occurring in China. China’s rapid growth and tremendous construction activity are still creating shortages in the United States and throughout the world. In addition, delivery delays have resulted from international shipping lanes being filled to capacity. The US federal government removed tariffs on imported steel earlier in 2004.While this action was expected to lower prices, the effect was negated by the rising demand [from China and elsewhere].”
China’s overheated economy has already made an impression on the world stage, and future expansion will merely increase its presence. These shortages will continue for the foreseeable future as China’s economy continues to expand at near exponential proportions. The strain on the US and other nations as far as raw material is concerned has already been felt at the highest levels. China’s burgeoning economy shows no signs of relenting, and it will soon overshadow future dictates from all sectors of society. The fact that the US housing market is in dire recession only augments the problems to be faced by the US over the next few years. Without the easy access to essential building materials, and with an expanding Chinese economy that is poised to become number one in the world, the US and other nations are ill-prepared to stop the Chinese train in its tracks.
It is clear that the China’s automobile rate is huge and ever-increasing. Between just the years from 1995 to 2000, they nearly doubled their rate from 352,000 cars produced to over 600,000 cars produced. Along with a major increase in public transportation and manufacturing requirements, this has meant an overwhelming need for oil, the very same oil that the US is battling for in Iraq and elsewhere.
Which brings us to a very logical moment of insight. In July, 2005, Business Week pretended that the oil crisis caused by the US illegal invasion of Iraq has actually stunted China’s growth. In an article entitled, China's Shrunken Thirst for Oil, the Business Week states, “the pain of record-high crude plus Beijing policies that squeeze refiners are sinking demand -- and may help speed the yuan's revaluation. Even China's enormous thirst for energy appears to have its limits. Evidence has mounted across Asia in recent days that oil prices have finally grown too rich for China, which accounted for more than 40% of total growth in world demand in 2004 and is expected to feed even more explosive demand this year. But on July 18, OPEC cut 150,000 barrels a day from its forecast for oil-demand growth this year, citing China's weakening appetite for crude.”
There is no weakening appetite for crude oil from China in the foreseeable future, and the above article is merely used as a spin technique to allay real concerns about China’s new insatiable appetite. With a growing middle class, despite US efforts to undercut it, and with a growing economy that demands more fossil fuels than ever before, China is forced to seek oil resources more and more outside its borders. This is one of the reasons the US invaded Iraq. The US has never sought a clear-cut victory in Iraq. If it wanted that, it could have easily obtained the same back in 2003.
The US is solely looking for a way to curb the massive Chinese expansion and its ever-increasing demand for oil. By turning Iraq into a ball of chaos that will last for years to come, the US has assured itself that China is without a ready-made source of petrol that it can count on to continue its growth. The US has played a devilish hand in ensuring that China will not have the resource it counted on in the past for its fuel.
But wait, there’s more.
In the oil sector, Venezuela is working on a number of new oil deals with China, as it aims to reduce its dependence upon crude exports to the US. The Venezuelan government has promised to work with China National Petroleum Corporation to boost Chinese investment in its oil facilities. There are also joint plans to build a fleet of new tanker ships and three refineries in China. Clearly, Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government is looking to circumvent any trade issues that the US has cooked up over China. China has also signed a $70 billion deal with Iran to ensure future deliveries of oil going forward. The best laid efforts of the US to stop Chinese growth seemed doomed for failure.
It is little wonder why the US is working so tirelessly towards an invasion of Iran and Venezuela. The PNAC, the Project for a New American Century, a prejudiced think tank started by Vice-President Cheney, and former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, among others, has stated that their main goals are to create a world where the US is the only super power, and where all other nations are subsequently completely oppressed as a result. The US is hell-bent on bringing the Chinese freight-train to its knees under any means necessary. Unfortunately, this time, the US right-wing demagogy has taken on more than it can chew. The Chinese economy will continue on its amazing run and will record double-digit growth over the next few years. The US will be surpassed in GDP over the next five to ten years.
The Chinese economy shows no signs of relenting now that it has gained full steam, and will continue to grow despite the US’s fervent attempts at derailing it. Short of an all out war between the US and China, something the US is unlikely to do since China could retaliate, China is the next super power and will put the US back in its place.
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