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This is something that most people never consider. But it’s pretty darn obvious. A group of tornadoes or hurricanes will flood, and destroy hundreds if not thousands of homes in the USA. We would watch the sad pictures, and hear the sad stories and they play over and over, and over on the American news media. Yet, where much larger, much more violent storms and typhoons hit China, the damage is minimal. Why?
In this article we explore the prime culprit. Which is the cheap, cheap, cheap flimsy building materials used throughout American homes today, compared to the stone, cement and steel buildings that are common throughout China.
You see, most of the world does not build “American style” homes. You will not find “McMansions” in Finland, or Russia, or in Australia. You won’t find them in the heart of Africa either. They are a uniquely “American” thing, based on material design, local building codes, and big profit margins.
Tornado strike Late 2021
Tornadoes are fearsome things. I’ve lived through them in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi and Texas – Louisiana.
A deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the largest and deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from the evening of December 10 to the early morning of December 11, 2021. The event developed as a trough progressed eastward across the United States, interacting with an unseasonably moist and unstable environment across the Mississippi Valley. Tornado activity began in northeastern Arkansas, before progressing into Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Early estimates suggested that the tornado family—identified by some media outlets as the “Quad-State tornado,” due to the storm’s similar characteristics to the Tri-State tornado that occurred 96 years prior—may have cut a path of up to 250 miles (400 km) across the affected areas. If it had been a single tornado, it would have surpassed the March 18, 1925, tornado event (which carved a 219-mile [352 km] path across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) in terms of path length.
Destroyed McMansion.
However, storm surveys found that the path was composed of two distinct EF4 tornadoes, with a break in the damage path over northwestern Obion County, Tennessee. Other tornadic thunderstorms affected portions of eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, West and Middle Tennessee, and Western and Central Kentucky during the late evening into the overnight hours of December 11, including four intense tornadoes that hit Bowling Green, Kentucky; Dresden, Tennessee; Edwardsville, Illinois; and Defiance, Missouri. This included a second supercell and tornado family, which produced an EF3 tornado tracking nearly 123 miles (198 km) in Tennessee and southern Kentucky, as well as numerous tornadoes, including three more rated EF3, throughout southern and central Kentucky.
Another destroyed McMansion
At least 91 people are confirmed to have been killed by the tornadoes, surpassing the Vicksburg, Mississippi tornado of December 5, 1953, which caused 38 fatalities, as the deadliest December tornado event ever recorded in the United States. Unconfirmed estimates suggest that the tornado outbreak may have caused over 100 deaths across five states, which would make it the deadliest tornado event in the United States since May 2011.
Destroyed home in Hattiesburg. MS.
In Kentucky alone, at least 77 people have been confirmed dead so far, making the outbreak the deadliest tornado event in Kentucky history, surpassing the Louisville-area tornado of March 27, 1890, which killed 76 people; in addition, one person remains missing and at least 138 injuries have been reported in the state.
Tornado destruction.
Super-Typhoon strike Zhuhai 2019
China has problems as well. There are typhoons, mud slides, massive rains, dust storms, and winter blizzards. The closest thing to a tornado strike like what hit the USA in December 2021 is a typhoon. Let’s look at the real nasty, big bad super typhoons that hit Zhuhai China and compare the damage.
The strongest typhoon to hit southern China in more than 40 years made its second landfall on Friday, authorities said, after leaving a trail of destruction and at least 64 dead in the neighboring Philippines.
Substantial damage to China’s many homes and buildings.
Super Typhoon Rammasun hit the city of Zhanjiang in south China’s Guangdong province on Friday night, local meteorological authorities said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Great deal of water damage.
It first made landfall Friday afternoon on Hainan island, packing winds of up to 216km/h, China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said.
The typhoon was expected to bring torrential rains and was the strongest storm to strike the country’s southern regions since 1973, the NMC said.
The damage is substantial, but unlike the damage in the USA, the buildings are still standing.
It claimed its first victim in China soon after coming ashore in Wenchang, Xinhua reported, when a man was killed by debris as his house collapsed.
State-run China Central Television in news bulletins showed images of wind-whipped trees in Hainan and high waves churned up by the typhoon.
“Strong Typhoon Rammasun is too frightening,” wrote one poster on Chinese social media, adding it “came ashore with fierce winds”.
“It’s raining so hard, the wipers won’t help and it’s hard to see the road ahead,” wrote another user riding in a taxi. “The road is full of water and tree branches, and the heavy wind has blown some branches onto the power cables.”
Why does it appear that American homes are so easily torn apart, while China homes still remain standing?
I argue that the reason lies in the basic construction features of American homes compared to the construction features of Chinese homes.
To use the old childhood story of “the three little pigs”; China builds houses out of bricks and stone, while America builds homes out of straw, sticks and paper.
The Three Little Pigs
Once upon a time there was an old mother pig who had three little pigs and not enough food to feed them. So when they were old enough, she sent them out into the world to seek their fortunes.
The first little pig was very lazy. He didn’t want to work at all and he built his house out of straw.
The second little pig worked a little bit harder but he was somewhat lazy too and he built his house out of sticks. Then, they sang and danced and played together the rest of the day.
The third little pig worked hard all day and built his house with bricks. It was a sturdy house complete with a fine fireplace and chimney. It looked like it could withstand the strongest winds.
The next day, a wolf happened to pass by the lane where the three little pigs lived; and he saw the straw house, and he smelled the pig inside. He thought the pig would make a mighty fine meal and his mouth began to water.
So he knocked on the door and said:
Little pig! Little pig!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pig saw the wolf’s big paws through the keyhole, so he answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!
Then the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down.
So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down! The wolf opened his jaws very wide and bit down as hard as he could, but the first little pig escaped and ran away to hide with the second little pig.
The wolf continued down the lane and he passed by the second house made of sticks; and he saw the house, and he smelled the pigs inside, and his mouth began to water as he thought about the fine dinner they would make.
So he knocked on the door and said:
Little pigs! Little pigs!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pigs saw the wolf’s pointy ears through the keyhole, so they answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin!
So the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down!
So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down! The wolf was greedy and he tried to catch both pigs at once, but he was too greedy and got neither! His big jaws clamped down on nothing but air and the two little pigs scrambled away as fast as their little hooves would carry them.
The wolf chased them down the lane and he almost caught them. But they made it to the brick house and slammed the door closed before the wolf could catch them. The three little pigs they were very frightened, they knew the wolf wanted to eat them. And that was very, very true. The wolf hadn’t eaten all day and he had worked up a large appetite chasing the pigs around and now he could smell all three of them inside and he knew that the three little pigs would make a lovely feast.
So the wolf knocked on the door and said:
Little pigs! Little pigs!
Let me in! Let me in!
But the little pigs saw the wolf’s narrow eyes through the keyhole, so they answered back:
No! No! No!
Not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin!
So the wolf showed his teeth and said:
Then I'll huff
and I'll puff
and I'll blow your house down.
Well! he huffed and he puffed. He puffed and he huffed. And he huffed, huffed, and he puffed, puffed; but he could not blow the house down. At last, he was so out of breath that he couldn’t huff and he couldn’t puff anymore. So he stopped to rest and thought a bit.
But this was too much. The wolf danced about with rage and swore he would come down the chimney and eat up the little pig for his supper. But while he was climbing on to the roof the little pig made up a blazing fire and put on a big pot full of water to boil. Then, just as the wolf was coming down the chimney, the little piggy pulled off the lid, and plop! in fell the wolf into the scalding water.
So the little piggy put on the cover again, boiled the wolf up, and the three little pigs ate him for supper.
Yum!
Let’s compare the construction methodology
This point came home to me rather abruptly as I work with many, many factories supplying building and construction parts and assemblies for export all over the world. Yet, not for the United States. You see, I work with domestic Chinese-owned factories. While the exports going to the United States are actually American factories inside of China using Chinese labor. It’s all about the money, you see.
Anyways, I have tried to supply windows to the United States market, but sheech! their price targets are too low, and the materials used (as specified by the architects and the builders) are so ridiculously flimsy and cheap.
Let’s show some examples so you all can get and understand what I am talking about. Ok?
Comparisons – Windows
Most American windows are ultra-cheap vinyl. Usually they are single-pane tempered glass of around 6mm thick. There are sometimes dual pane glass, with a specification for an inert gas between the layers, but that is very rare these days. Most everything is on the cheap, cheap, cheap.
Here’s a high-end dual pane American vinyl plastic window.
Most Chinese windows are thick dual pane glass with inner layers to prevent shattering. 20mm thickness is not unheard of. And the frames are not cheap plastic but are solid cast and machined aluminum, anodized and set on bearing hinges.
Here’s the Chinese equivalent of the above window…
Chinese dual pane, thin glass window.
Chinese windows are robust, well made, sturdy and using aluminum, quality fittings, and components. American windows are made out of the cheapest materials possible, arranged in the most cost effective method possible, and priced as high as possible.
Would you believe that the high quality Chinese windows are actually CHEAPER than the flimsy plastic vinyl windows used in America? Yeah. It’s important to keep American dumb and stupid so that they can be forever sheared as for-profit cattle.
Comparisons – Doors
No comparison. Most export interior doors to the United States are truly pathetic.
Cross section of an American hollow core door. Terrible in that it is flimsy and has zero sound proofing ability.
While inside China, all doors are either 100% solid wood, or wood over a closed cell sound insulation foam.
Typical interior door cross section as used in a Chinese home.
Comparisons – Counter tops
The big “thing” has been to use cheap stone countertops. These are made out of quartz and reinforced underneath. The importation of this cheap stone has been so enormous, that the US government has placed “dumping” restrictions on it. Never the less, local American quarries still produce the cheap countertops, but now charge large amounts of money for it.
Quartz countertop.
The Chinese use higher quality stone. Mostly basalt, marble, and granite.
Chinese basalt countertop.
Comparisons – Walls
Most American homes these days are made out of 2×4 frames, and sheathed in drywall. This has changed, as there is now an even cheaper alternative to drywall (if you can believe that!) It’s compressed fiberboard. This video shows how pathetic it is… Video 9MB
While in China all homes are reinforced cement and stone, with marble, or granite, soapstone stone overlays over it. Yes, living in a typical Chinese house is like living in a museum.
A typical Chinese house interior.
Comparisons – Flooring
In America, the typical residential flooring is a foundational plywood deck, covered by carpet, or a hardwood laminate. Rarely are actual wood floors used in modern American homes any more.
Typical residential floor construction.
An China, the typical residential flooring is cement supported stone slabs or either marble, granite, or basalt.
If all of the “new” homes throughout America are made for little piggies who like twigs, straw and paper. While all the homes in China and Russia are made for little piggies who like bricks, concrete and stone (with reinforcement with steel rebar). Then what would happen if big bad wolves try to start a war?
Which homes would be easier to knock down? The flimsy cardboard and paper homes, or the stone and steel homes?
Obviously this part of the calculus has never entered the minds of the master leadership inside of Washington DC. If a mere CAT 1 tornado can take down a house anywhere in the USA, image what a 500 MT thermonuclear device would do.
It’s about risk. Like this…
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
This post is going to be a little bit different. Part of it, is in essence, a little bit about what it was like staying at Father Pete’s retreat. But the other part of it is about prayer, and intention campaigns. And some of it is about the non-physical reality that surrounds our physical reality. So it’s gonna be a big mish-mash of all kinds of stuff, that are all intrinsically connected, but to see the big picture and the over all relationships we need to look at the tiny bits and pieces.
Well, are you ready? Buckled up and all that?
Summer 2020
The Coronavirus is raging all over the globe. Industry has contracted. Many people live under lock down conditions, and the entire society all over the world is disrupted. Disruption of society…
…a perfect opportunity for the evil and maligned full of evil intent.
And as a result, bad people find opportunity.
And Metallicman was caught up in one of these evil snares. I was scammed. And I am still dealing with it, but that’s another story.
I own a house in Shenzhen. I bought it before I was retired, and thus I bought it very cheap. And while I was doing long time in Prison in Arkansas, my house was accruing in value. Each year, as Shenzhen grew in size, the value of the house grew as well. Then they put a subway under the house and it’s value sky-rocketed.
Shenzhen, China.
.
I’ve been renting my house out.
It’s been a good source of income for us.
But then Coronavirus hit. And our tenants moved out. And we needed to find new ones. Well, what do you know! This company offered to take care of our house for us. We just pay them one months rent and they handle everything else. They get the tenant, and handle all problems or issues that arise.
Good deal!
When the COVID-19, coronavirus hit China, it caused work stoppages and factory closures. Our tenants moved to return to their home towns, leaving our apartment empty.
.
So we paid the money and told them what our rent out requirements were. They agreed to manage everything. (Without getting involved in currency conversion and all that, let’s keep the numbers simple.)
Rent was $1000 / month. They agreed to it, and almost immediately said that they found someone. We signed the contract and that was that.
…oh, my goodness. So so quick.
One week later, we discovered that the company found tenants promising them a rent of $500 / month if they would pay two years up front. Now, naturally, that set alarm bells off, but the company paid us the first month rent of $1000. So we shrugged our shoulders and figured that who cares, as long as they paid us the agreed amount.
They agreed to it, and almost immediately said that they found someone. We signed the contract and that was that.
.
One month came and went. They didn’t pay us the second rent.
So we went to the office. It was all closed up and boarded up. WTF?
Long story short…
This guy set up the company. Operated the company in around 30 cities. Got about one or two thousands others like us, and rented out our houses at basement prices for advance payments. Then he skipped town.
He took the money and skipped town.
…
(Tumbleweeds blowing in the street. Crickets chirping.)
…
It’s a criminal case and it is on-going. Our beef with the company is a civil case and we are suing them, but no action can occur until after the criminal case is resolved. And we are in the process of suing the current tenants to either pay us of leave. No squatters allowed.
Ok.
So what?
My Affirmation Campaign
I have not spent too much time on this particular bit of misfortune. I only added this line in my affirmation prayer campaign;
Those that have cheated and swindled me and my family this year has been identified and located. True and real justice upon these individuals is administered by those who have suffered from their activity. This justice is immediate and substantive.
Let’s talk about the non-physical reality
In this reality, thoughts create our reality. You think bad thoughts and bad things will happen. You think good thoughts, and good things will happen. If you don’t understand this, look up Quantum Physics 101.
Your thoughts create your reality.
.
Now, what do you think that 2000 angry families are thinking about this guy? Not just swindled, but swindled for one, two or even three years in the future! They will not be happy, and in China, if you piss off the wrong person, they will hunt you down and slaughter your ass, sure as shit.
All those bad evil brain waves…
Have you ever had someone so pissed off at you that they just beamed the hate right at you. Like they are trying to laser beam you to death? Well, imagine that multiplied by four (people per family) and again by 2000 (families affected). All these negative waves…
This is reality. They will hunt this guy down, and torture and kill him. If not personally, they will hire someone. It costs 25,000 RMB to hire an attorney like we did. But only 15,000 RMB to hunt this guy down and bring him to you.
…
Well, we moved on.
It crippled our finances. Coronavirus reduced our family income by 50%, while everything else and prices rose. But we survived, and are still squeaking by. It’s life. That’s what it is. You deal with it and move on.
You adapt. You grit your teeth. You carry on.
Then, in the middle of November 2020, my “situation board” lit up.
Alert to my “situation board”
Yah. Some explanation is required as to what the Hell I am talking about.
What is a gut feeling?gut feeling. An intuition or instinct, as opposed to an opinion based on a logical analysis. Jennifer's mother had a gut feeling that something was wrong when her daughter wasn't home by 10 o'clock.
-Gut feeling - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
Women have “woman’s intuition”. Men have a “gut feeling”. I have a “situation board”. It’s a neural net of all our senses that combine to make an accurate appraisal of our situation at any given moment in time. By practicing and through alertness and discipline we can sharpen our senses, hone our abilities, so that our intuition, and feelings, or “situation board” becomes more accurate and useful.
David J. Schwartz once related a story in his book “The Magic of Thinking Big” about an event that he once experienced. He once secured a very, very large order with a big, big client. After he had dinner with the client and everyone shook hands and left, he remained and had a few drinks with his co-workers. All night they made fun of the new client. They made fun of his appearance, and of his dealings, of his company, and of his dress. They spent the entire night making fun of him.
It doesn’t make sense why they did, you would think that they would be happy and elated to secure such a big contract. But they did. I would well imagine that alcohol played a role in this event, but we don’t know for sure what happened.
The next day, while at work, he received a phone call from the client. He withdrew his offer. The client couldn’t give a good reason for doing so except to say “I have a very bad feeling about this”. Indeed.
I’m sure that he did.
Trust your instincts. Trust your gut feelings.
In the book 4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison, the author relates what happened late at night just hours before the Thailand police busted into his hotel room and arrested him. He had this really awful feeling. He felt fearful and afraid and ugly. He wanted to ditch his illegal drugs right then and there, but he shrugged it off as his imagination.
It wasn’t.
Trust your instincts. Trust your gut feelings.
Before I was arrested for my heinous “crimes”, I too felt an awful, just awful dark icky feeling. It was like being dipped in molten hot dog shit, and it felt awful. I felt like gathering up everything and just bolting. Anywhere.
Looking back, maybe I should have…
Trusted my feelings.
Anyways, after that event, I decided that I would fully trust my “gut instincts” and be alert for the slightest change in my feelings and identify what is going on (to the best of my ability). I guess that it was easier for me as I have had years of world-line travel under my belt, and exposure to all sorts of strange things. So I pretty much knew what was going on. What I never thought about was honing my “gut feeling” abilities into a sense that I could rely upon.
I call this “practiced and cultivated skill” my “situation board”.
11 Signs Your Intuition Is Stronger Than Most People’s
My wife believes that my “situation board” is the same as every man’s “gut instinct”. Further she believes that “Woman’s intuition” is the same as a “man’s gut instinct”. I disagree. But many women can relate to this article below…
Reprinted from HERE. All credit to the original author. Edited to fit this venue.
You know the feeling. It starts somewhere in the gut. It usually blossoms from there when there is a decision to make. It could be a confrontation between two ice cream flavors or something bigger like what job offer to take. Often you might feel like you should fight it, battling it back down to the root. But, guys, you've heard your mothers and your grandmothers: follow your intuition. There are some signs your intuition is on point and reason to trust that gut feeling.
There are some times you feel like you just know something. You might also know that you're not a psychic and don't have the ability to tell people their fortune — but still, you know things. This is your intuition calling you. Maybe somebody's facial expression sparked a judgement in you telling you not to trust this person. There's some psychological science behind that ~feeling~. As Psychology Today explained on its site, "intuition is a mental matching game. The brain takes in a situation, does a very quick search of its files, and then finds its best analogue among the stored sprawl of memories and knowledge." From there, you're able to listen to intuition and develop a "hunch" about a certain situation.
You know when a question is asked in class, and you know the answer but you doubt yourself and don't raise your hand? Then, as it turns out, you were right? Your intuition is mostly likely always on point. It's just a matter of learning to trust it.
[1] You Have Vivid Dreams
Dreams and intuition are both from the same place. Your unconscious. If you have vivid dreams, there's a chance that your intuition is on point because you're getting a wave of information from your unconscious. It might be a little frightening at first, but, this wave of intuition can be helpful in your approach to waking life. Who do you need to get in touch with? Does someone close to you need to know that you love them? Keep a journal by your bedside!
[2] You Keep Catching The Clock At A Certain Time
You know when you go to look at the clock and everyday you seem to be catching the time at exactly 4:44 or another specific time? That could be your intuition as it relates to unconscious information your brain stores. "When a person catches a clock at a certain time, and you feel that perhaps a message is attached from a loved one who has passed, saying hello, or providing an answer to a question you have been pondering, then that 'knowing' is something inside yourself that you intuitively understand without needing to hash it out with another person," Licensed mental health counselor and wellness coach, Jill Sylvester tells Bustle. You just know when to look. And you know you have all the answers you're looking for within you.
[3] You're Empathetic
MindBodyGreen listed empathy as a sign of an intuitive person: "you're highly sensitive to what others are feeling." Everybody gives off a certain amount of energy — either negative or positive. If you're intuitive, you may have empathetic tendencies and actually be able to feel how someone else is feeling. And, if you're in tune to what people feel, you're more likely to pick up on how to act and how to handle certain situations.
[4] You Can See Through People
You might be out on a date or hanging out with new friends who seems charming, but your intuition is totally on point if you can see through the smiles and wit. Of course everybody deserves a chance, but maybe a snide remark registers and it'll make you feel like a person is performing as someone they're not. "Your intuition is strong when you might experience a negative or positive emotion, in the presence of someone or something that may not be healthy for you or may be exactly who and what you need at this time. It’s a sense. A feeling. A trusting," Sylvester, author of Trust Your Intuition, tells Bustle.
[5] You're In Tune With Your Body
Sometimes you just know when your body needs to rest. Maybe you haven't started even sniffling yet, but you can feel that your body is getting worn down. Listen to this! It's important to trust that you know when something is feeling off. Give yourself a break. "Intuition is strongest when you know something inside yourself without needing it to be validated by another person," Sylvester explains to Bustle. You should totally seek a medical opinion if you're not feeling well, but trust your gut when you know something is off and it's time to see the doctor.
[6] You Pick Up The Phone When Someone Is About To Call
You know when you're thinking of someone? And then you think about maybe calling them? And then you do? And they pick up and are like, "I was just going to call you!" Or maybe you're reaching for the phone when they call you? That is your intuition being totally ON POINT. Call it a connection between best friends, but something registered to pick up the phone and get on a call.
[7] You Analyze Your Safety
The one thing you should probably never doubt is the gut feeling that you aren't safe. On a recent night walk in a new city, my maps app directed me down a rather concerning path alongside a river that had no lights. As I began to walk, something in my gut — be it my mother or my intuition — screamed, "not today, no thank you." And I chose to listen. I made it safely to my destination, relieved I didn't advance further on the path. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, trust your gut and do not proceed.
[8] You Pick Activities Up
You know the saying: it's like riding a bike. You just know how to do something. As reported by Experience Life, an study by the University of Chicago showed, "while novice golfers did better when they thought carefully about their putts, the performance of more experienced golfers got much worse when they reflected on what they were doing." Basically, if you're an expert at something, you've developed instinct and muscle memory. Don't overthink it. Just trust your gut.
I bake pies. When I'm trying too hard to impress someone, I typically always burn the pie or undercook it by overanalyzing everything. But when I turn on a playlist and trust my instinct and intuition, they turn out just the way I wanted them.
[9] You Hire and Let Go Of The Right People
In an interview with Forbes, Shelley Row, the author of Think Less Live More: Lessons From A Recovering Over-Thinker, said, "Intuition plays an essential role for decision-making in rapidly changing environments; if there are contradictions in the data; ambiguity due to lack of data; or decisions that center on people (hiring, firing, or political decisions)." While in business you can make logical decisions based on data collected, when it comes to a changing environment and what's right for your team, that comes from the gut.
[10] You Show Up At Specific Times
Sometimes you just have that feeling that the train is going to be late or the friend you're meeting will arrive early. This goes back to the idea that the feeling in our gut is attached to information stored in our brain. "Experience is encoded in our brains as a web of fact and feeling. When a new experience calls up a similar pattern, it doesn't unleash just stored knowledge but also an emotional state of mind and a predisposition to respond in a certain way," Psychology Today wrote on its site.
You probably have registered that that specific train is always running 10 minutes late and your friend is always 15 minutes early. And so you show up to scheduled appointments and hang outs perfectly on time. Nevertheless, your cognition intuition is on point.
[11] You Predict Someone's Reaction
Sometimes you don't know how someone will react to finding out that you're moving or you got a new job or you can't make the party. But, because you most likely have had experiences with the people you're telling this to, you can probably predict how they'll react. Even, sometimes what they'll say. Ever caught yourself saying, "I knew you were going to say that!"? This is because the brain stores information that become a navigational point of emotional reference for the future. In other words, that's your intuition being on point.
I really don’t know how accurate these 11 points are.
I just cannot do any of them.
I think instead, it’s a measure of one’s EQ rather than any thing else. But, I discussed this with my wife, and she seems to believe that these are all great indicators of ability and that I should include them here.
So I have.
What seems clear to me is that there is a fundamental understanding in the differences between “woman’s intuition” and a “man’s gut feeling”. We need to account for those differences when reading my narrative.
So what is the difference between my “gut feeling” and a “woman’s intuition”?
From the article titled “7 Gut Instincts You Should NEVER Ignore”, by Mateo Sol. Copied as found without editing aside to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
In order to fulfill your spiritual purpose in this life, you’ve got to walk the path less traveled. And to walk the path less traveled, you have to embrace your inner wolf. It is your inner lone wolf that will guard, guide, and protect you with courage, integrity, and intelligence.
But here’s the thing:in order to embrace your inner wolf, you’ve got to listen to your gut instinct.
The problem is that our gut instincts are often polluted by fears, prejudice, and mental clutter. In this article, I want to share with you the seven gut instincts you should never ignore. You’ll also learn how to differentiate the voice of fear from the voice of primal wisdom.
What is the Gut Instinct?
Your gut instinct is the physical reaction you have to the world around and inside of you.
When you experience an overwhelming “gut feeling,” your body is carrying out a primal response to subconscious information. The ultimate purpose of your gut instinct is to protect you. As your gut instinct is the most ancient and primal “sixth sense” you have, it is the one you can rely upon the most.
One example of your gut instinct in action would be deciding to spontaneously avoid walking down a road at night because something “feels off.” That feeling is your gut instinct warning you that danger is afoot. You may then glimpse an intimidating gang of men down the street as you hurry by – your gut instinct has just saved you from potentially being robbed, beaten up, raped, or worse.
Put simply, your body is like the television screen on which your subconscious (the radio waves) transmits its information. When you can learn to read your body, you can learn to accurately tune in to your gut instinct.
We human beings like to believe ourselves to be separate from animals. Yes, we might be more sophisticated. But at our core, we are still animals – human animals. Our primal impulses and evolutionary origins don’t just disappear because we sit and read the newspaper each morning or wipe our asses with lavender-scented toilet paper.
As noted by anthropologist Clifford Geertz:
… man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.
Rather than get hoity-toity about the fact that we’re only really advanced animals, why not embrace it? By honoring the wisdom of the subconscious mind and its impact on the body to produce ‘gut instinct’ we can save ourselves from a lot of suffering. (This has been proven by the way.)
What’s the Difference Between Gut Instinct and Intuition?
Gut instinct and intuition are often used synonymously. And, yes, they are interconnected. But they aren’t quite the same.
So what’s the difference?
Put simply, gut instinct is your primal wisdom. Intuition is your spiritual wisdom. We need both if we are to walk our spiritual paths with courage and intelligence.
Intuition is very cerebral – it is a calm and clear sense of “knowing.” On the other hand, gut instinct is very visceral and physical – you feel it in your body.
Intuition can be expressed through the body, and the gut instinct can be expressed through intuitive knowing. But generally, both are clearly discernable and strikingly different in their experience. Also, gut instinct is much more emotional and reactive (as it is wired in the primal brain), whereas intuition is more neutral and calm.
Examples of Gut Instinct
Some call it a “hunch,” others an “inkling,” but in this article, we’ll refer to it as the gut instinct. Here are some examples that are taken from the animal kingdom and human (animal) behavior of gut instinct:
A herd of zebra sense danger while grazing. They cannot see the lions lurking in the surrounding savannah, but something is distinctly “off.” One zebra whinnies and the herd begins galloping away vigorously.
A herd of elephants meander through the deserts in search of water. Instinctively they know what direction to move in to find their sustenance.
A cat sits on the edge of a three-story house and wants to find a way down. She slinks over to the edge and stares at the ground apparently about to jump – but then changes her mind. She climbs down to the first story roof and then makes the jump, apparently aware on an instinctual level that jumping from any higher distance would injure her.
A person approaches you at a bar wanting to flirt with you. You start reciprocating, but something feels wrong. You sense a predatory quality about this person. You don’t trust them. You excuse yourself and leave.
Two hikers get lost on a trail within the mountains. Without a compass or any way to determine a direction back to camp, they sit silently and tune into the surrounding trees. Suddenly one of them points to the west, “I have a feeling that is the way back!” An hour later they have made it back to home base.
You’re driving down a highway at night. Suddenly, the impulse overtakes you to change lanes immediately. You obey the impulse, and a couple of seconds later miss a large spike of glass that could have punctured your tire and rendered you stranded on the side of the road.
A young woman is sitting in class at college. Out of the blue, she feels the strange impulse to return home. She ditches the class and catches a taxi, a pit of dread looming in her stomach. When she arrives home, she finds her mother on the floor having a heart attack. If she had ignored her gut instinct, her mother would have most likely died alone.
A man has two job offers. One of them pays less, and the other pays more. Logically he would choose the job that pays more, but he can’t shake the knot of dread that forms in his stomach every time he considers accepting the higher paying offer. He decides to choose the job that pays less. Two months later, he is relieved that he chose the right offer as the higher paying company went out of business due to a high profile lawsuit.
I hope you now have a good idea of how the gut instinct operates!
Signs You’ve Experienced a Gut Instinct
Pay attention to these signs:
A sudden feeling of dread or fear (that is out of context)
A strong urge to do something (feels like an inner nudge or pull)
Full-body chills, goosebumps or “tingles” up the spine
Nausea or physical uneasiness
Sudden hypervigilance (or being on “high alert”)
A clear and firm voice within you instructing you to do/not do something
You might experience all of these signs at once or only one or two of them.
Is it Fear? Or is it Your Gut Instinct?
Don’t get them confused!
But also, don’t worry if you have already. Chances are you were never taught about the difference between superficial mental fears and true gut instinct.
The mind can easily fool us, particularly when it comes to gut instinct. After all, we feel our emotions within our body. When you’re scared, you most likely get clammy hands, butterflies, and an increase in heart rate, right?
In a similar fashion, when we experience a gut instinct, we also receive physical sensations.
So how on earth can we distinguish between the two?
My response is to pay attention to your mind. What is the quality of your thoughts? Is your mind racing, frantic, or chaotic? If so, you are experiencing fear.
On the other hand, if your mind is relatively neutral, but your body is experiencing strong reactions (like a sense of impending doom for instance), you are experiencing a gut instinct.
In other words, when you need to distinguish between the voice of fear and your gut instincts, always turn your attention to your mind.
Why?
Gut instincts are spontaneous – they arise out of the blue. They don’t have time to build-up in the brain, therefore, the brain is relatively still and neutral. There is no “hmm, should I? Shouldn’t I?” going on. There is just an immediate DO THIS/DON’T DO THIS.
Fears, on the other hand, build-up. They are typically more vague, nagging, unclear, and tumultuous. If your mind is spinning, if your thoughts are everywhere, you are experiencing fear, not gut instinct.
7 Gut Instincts You Should NEVER Ignore
Obviously, you must be the judge. But there are some situations in life where your gut instincts shine the most.
While it’s easy to brush off most nagging sensations, please never ignore the following ones:
1. “I’m in danger”
Remember that your gut instincts reflect what your subconscious mind already knows. Although you may not be able to pinpoint what exactly the danger is, please listen to this inner warning. It could be the difference between life and death.
2. “They’re in danger”
Yes, you might sound like a lunatic. Yes, you might feel embarrassed or perplexed. But if you genuinely feel that someone is in danger, tell them. You have nothing to lose. You might just prevent the person from making a big mistake or endangering themselves.
3. “This isn’t the right choice”
If you get a strong and clear feeling that what you’re doing isn’t right, pay attention. Even if there is no moral or logical reason why you should be feeling that way, take heed.
4. “I need help”
Your gut instinct doesn’t only warn you of danger, it also helps to preserve your emotional well being. If you receive a strong sensation that you need help (whether physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually), seek it out. Don’t linger.
5. “I need to help them”
At some point in our lives, the overwhelming desire to help someone will arise. There may not be any rational reason why. The other person may appear to be perfectly fine on the surface. But don’t let appearances deceive you. Have a conversation with the person. Ask them how they are. This might make you feel vulnerable or uncomfortable, but you will at the very least make the person feel special, and at the most potentially save their lives.
6. “Something feels off in my body”
Unless you’re a hypochondriac (which is unlikely), your gut instincts rarely lie about the state of your health. If a sudden strong and clear desire arises to see a medical professional, do it. Get a full health assessment, and even if nothing comes up, feel proud of yourself for practicing self-care.
7. “This is it!”
Often when the perfect life calling, spiritual path, job, house, decision, option, etc. comes along, your gut instinct will immediately notify you. If you receive a strong and clear feeling that practically screams “YES” don’t ignore it! This is one of the most important reasons why it’s essential to listen to your gut instinct. It could be the difference between making a life-fulfilling choice and a soul-starving decision.
Trust Your Gut
So long as you’re able to distinguish between the voice of fear and the spontaneous feelings of your gut instinct, it is safe to trust your gut.
Trusting your instincts is an invaluable life skill and one that will tremendously benefit you on the spiritual path. After all, this instinct is built into our very DNA, so why not make the most use out of it?
As a final recommendation, I suggest practicing mindfulness meditation if you struggle to trust your gut. Mindfulness meditation will help you to become aware of your thoughts and body sensations. The more awareness you can develop, the easier it will be to make the distinction – it will become second-nature to you.
How was I able to cultivate my latent and inherent ability?
After I left Prison, I was able to leave the Hard Labor Facility at ADC “Brickey’s” East Arkansas Regional Unit and stay with family on parole. Parole is the “rehabilitation” part of my five year sentence.
For reasons that are not really important right now at this point in my narrative, it become prudent for me to move to a monastery, or a “men’s retreat” to help stabilize my return to society. This was a suggestion by my parole officer, and he was right. I needed something that my biological family was unable to provide at that time.
This is important after enduring the “punishment” part of the Hard Labor sentence.
East Arkansas Regional Unit.
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The monastery, or a “men’s retreat”, was a great place to center myself and slow down…way down from all the changes over the last few years. It pretty much consisted of an arrangement of various small farms. Each one with a building set up to house around 20 to 30 men in small cubicles.
Each cubicle was a very small bedroom. It held a very lumpy bed, a easy chair to sit on. A small side table with a lamp, and a bible. It was really nice, if a bit primitive.
That’s me at the monastery in my bedroom. Photo was taken by my father before he passed on. The cat is the monastery mouser, and took a shine to me and a few others as long as we let him come and go as he pleased.
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We worked the farm. Took care of the plants, the livestock and worked together communally to fend for the needs of the community. Between the work tasks were long period of quiet meditation, prayer, and similar activities.
The first week was a shock. And it took me three weeks to get used to the really, really, really slow pace of life. But then, once I adjusted, it was really nice. I was able to calm down and do well.
The monastery, or a “men’s retreat”, was in an isolated area that was hilly and wooded.
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The farms were in the middle of no-where. You could spend days walking down the roads and see nothing except trees. Not even isolated farm houses. We were “in the sticks” most certainly. Isolated wasn’t even the word for it. There was zero television and radio reception. You couldn’t even get AM radio. That’s how isolated the place was.
Anyways…
There was plenty of time to contemplate life and mistakes. And I contemplated quite a bit. Part of what I did was totally revamp my prayer affirmation campaign styles and methodology. But another thing that I did was try to home my “gut instincts”, or as I call it my “situation board”.
The monastery, or a “men’s retreat”, was a great place to center myself and slow down…way down from all the changes over the last few years.
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I personally believe that everyone needs to do this. But you just cannot devote a few minutes here or there. You need bulk periods of free time. Free time as in zero interruptions, and distractions. Only you. And I was able to do it at “Father Pete’s”. And it was glorious.
What is the “situation board”
The big change in how I dealt with things was that I now recognize that the physical world is a trivial image of a much larger non-physical reality. And I am constantly alert for changes in my personal “feelings”. The slightest change and I start looking for reasons for the incident. Was it something physical? Something that I ate? Or something that I did? Or is is associated with something non-physical.
Situation board from a computer game.
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Since then I have been busy mapping out “flags” or “tell-tales” (to use a nautical term) to help me identify what non-physical things that I am sensing.
Sometimes I am very accurate. Eerily accurate. And other times, I am way off track. I am not that good identifying everything that is going on. My ability is dependent upon the strength of the effect and the feeling. So to simplify things, I classify how strongly I perceive the non-physical events with an accuracy reading.
Minor, light, unusual.
Buggy, nagging, pestering.
Abrupt, clear, and strong.
Very strong and powerful. Full body effect.
In my “situation board”, I view the minor things of no consequence and try to ignore them. They might mean that something is actually going on, but I really can’t tell what. So I just have to wait to see what will happen. My personal experience is that in three days something will manifest. And I’ll end up slapping my forehead saying “so THAT is what this is all about“.
Of course, I already related the Very Strong and powerful Full-Body effect that I felt prior to my arrest. That’s a great example. And luckily, it’s a preciously rare event for me to “feel”.
And abrupt, strong and clear “feeling”
It has been my experience that when I have an abrupt strong and clear “feeling” on my “situation board” that is is actually occurring. I can give and provide numerous examples, but you all should realize by now that this isn’t necessary. If I feel something, then I feel it.
Which brings me back to the story about my house in Shenzhen. Remember that?
Yeah and the guy who swindled me, and a few thousand others out of our rental income for years so that he could “run away” with our earnings.
And you know, he only thought about the physical. getting the money so that he can enjoy the physical life. he never gave a thought about the non-physical. All he thought about was himself in his little physical world. And never to the consequences of his actions.
Scene from the movie “Schrooged”. Here an Angel is showing Bill Murray (the tough asshole businessman executive) how his actions affect the world around him.
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In the middle of November, I was in my house (not in Shenzhen, my other house in Zhuhai) and I was in the study. Oh, getting some things, I don’t remember what I was doing specifically, when suddenly my “situation board” all lit up in blinding and bright colors…
I "felt" that there was a strange youngish man (late 20's to middle 30's) in my room with another entity. A guide, or a mentor, or a agent of some sort. This young man had a real "chip on his shoulder", a very bad and angry attitude, and was condescending of everything around him.
The entity was explaining to the young man something along the lines of "...and look at how your actions affected this family and the hardships that you imposed on them by your actions...".
And his response, was "oh, boo hoo. Too bad. So what's the deal..."
And then the image dissolved and I "felt" them move out and on-wards.
Just my feelings. Eh?
Yeah.
Maybe.
A ghost has Bill Murry confront his life, his past, present and future. Scene from the movie “Schrooged”.
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Don’t let anyone ever tell you that we (in the non-physical bodies) don’t ever learn, or review our life and the good and bad things that we have been involved in. Some people might call this being an angel with a ghost. To me, they are two non-physical beings…
This week
Welcome to this week. It’s the last week in November, and I am writing this on Thanksgiving. Which is an American holiday that celebrates… who knows what it actually celebrates anymore? Different cultures coming together? Family and friends? The end of a crappy-tastic year?
And on this Thanksgiving day, I lived my normal day to day life, and I didn’t even bother to celebrate it. Finding a turkey in China is damn near impossible. Though I was tempted to go to KFC for some fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
Anyways…
We decided to check in with our attorney. When we called the attorney that was dealing with our lawsuit against the company that swindled us, he told us that there has been a complication in the entire process.
The owner of the company that swindled us “had an event”. And will be unable to testify or resolve the issue(s) at hand.
As a result, other methods of restitution and other processes must now come into play regarding resolution of our legal issues.
…
The evil SOB that swindled us and thousands of other families had “an event”.
Conclusion
I strongly believe, in my very bones, that the physical world that we experience is just a vector of world-line travel.
Once we finish our path, our consciousness leaves the physical and enters the non-physical realm.
And in this realm is so much, much, much more than what we know of and realize about. I believe that it is important to keep this awareness alive and at the top of our minds always.
Always keep this reality at the top of your mind. Even when you are getting drunk, cavorting with pretty girls and eating all those fine, and delicious foods. Realize where you are.
An Angel has a real heart-to-heart understanding with Bill Murry.
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I also strongly believe that as long as we are true to our natural selves, and are not tricked or seduced by others towards a love of things, or abuse of vices…
… or get involved in any of the many, many sidetracks in this physical realm…
… that we will ride out our earth-side reality experiences and end up living a full and productive life.
It is a life with love, happiness, care, and shared experiences with others.
You don’t have to believe my experiences. For they are very personal and unique to myself. You, might have other experiences, and some might be very difficult to relate or strange for others to understand. But please just be the best you can be. Don’t try to trick, or hurt others, and be a good contributing member of your society. And everything will turn out just fine.
Be a good person. It’s not too late, and if you start now, today, you can erase decades of bad behavior through active efforts at resolution and perhaps personal restitution.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
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We often talk (and complain) about the bad side of the new Orwellian police state that all nations are morphing into. Yet, with all of our moaning, groaning, and complaining we neglect to look at the more positive aspects. No, this is not an article in praise of the Orwellian Police State. Instead, we look at how intense monitoring of enormous populations, using high resolution cameras and 5G networks enable full “real time” tracking of agitators and hooligans. Especially those from another nation. Ones that are intended to destabilize, and cause strife, for global political ends.
In particular, we will look at the tracking (by China) of the United States agitation in the (so called) “Free Democracy” movement in Hong Kong during the Summer of 2019.
Quick Review
The United States under President Donald Trump has been involved in difficult negotiations with China over trade. These negotiations began in 2017, and “heated up” in early Summer of 2019. During the Summer of 2019 mass “Pro Democracy” protests broke out in Hong Kong. The idea, of course, has been to put every type and means of “pressure” on China so that the trade negotiations would fall in favor of the United States.
I covered the Chinese reaction to all this here. The link below opens up into a separate tab so as not to interrupt your viewing pleasure in this article.
These “pressures” included such things as…
Increasing Tariffs on Chinese made products.
Protests and disruptions in Hong Kong.
Asking European Nations to stop or break trade with China.
Financial incentives to other nations.
Pressure on American companies to move back to the USA.
Time will tell just how effective they will all be.
What I do know, as of the time of this writing, at the tail-end of September moving forward into the 70th anniversary of China, the following is true…
[1] International Trade
There is a GLOBAL slowing of all international trade.
International trade, across the board is reduced by 30%.
Companies located in strong pro-USA nations (Australia, NZ, and the UK) are looking for alternative off-shore supply chain operations outside of China. But there just aren’t any.
[2] American Trade With China
China has also surprised Americans with the most complete supply chains in the world. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours," one former high-ranking Apple executive was quoted as saying in a New York Times report.
- Smaller US companies depend on Chinese supply chain
The clear majority of American companies are staying inside of China. This is out of financial necessity. They do not have the financial means to take on the enormous financial risks to relocate back to the USA.
Those American companies are passing on the tariffs directly to the American consumer (25% direct) or (10% through a “pass through” arrangement).
But all accounts, the tariff situation is hurting American consumers much more than it is hurting China.
Read about the reasons here. Opens in a separate tab.
[3] Cut in American Food Items for Export
The cut in importation of American foodstuffs has resulted in the increase in the price of food. But not in the availability of food. China has food galore and a-plenty.
This goes absolutely against the American media narrative. Which on some websites are even suggesting famine! It’s insane. Ah, but, it’s easy enough to check.
China has spent the last thirty years building up their self-sufficiency in food, technology and vital products. They have not forgotten the mistakes made under Communism under Mr. Mao.
Now, of course, there are all kinds of different cuts of pork. It would be like comparing apples and watermelons if we use different cuts of pork. But, you know what, we work with what we have to work with.
Here is a flier showing one of the more expensive cuts of pork (it’s the Chinese national holiday, after all, ) Never the less, you can clearly see that a pork roast costs 17.8 RMB / half a Kg in October. Where in January (before the trade embargoes) a cheap cut of pork shoulder costs 12.8 RMB / half a Kg.
At which I would like to remind the reader that China is a bacon-loving nation. They love their pork and out-produces pork products that makes America look like teeny-boppers.
China, with it’s enormous population, does not need food imports to exist. China is an enormous breadbasket. Farms exist everywhere. For instance, did you know that China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
Yeah. America is a light-weight in pork production.
The Chinese love pork. This is a nation that loves bacon. They love pork chops, and all sorts of pork products.
China does not need any imports of food to feed it’s people. It is self-sufficient.
China feeds 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet's arable land. Land is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.
China is the world's top consumer of meat and grain. As it becomes more affluent people consume more meat and cooking oil and this has lead to increased demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock. China also uses more fertilizer that any other country.
According to United Nations statistics, China's cereal production is the largest in the world. In 2003 China produced 377 million tons, or 18.1 percent of total world production. Its plant oil crops---at 15 million tons in 2003---are a close second to those of the United States and amounted to 12.6 percent of total world production.
Lauren Keane wrote in the Washington Post, “China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand. "Were China to need to import a large amount of grain, it would have a very dramatic impact on world food prices," said Anthea Webb, director of World Food Program China. [Source:Lauren Keane, Washington Post, May 31, 2010]
-Facts and Details
The idea that China cannot feed it’s people comes from the late
1960’s when the Communist central government failed in the
implementation of policy. Taking advantage of that situation was a SJW
moment known as the Cultural Revolution. It collapsed when the military had to be called into to restore order and control.
[4] Discarding of the United States Dollar
For a full half a century, the world used the USD to conduct international business and trade. This was advantageous for the United States. As the value of the dollar could be artificially propped up as the entire world was using this currency, and it was able to “float” upon the stability of the economies of multiple nations.
Not so any longer. Each time a nation stops using the USD as a currency for international trade, the stability of the USD decreases.
Numerous nations are starting to conduct trade in the Yuan instead of the US Dollar.
Numerous nations are buying up gold and increasing their gold reserves.
America has countered to this by printing more money, and taking on more debt.
Maybe these nations know something that many Americans aren’t.
In the forefront of all these various issues, we have the (so called) “Pro Democracy” movement in HK. This is an effort that is designed to destabilize the region as a way to put pressure on China.
Indeed, Donald Trump himself tweeted to Xi Peng in September that all the protests in HK would end abruptly if China agreed to the USA trade concessions.
How could Donald Trump say that if he wasn't able to make that happen?
The “Pro Democracy Movement”
I covered this subject in great deal elsewhere. If you want to find out who the players are, the stakes involved, the money that changes hands, and the interests of the American “deep state” swamp you can clink on this link below. It opens up in a separate tab so as not to interrupt your reading pleasure here.
In order to put pressure on China, Donald Trump utilized a branch of the CIA known as the National Endowment for Democracy or NED.
This is all well known as the “paper trail” for the funding is public knowledge. Indeed, groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
You know… for “democracy” around the world.
While
US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and
pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the
demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
And the people used to [1] instigate the riots, [2] train the protestors, arrange and [3] organize the newsmen and cameras and [4] teach and instruct the rioters for “soft conflicts” used to [5] provoke violent actions by the HK Police all have LinkedIN profiles.
Don’t you know.
So, even a dweeb like myself can [1] track the funding, [2] see the names and addresses of the agitators, and [3] view where they are and what they are doing in Hong Kong.
Just imagine what the Chinese government can do.
But Hong Kong is not America. It is part of China.
As Americans, especially those who have never stepped foot outside of America, think of other nations, other people and other cities from our point of view. That is to say, we imagine the WORST outside the USA. And never give the other nations any credit for doing certain things well. We just assume that they are all blunder-head nincompoops.
When we think of Hong Kong, we think of New York city.
Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It’s pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It’s glorious.
Which is sad.
We should be thinking of Tokyo. We should be thinking of High-Tech (though not nearly as high-tech as Shenzhen), and state of the art. China is advancing in so, so , SO many ways and NONE of it is being reported by the mainstream American media.
We think, maybe that there are a few cameras here and there. We think that maybe the video feeds are being monitored, or that the traffic police are checking things out.
We don’t realize that the entire city is under constant advanced surveillance. And that China knows exactly what is going on in great detail.
Here, we are going to talk about this.
5G networks in all the Chinese cities
In the USA, there is an active program to justify why America is still using obsolete technology. “We don’t want to be irradiated with that dangerous 5G radio waves”, we say to ourselves. “We don’t want our brains cooked”.
Yeah. We heard it all before.
We Americans don’t want or need High Speed Rail. We are just happy with boarding our cattle-car-airlines, and paying the enormous ticket prices. We like doing it. HST has no place in America. Besides we have Amtrak!
Who cares about fluoride in the water? It’s a great way to get rid of the by-products of aluminum production. Fluoride is good for us. It’s modern, don’t you know.
America is great!
And a wall on the border of the USA and Mexico. It’s been three years and America can’t even construct a simple, singular wall. You know you have a problem when illiterate goat-herders in Afghanistan can make a half-decent wall and the great United States can’t even start…
Well, while Americans are justifying living in a nation that is increasingly becoming a “time portal” back to the last century, the rest of the world is advancing at break-neck speed.
Most of Africa has a growing and vibrant middle class, with malls, toll booths, and high speed (5G) internet. The Middle East (outside of the American-sponsored war zones) are all prospering. Check out the photos, for goodness sakes!
America is still stuck in the 1970’s I guess.
You can tell.
People still write checks instead of scan QR codes.
AM radio has the largest listening audience.
Everything comes with a price tag. Nothing is free, including water.
Software still has the same functionality as it did in the 1990’s, only now it has a nicer interface, but you must pay for updates and it auto copies your work “to the cloud” for governmental purposes.
China is different.
They have implemented 5G everywhere. There are cameras everywhere. And instead of paying people to collect welfare, have free healthcare, and protest for more goodies, China puts them to work. They are employed. They build things, clean things, work on things and monitor things.
Yes, and Hong Kong is constantly being monitored.
China is aware of everything.
One of the mysteries that I had was why didn’t the Chinese just “take out” the agitators? I mean, it was public knowledge who they were.
The HK populace are getting increasingly pissed off with the Antifa-style interruptions, and they are actively unmasking (literally) the protester participants. And, of course, everyone knows that everything you do is tracked in China. HK is NOT an exception.
So why not “take out the agitators”?
And then they actually did…
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
So.. the Chinese went forth and rounded up all the CIA related NED operatives in Hong Kong.
The video footage was pretty darn dramatic.
It’s all in 5G. You can even count the eyebrow hair on the American CIA agents. The Chinese had everything. From complete transcripts of the CIA instructing the rioters in “soft conflict” designed to provoke a military reaction, to a second by second, “walk through” where Trump advisors worked out planning with the protest leadership.
It’s all there.
Not televised in the USA, though.
Man! The Chinese knew everything!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
Check out the photo below. Notice the angle of the photo. Taken by an object on a dining room table. (Below belt level.)
People,
it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK
protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with
American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US …
“to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Chinese knew everything.
Everything. And they expected the United States to realize (and expect it).
They didn’t.
From the moment that Julie Eadeh stepped foot in Hong Kong, to how many steps she took to the elevator. They knew her heart-beat as she rode in the elevator in the Marriott. They even knew the color of the bra and panties that she wore. (Well, at least that is the current joke on Chinese social media…)
They know everything she said with the young protestors.
Everything.
Everything. From, promises, various “guarantees”, words of support and hope for assistance. As well as implications and guarantees of a cushy future and financial support in all sorts of ways. Any outsider can clearly see the implied promises under the veneer of political jargon.
Promises of free high-end university schooling .
Promises that they will be backed politically and that they will become the future leaders of HK.
Promises of houses, cars, and lifestyle,
Promises of money, lots and lots of money.
As well as who they are, and what they told her. Then they used “Minority Report” style technology to back-track and see who all the connections and phone calls that the confederates made. They had full conversation records, don’t you know.
The Chinese knew everything.
Of Course the CIA instructed the protestors.
It’s all on video. It’s all recorded in audio, and transcribed in English, Cantonese and Chinese. And then, then… then, plastered all over social media for the Chinese to see. Woo woo. What ever the American media is saying, the videos that the rest of the world watch clearly show that the United States is LYING.
It makes the United States look like some kind of Keystone Kops.
The protestors were instructed by NED to take out cameras and video systems. They were told to use black cans of spray paint.
Yes, but every can of black spray paint purchased in Hong Kong is recorded with a video of the person buying the paint. The Chinese government knows the person who bought the paint, and can make reasonable assumptions on it’s use. (The Chinese do not need to prove intent in a court of law.)
They were instructed to post flyers on the walls, use glue to hold them in place, and make banners.
But, every printer shop is under surveillance. Every one has video cameras installed. They know who ordered the flyers. They even have the PDF artwork in digital file from which the flyers were made. They know who ordered the fliers, when they ordered, who they paid and from which bank account. They also know the moneys that went into that bank account and who deposited the money.
They were instructed to leave their phones at home. And, I am sure that this helped. Maybe.
However, every person in China has a profile of “normal” behavior. If you take your phone with you every day, and then suddenly on a day of protest, you phone is at you house of residence, when the video cameras show you leaving the house, the police pretty much assumes what you are up to.
They were instructed in what to do by the CIA under the assumption that the Chinese are a growing third-world nation. Maybe like Libya or Syria.
They are not treating China like a high-technology version of Japan. They are not treating China like a serious, serious, SERIOUS nation that does not play around.
Conclusion
All of China is wired as a high-technology surveillance center. The larger cities are all wired. The Western cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) pretty much follow the “London model” of domestic surveillance.
While America has been busy throwing money away …
In “NASA educational programs for elementary schools in the Sudan”.
War after war. Now, eight simultaneous wars.
And 15 miles of rail for a High Speed Train that was never intended to be anything other than a political slush fund to pay off people.
… the Chinese have been spending their money on their nation. Improving the roads, public transport, lines and means of communication, public works, buildings, and public health. Not to mention, planting trees, making parks, and increasing the amount of farmland.
And they are dead serious about it. These Chinese are very, very serious people. Those that oppose or try to siphon away money are seized, arrested and imprisoned by the corruption police.
The Chinese do not mess around.
Thus when the United States tried to use the same “play book” to agitate protests in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019, the Chinese observed and leveraged that information. Then when the time was ready, they pounced.
Round #1 – China win. USA media oblivious.
I anticipate another series of protests that the Chinese will observe, and then quietly (behind the scenes) squelch. Maybe in the first week of October 2019.
They will do so and the American television viewing public will be confused. They will wonder “what is going on”? Why doesn’t China relent and allow HK to be just like America?
Round #2 – TBD
It’s because the main-steam media (both conservative and progressive) provides a skewed nonsensical narrative. One that has no bearing on the true and actual state of affairs. And that ignorance… will be what ultimately hurts and harms America.
People! Listen up!
America NEEDS a well-informed electorate to function properly. To think that the vast bulk of Chinese citizens, both on the mainland, and in Hong Kong want America “to save them” is ludicrous. Absolutely bovine excrement!
Looking at the big picture, it looks silly…
The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.
Just silly. It make the United States look… well… awful.
Predictions
I cannot predict the future. It has been my experience that the future will always certainly surprise. Anything can happen.
Anything.
Anything.
Donald Trump could be impeached.
Joe Biden or some other Marxist could become President.
Anti-gun house-to-house collection efforts might begin in earnest.
The USA could start a war with Iran.
Bacon could be banned all over America so not to offend Muslims.
Taxes could be raised 50% to fight global-warming.
Gender-neutral operations could be mandated in all American elementary schools.
I do not know what is going to happen. I am always taken by surprise, and I haven’t a clue as to what is going to happen in the future. Maybe some more of the old same-old same-old, eh?
The future will surprise…
I never expected “Joe Camel” to be banned in the United States “for the children”. Heck, by law, you had to be at least 16 years old just to be able to buy the cigarettes.
It has certainly surprised me. Time and time again, what I expected to happen, never came true…
I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would be funneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia! As well as some social re-engineering initiatives in Baltimore, Detroit and San Francisco.
Not just objectively, but socially as well, and on so many levels at that. Don’t you know.
I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares. It’s not yet released. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is some kind of transgender LGBT thingy.
The future cannot be predicted. Not by myself. Not by anyone.
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to “chip in” and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!
The future will always surprise.
In the trade front, it’s all in flux. What I really hope for is a strengthening of relationships. I hope for balanced trade without influence by the greedy in Washington D.C. and a chance for American industry to recover from the devastation of the Marxist globalist agenda. I can see it being a win-win for both the USA and China.
Seriously! China is an enormous market. They would pay a premium (+50% more) for “Made in America” products. But that is never going to happen if China matches the Trump tariff scheme. It just will close American companies to the enormous Chinese consumer market.
Right now, and for the last three years, the tariff negotiations have been driven by the Neocon advisors to Trump. They have asked the impossible and set up road-blocks at every turn.
Jimmy
Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal
is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so
that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His
primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and
America.
This is actionable disruption, and while it might make some political “hay” in the short term, it will result in some real serious problems in America in the long term.
Donald
Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not
“on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Understand that the rest of the world does not think like Americans. They do not watch American media and do not care what Americans think. They will follow nations that seemingly benefit THEM in the future.
They will be selfish. They will work with nations that provide them with benefit.
That being stated, do not make dated assumptions on the inflated capabilities of the United States, and upon the out-of-date ideas about China. I said it once, I said it twice. I will say it again. China is a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. We had best start treating them as such.
Finally.
Do not think that China is not afraid to kill a few people for the greater public good. They will do so in a heart-beat.
Do not judge China under the same criteria that you might judge America. It is like comparing apples to an oak tree.
Chinese Social Media
You do not need to rely on CNN, Fox or Rush Limbaugh for your news. You can [1] watch the videos of the CIA agents getting arrested yourselves. You can [2] read what the “Joe on the streets” thinks about the protests. You can [3] see what is going on in the other side of the world with your own two eyes.
America needs an informed electorate to function properly.
Here’s some links to Chinese social media. Warning, most are banned in the United States. You might need to use a VPN to use them. You do know that the Software moguls in California does not like competition.
I posted this article under “bloggers” in the Free Republic website, and was subsequently banned. I guess they do not like my opinions.
Never the less, immediately afterwards, it turned out the the United States government admitted that everything in this post is true, and that was posted on the well-known Washington Post.
Then they totally blocked me. Erased my 20+ years of articles and comments, and I became a non-person. That’s what “freedom of speech” is on Free Republic. You will conform to the Alt-Right narrative out of Washington DC, or you get destroyed.
Well, I was “killed”, but…
..everything I wrote was accurate, and real. And thus…
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
"A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 41% of the respondents considered relocating or had relocated manufacturing facilities outside of China, but only 6% were considering moving back to the United States. Southeast Asia was the top destination. "
-Townhall
This is an overview of the complexities and issues that a company must deal with in order to relocate their factory out of China and place it back in the United States. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and we discuss the issues involved independently outside of the contentious American political scene.
We discuss the functional and practical issues with relocating a factory back to the United States from China. Not, the political issues, nor the need for America to reclaim it's manufacturing base. Those are other issues that will not be addressed here.
Though, let it be clearly understood, that I stand with Donald Trump in that there is a serious need to restart the American industrial machine and fire it up back to a level of productivity in order for the USA to maintain a global leadership role.
This entire issue came to a head when President Trump “ordered” American factories currently in China to “uproot” and Return back to the United States. It made all the headlines, don’t ya know?
However, the truth is that is it is extraordinarily difficult thing to do. And no, as much as I would like all of youse guys to hire me, you just can’t hire an “expert” to handle things and expect them to be done to your satisfaction. It doesn’t work that way.
Sorry.
While there are ways to accomplish this task, there will be a hit in quality, price, and delivery time. All of these issues will affect the market share of the companies that agree to relocate. This damage to the market share for the companies involved should not be discounted. For many, it will manifest as a dance with death.
Here we discuss the most important issues that a company CEO, or owner would need to consider when contemplating relocating his company out of China.
Full Disclosure
For starters, I must make the full disclosure. Please take note that I was one of those “evil” Americans who relocated factories out of America and placed them in China. It was my job and maintained this role for a solid fifteen years if not longer.
Call me an a$$hole if you like.
It’s difficult being the person that everyone hates.
It’s not like I wanted to do it, so much as starving in a food-stamp line really sucked. I followed the money. You take what work is available and you do not question the person cutting you a paycheck. Sure beats scrubbing toilets, hauling manure, or judging the sex of chickens. Truth this.
It was difficult scraping by in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. I was just happy to get a job any job when unemployment (actual) was in the double figures.
For decades, people like Trump’s trade director Peter Navarro have warned us that something like this would happen someday. But we were condescendingly told, This is capital seeking the most efficient market! And, anyway, if China screws with us, we’ll just make it ourselves.
Really? With broken-down buildings, a dispossessed workforce and no machinery? Unfashionable working-class people in the industrial Midwest were discarded long ago. They may as well have had “obsolete” stamped on their foreheads.
-Ann Coulter
Ah. Maybe you the reader are unaware of the existence of the “rust belt” and us sorry sacks that lived there.
Unemployment line. In this June 23, 2014 photo, people wait in line to meet with recruiters during a job fair in Philadelphia. The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
I was hired for that task and did it to the best of my ability for numerous companies throughout the late 1980’s into the new century. Once Bill Clinton came to office, it just seemed like the “flood gates” opened up and just about everyone wanted to uproot and move their operations to China.
So, I do know what I am talking about.
A map showing the location of United States manufacturing plants in China as of 2008. As today is 2019, you can well appreciate that all these plants are joint-ventures, and not organized as WOFE and thus the American ownership of these companies are at 49% or less, with the Chinese partner owning a 51% controlling stake in the factory.
And no, moving American factories back to America from China is not as simple as Donald Trump, Fox news, CNN, WaPo and the Drudge Report makes it out to be. It’s complicated. If handled poorly the entire American industry segment can be wiped out completely (rather than just simply outsourced).
Listen up!
Let it also be clearly understood that it was much easier to relocate a factory to China than it would be to reverse the effort, and relocate it to the United States. Yes. It’s like eating a delicious pizza. Once you eat it, you cannot regurgitate it up and present the vomit for resale. Now, can you? Nope you cannot.
We will cover some of these points in this article.
China makes everything
Most Americans are under the impression that the only things that China makes is cheap and useless junk. That is because of three things. [1] Ego, [2] Mainstream American media, and [3] Walmart.
The truth is that China is the manufacturer for the world.
Most computers are made in China.
Most clothes washers are made in China.
Most cell phones are made in China.
Most automobile engines are made in China.
Most transmissions are made in China.
Most tires are made in China.
So do not be under the erroneous assumption that it’s easy to relocate a factory back to the USA. These are, for the most part, not low-technology factories. (The low-technology factories have long since moved to even cheaper nations with less regulation, like Vietnam and Cambodia.)
Today, most American owned factories in China are much more advanced, than what is assumed. They are far more automated than the American mainstream news media lets on.
Take a look at what these factories make…
Trade between the USA and China.
ACME Widget Technology Inc.
To better help understand the issues involved, we will use a fictitious American company. This company is based on a number of actual companies that I worked at where I relocated the factories to China. It is an amalgamation of numerous actual companies that I am sorry that I'd rather not announce publicly. As I did sign NDA's at all the companies.
This fictitious company is called ACME Widget Technology Inc. This company was a very prosperous consumer appliance company that was established in the 1950’s and was a major player in the consumer market during the 1960’s into the 1970’s.
They manufactured a wide selection of consumer appliances ranging from “white goods” (washing machines, stoves, and other large appliances), to “kitchen appliances” (microwave ovens, toasters, coffee makers) to “Lawn and Garden” appliances (weed-wackers, lawn-mowers and chainsaws).
White goods and other large appliances on display in a well known appliance store.
At their peak they employed over 10,000 American workers.
They operated numerous individual specialized factories, each one customized for a specific product line. As such there was one factory for personal scales, a different factory for heated cooking appliances, a factory for outdoor grills, and another one for washing machines. For all the various product lines, there was, perhaps, 30 to 45 factories at the middle of the 1990’s.
Most of these factories were in the Southern states, with the bulk of the factories in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
(They were initially in the North in the Great Lakes region, but relocated during the 1970's to the South East. They did so for lower wages (1/4 the rate) and the ability to skirt the onerous regulatory and union requirements.)
The ACME Catalog.
While the factories were in the Southern states to take advantage of the low labor rates, and “friendly” (at that time) business climate, the corporate offices were elsewhere. Marketing, Sales and the Commercial management offices were located in a suburb of Chicago. Perhaps you heard of it, Schaumburg Illinois?
While Engineering, Quality, Tooling and Test facilities were located within a days drive of any of the specialized factories in the deep South. Their offices were in the town center of one of the many numerous small Southern towns. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, perhaps you have heard of it?
Local engineering and related quality offices in small town America in the Deep South.
A 1980’s Hostile Takeover
In the 1980’s a group of investors seized control of the company. It was hostile, and thus the term “hostile takeover” become commonly used. (Remember the movies “The secret of my success”, and “Other people’s money”.) They laid off a significant percentage of the workers, shut down and sold off various factories and divisions (Remember the movie “Pretty Woman”?) and “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap?
It was a “bloodbath”.
Their goal was to strip-mine the company for personal profit. They felt that they could do with the company as they wished as they held controlling interest in it. And, since no one was doing anything to stop them from this (terribly unethical) activity, they were correct.
Without enforcement of the laws, or the selective application of laws... they functionally do not exist.
Given the crimes of the Washington oligarchy, this should be painfully obvious to everyone in America today.
After laying off thousands of people, Al Dunlap retired to a life of luxury and ease, playing golf and smoking cigars. Meanwhile the workers that he laid off ended up destitute, many lost their homes, and went into bankruptcy. Today, many live in mobile homes, and are employed in low-paying unskilled labor employment.
I was hired to move companies to China.
Within this contentious environment, where the wealthy and successful were guzzling XO and cavorting with high-paid hookers, (while us working “normals” were discarded as “useless riff raff”), they hired me to do three things;
Relocate specific factories to China
Create Joint Ventures with existing Chinese factories
“Farm out” specific product lines to existing Chinese factories and create a partnership whereas we would purchase complete products from them though our Purchasing organization.
They wanted to move the plants to China for the simple reason that the wages were far less, the rate of exchange USD to Yuan was in the favor of the United States ownership, and that regulations, laws, and controls were lax, or in many cases, not present at all.
The operational costs American facility vs Chinese facility + Logistics costs were like "night and day". It was absolutely mind blowing how much cheaper it was to manufacture products in China compared to the USA.
Not to mention, of course, that the Chinese were actively courting American businessmen to “sell their soul”, “sell out their countrymen”, for a life of ease, prostitutes and a never-ending supply of recreational drugs.
First, they hired slick American marketing firms and convinced giant U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing to China by providing $1 leases for comparable plants and abundant cheap labor. Wall Street fell for it.
Secondly, state-subsidized Chinese companies flooded U.S. markets with products at one-third the prevailing price. The result: In short order, most American manufacturers had to file for bankruptcy. Then, these same Chinese firms shamelessly swept in and bought up our manufacturers’ now-unused equipment for pennies on the dollar.We were asleep. Sure, it cost China some money in the early stages, but per their long-term plan, China became the world’s top manufacturer and resource for such fire-sale buy-outs at the same time. The plan was masterful, the U.S. and American stakeholders fell for it hook, line and sinker.
I personally observed this wholesale takeover up close from 1990 to 2010.
-Townhall
Note on the quote above: No American citizen can lease under the terms mentioned in the quote. Only the Chinese partner can take advantage of that lease arrangement. While the quote is a good one, it is very deceptive.
But moving into China was not as straight forward as it appeared. You just don’t hop on a plane with a suitcase full of cash, point to a factory and say “I want that one”. To operate in China (up until around 2008 or so) you needed to create a joint-venture partnership with an existing Chinese factory. So that is what ACME did. They partnered up with existing Chinese factories.
The primary advantages in having a joint venture in china was labor rates, regulations, and favorable trade terms. Anything else is speculative.
A comparison in hourly wages for manufacturing workers in the United States as compared to China.
The Dismantling of American Industry
These actions took place throughout the 1990’s and by the tail end of the decade, almost the entire product line for ACME was manufactured in China.
All in all, it took nearly a decade to move operations off shore without seriously affecting market share and the confidence of our customers. Our name brands remained intact. Commercial campaigns for the sales of ACME products were given top spots on television and through newspapers.
The Design, and Quality staff remained in the United States.
However, that too began to be outsourced as well. With Engineers from India, and China working alongside American Engineers. Eventually, the complete Engineering and Quality groups were wholly outsourced to China.
None remained in America.
Customer Service Staff at a CS operations room in India.
Customer Service activity was outsourced to India. None remained in America.
This remained true even after a flood of complaints about the quality of the customer service. They worked for a fraction of the cost of Americans, and with that pittance lived a upper-middle class lifestyle in India. The company savings went directly into the pockets of the owners of ACME.
Thus the resultant reorganization of the company resulted in very competitive prices that appealed to the major retailers. Walmart, Target, Sears, Home Depot, Walgreens and others all placed ACME Widget products in key SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) locations in their stores.
In other words, displayed predominantly, at eye-level on shelves, and in high visibility locations within stores.
A graph of the decline in American manufacturing employment (and conversely ability) in order to meet the profit targets of Wall Street, the globalist cabal that runs Washington, DC, and the progressive political leadership in America.
Product Placement in Stores
The complexity of product placement in stores is unknown to most Americans, but it shouldn’t be. The largest profits from the sale of ACME products went to the “Box Retailers”, not to the manufacturer. They made a profit margin of around 30% on each appliance, compared to the paltry 2-3% that the factory earned for making it.
Walmart
Sears
Target
JC Penny
Walgreens
K-Mart
Additionally, these stores placed pricing pressure on ACME to lower the price every year. Walmart had a policy of price reduction that equated to 1.5% off each model, each year.
Now this price reduction was not passed on to the consumers. Nope. The store kept the savings.
Though the price to the “Box Store” would decrease, the sales price would not. Thus resulting in a net gain in profits for the local stores of 1.5% each year for each existing product. This was important, as Walmart maintained a solid 30% mark-up over the factory cost. (The the factory cost mark-up was rarely more than 3%.)
That $100 vacuum cleaner cost $67 to make and ship. The store that you bought it from made $30, the factory made $3.
Globalism was fantastic for the wealthy. Their profits were never larger.
Though, not so good for the local, “Joe Blow” who had a family and needed to work to earn enough to meet the basics of a roof from the rain, cheap food to feed the family, and some beer to dull the senses.
Power Tool Isle in Home Depot in the United States. All of which are made in China and rebranded with American-friendly names.
As such, the profits were enormous for the company, and the owners (the ones that conducted the “hostile takeover”) rolled in the cash in mind-boggling amounts.
The amounts of profits were truly mind-boggling.
They used that money to “diversify” their company portfolio. They bought hotels, cruise liners, travel agencies, and were getting involved in Savings and Loan banking. Such was the high-flying life in the 1990’s. (Anyone remember the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”.)
President Obama represented the Global Interests of a global socialistic community. He did not care for local Americans, as he viewed them as a part of an “old order” that must be discarded in favor of a new, more “enlightened” progressive way of doing things.
Unfortunately, many of these side ventures failed. Thus additional rounds of layoffs, and downsizing’s continued a pace.
This continued to be the story throughout the industry as the competition to ACME also implemented their modus operandi.
Then came the election of Donald Trump.
President Trump starts a “Trade War”
Donald Trump and Xi Peng.
In 2016 though 2019 he raised tariffs on Chinese made products. With the percentage of tariffs constantly increasing. This continued until late Summer of 2019 when he demanded that American companies working and trading with China return their operations back to America.
It most certainly shook the will of most nations around the world.
I know it shook Wall Street, and afterwards, globally all consumers and manufacturers started to slow down operations to take a slower more conservative bent on the matters at hand. They slowed everything way… way down.
It started in 2016, and over the next three years, the global economy started to slow down and cool off. Orders out of America limped forward hesitantly, while orders from Europe kept pace, but were more cautious than before.
Nothing “crashed” as predicted by the “screeching heads” on the “blue panel” debates on television. (All actors reading scripts, and playing roles, don’t ya know.) But things slowed down. Things cooled off. Investors became cautious.
I get a phone call.
Walking the dog on the beach.
In September 2019, I was walking my dog along the beach near my house when my cell phone rang.
I normally don't keep my cell phone with me. But, for reasons related to habit, I had it in my satchel with me.
An old boss of mine, from my ACME days, tracked me down (How he was able to do so, I do not know.) and wanted to know if I would be willing to help them sort out the issues related to relocating their factories back to the United States.
I should have said no.
After all, our history was contentious. For, as soon as I completed my tasks with ACME, they immediately fired me, and made me sign a NDA in order to guarantee that I could get food stamps. No back pay, no severance package nothing. I couldn’t even go back to my office to get my personal effects. Pretty harsh, especially when you consider my very own personal situation…
… I had a wife with a very serious mental illness. And I was splitting my time between dealing with insanity of work issues and visiting her at the hospital. The layoff, at a time when my wife was suicidal, was a severe hardship. Well, for me at least.
Maybe you can handle an hysterical deranged wife painting the bathroom mirror with fingernail polish, while you are trying to “hit the streets” looking for new employment. I could not.
But that’s life. No one gives a rat’s ass about you.
Dilbert comic. It’s so funny because it is (sort of) true. LOL
It’s (as they say in America) “just business”. It’s the “American Way”, don’t you know. And you, as an American, should know. This is the truth, and this is the way it is. This is the real deal.
In America… it’s “just” business.
Being laid off without notice, or severance really blows. But that’s the story of being an American worker during the last three decades. It’s the American way.
As was true through most of the 1990’s, treating employees as disposable paper cups often resulted in some bloody events.
But, in this case I said “yes” to my old boss. I asked a (relatively) enormous sum of money (expecting them to decline), and they agreed. Imagine that! I guess they were desperate.
After about two weeks of sorting out my personal affairs, we had a meeting in the conference room in one of their plush offices. It was on the 16th floor in this really nice (curtain wall) glass and steel structure that resided in Florida. What a life. They had really been doing well. Everything was new, and polished. It was a big change from the “hand me down” desks and cubicle walls that I dealt with back in the 1990’s.
Yeah. It looked something a little like this…
Corporate Headquarters
After the initial pleasantries and handshakes (You know, how was the flight, and did I like the hotel, etc.) , they asked me what was involved in moving the factories back to the United States, and so I put together some bullet points and made a PPT presentation to the upper management.
Making a PPT presentation.
Capital Expenditures
The first point raised, of course, was costs. If you are going to move operations from one physical location to another, you will incur costs. What would those costs be?
The costs incurred would fall under numerous general categories;
Relocating heavy machinery and equipment (or the purchase of the replacements thereof).
Rules, fees, taxes and the costs associated with agency regulations that one must pay in the United States to operate a factory there. Do not be under the impression that you can just cut down a tree, install a power line, pave a road, and start putting up a pole building without having American government regulation at all levels involved.
Fees, charges, and associated bribes that you must pay when you are dealing with local American government. Make no mistake this is a very real issue and one that is kept quite hidden. After all it is quite illegal, and you all don’t want the pristine agencies of the FBI and DOJ putting their retainers on your efforts.
Rent or construction of new facilities.
The hiring of new staff to replace the Chinese staff. This will include all benefits as well as the various associated taxes, fees and social security benefits.
Associated relocation costs.
Associated tariffs in moving product inventory, and equipment from China to the USA.
It’s not so simple.
If you want to do something, it will cost money. Imagine that you are moving your house from Illinois to Los Angles. There will be costs. There will be the costs for the movers, the gas, the rental of the vehicle and the employment of the moving crew. The same is true for a business. There will be costs.
Some Key Points
Now, I would like to make some relatively important key points regarding moving a factory to China as compared to moving it back to China.
Firstly, consider what ACME did when the relocated the factory from America to China.
In the mid 1990’s, ACME formed a joint partnership / joint-venture with a Chinese company. ACME would take 70% of the profits, and the Chinese partner would take 30% of the profits.
ACME then shipped all their heavy manufacturing equipment from America to China. They physically removed it from the American factories, and shipped it to China. Then at the factory, they utilized both American and Chinese labor to set the equipment up, debug it, and shim the mechanisms into working condition.
However, it was well understood that once you set up a factory within China, you MUST have partial Chinese ownership. You absolutely cannot operate any factory in China without significant Chinese ownership. At that, let it be well understood that the Chinese co-owners MUST have at least 51% ownership in the company. The American owners will NEVER have more than 49% ownership of anything that they own and bring to China. It is Chinese Law (at least back in the 1990’s it was).
Also, let it be well understood that the upper management at ACME knew full well that this was the case. But they did not care.
Their focus was on the short term profits, as was their charge. They fully expected that the company would eventually collapse long before there would ever be the need to relocate the factories back to the United States.
Semi-automated production line typically used in the appliance assembly. Picture is of a Bosch line prior to export to a Chinese assembly line.
Thus, any equipment brought into China will now require the co-owner’s (Chinese national) approval to remove from the Chinese factory and ship elsewhere.
In practice, this is often a big “NO!” There are some cases where the Chinese owner will permit the removal of old or antiquated equipment at a price. Often the price will be at market value or higher.
So, when ACME moved the equipment into China it was very simple. They moved it, and used their inherent labor to set it up and debug.
Yes, so when ACME relocated entire factories to China, it was a simple matter of firing all the American employees, boxing up the equipment, and handing it over to a Chinese partner. They, in turn, would own the equipment, train and staff the Chinese workers to use the equipment and ship the products back to America.
It was a model that worked well from the 1990’s up to around 2019. Everyone was doing it. American industry, as was Wall-Street, were all focused on quarterly profits. They could not see further than a few years in the future. The Chinese, on the other hand, think in terms of centuries.
However, to remove the equipment, they will NOW need the Chinese co-owner’s approval. This will often not be easy and it will come at a price. For they will be asking permission from their (now wealthy) Chinese partner to give up all of the capital equipment that resides in his factory. (And make no mistake, at 51% ownership, it is his factory.)
Please keep in mind that the cost of these manufacturing and assembly machinery are in the millions of dollars. As an example, an automated “brake” used to cut and bend aluminum sheet will equal the cost of a Lamborghini. Now, figure that each factory might have ten such machines at minimum. That is a lot of money.
Factories utilize so many different types of automation, that it is difficult to quantify exactly which ones are critical to the production end line goal, and which ones can be replaced by American manual labor. Photo is of an actual American joint-venture factory within China.
In short, what all this means is that American ownership of a Chinese factory is, at best, at 49%. As such removal of the equipment to America is problematic and will probably NOT occur. The Chinese business partner would keep the equipment, dissolve the partnership once the sales dissolve (easy enough under Chinese law) and end up owning the complete factory himself.
Thus the American partner is then forced to purchase all brand new assembly equipment from scratch and start off all over again. Only this time, due to the ravaging effects of inflation, the cost of the equipment is much more expensive than the initial purchase in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Thus capital equipment expenditures would seriously end up in the hundreds of millions of dollars alone.
Relocating a factory from China back to the United States is a prohibitively expensive exercise that costs an enormous amount of money. The only way around these costs are to employ Americans in an entirely manual assembly role and cut out all automation, quality checks and basic assembly standards.
Quick summary;
American manufacturing capital equipment is 100% American company owned when shipped to China.
American manufacturing capital equipment is only 49% American owned when shipping out of China.
The difference in ownership will result in serious costs regarding the purchase of new capital equipment equipment for use within a factory in the United States.
If the American management wants to go the legal route to resolve any issues with the Chinese partner, the Chinese legal system will rule in favor of the Chinese national. They ALWAYS rule in favor of the Chinese national. This is the way it works.
To put this in another way; to purchase new automation equipment for an American factory will entail enormous costs.
The only way that a business can purchase replacement capital equipment is with favorable banking and loan arrangements, but even with that, the amortization costs on most typical appliances will be on the order of an increase in 30% to 55% increase in the costs of the appliance.
Bill Clinton was quite satisfied with the trade arrangements with China, and supported it whole heartedly.
Is it fair? No. But that is the situation that President’s Clinton, Bush and Obama were all quite satisfied with.
Technically Skilled Leadership
Another issue is the technical staff.
This is something that is given quite a bit of “lip service” in the industry, but is actually just a big smoke screen. If talented technical staff were actually important they would never be laid off. Right?
Like I said. It’s a lot of words with no substance.
How to fire someone in America. Soften the blow so they don’t go postal on you.
Well, that is all just fine and day, except when you are talking about relocating a factory.
For you NEED these people, and you NEED their expertise. Otherwise, you will have all sorts of problems in production, resulting in quality disasters, and severe production delays.
Production Engineers are critical to the smooth operation of the production lines in a factory.
No we are not talking about line supervisors, and accounting clerks. We are talking about the engineers that maintain and operate the complex automated machinery. We are talking about the design, industrial, manufacturing, and mechanical engineers that make the production lines hum efficiently.
Oh, yeah.
They used to be plentiful in the United States, but over the last three decades they have become a dying breed. Most, once laid off, could not find other similar work and so they migrated into other occupations.
When our nation’s coal miners found themselves out of work, the left-media gleefully told them that they need to “learn to code.” After all, they were dinosaurs working, literally, with dinosaur fuels and needed to be reeducated for the global, technological economy.
The condescending chant that rained down from the privileged ivory towers of the leftist elite: Learn. To. Code.
-Legal Insurrection
Some became bakers, while other ended up delivering mail for the Post Office. Some became teachers, while others became Bus Drivers. Maybe some even “learned to code”, as the Mainstream News Media laughingly taunted the unemployed professionals.
Design, production, manufacturing, industrial, quality and maintenance engineers are key talents that all factories require. Though over the last three decades, most of them have been Chinese, not American.
They, like myself, were forced to migrate to where the work is. If you are lucky, you never need to change and swap jobs. But during the 1990’s this was a near impossibility.
There are very few active technical factory experts in the United States today that are able and willing to relocate to a new post-China startup. They exist, but are decidedly no longer as plentiful as they once were. As such, once you find them, you will need to pay them a premium salary for their knowledge and experience.
Manufacturing engineers make sure that the process is set in place and the the workers can best manufacture complex and high quality products. Without them, the factory will be plagued with all sort of quality problems, arguments, failures and delays.
Now, that does not mean that they cannot be found.
They exist and are available in America. However you will need to pay them American salaries, and American benefits. Often with a benefit package that is ten times that of what the companies have been accustomed to paying their Chinese technical staff.
Process Engineers have an important role in the successful operation of any factory, especially those involving chemical and treatment processes.
So ,yes there are technical staff that can be hired within America to work and maintain the factories. However, the cost to employ them will require a budget at lest ten times larger than the budget that is already allocated for the staff at a comparative Chinese factory. This cost will be added on to the cost of the product manufactured at the factory.
Training of staff
Compared to the two previous issues, this one is not as serious. It simply means that all those American workers that ACME must hire to work in the newly relocated factory must be trained. You would think that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. We have been training workers to work in factories in America for many, many decades.
Only one problem though.
Factory manufacturing techniques have changed drastically since the mid 1990s. The Chinese staff will need to train unskilled American workers to operate the relocated equipment, and learn the process parameters.
The people who know how to make the specialized products that ACME makes no longer exist in the USA. The Americans that used to know are all gone. Either they found new work when they were fired back in the 1990’s, or are now retired.
The ones that know how to operate the (new and improved) machinery, check the quality of the product, and are knowledgeable to quickly debug the process when things go wrong are all Chinese.
Which means, of course, to train your new workers, you must use existing skilled Chinese workers to do so.
Chinese supervisory staff training an American worker on site in America.
You have two options;
Obtain a H1-B visa for the Chinese staff and use them to train and supervise the new American workers.
Ship all the new American workers to China for hands-on training at the Chinese factory prior to shipping the equipment back to the United States.
Both options have been used by various companies over the last few years. Each option has some pros and cons associated with it.
Chinese management training Americans on site in the factory inside China.
However, the reader should note that due to the availability of the H1-B visa in the United States, the ACME leadership discovered that they would have to wait a year to apply for new visas, as all the existing visas were taken by software engineers out of India. Thus forcing the more expensive route to ship Americans to China to train how to use the equipment.
Training of Americans to work in the returned factory from China will necessitate the training by Chinese nationals. This will be conducted either in China or in the United States depending on the availability of visa access.
Breakup of Global Relationships
Of course, in order to return an American factory out of China and back to the United States, there will have to be a period of contentious negotiation between the owners.
PPT on the key points in negotiating with the Chinese.
After all, and I hope that I made this clear, an “American” company residing in China is NOT 100% American owned. No. Instead it is a joint venture / partnership with the Chinese partner owning controlling interest of the entire factory, technical skills, intellectual property and capital equipment.
For any American company to do this will create a period of discomfort and strife, as most Chinese owners will not want to relinquish any controlling interest, nor deplete their internal resource pool. He would fight, aggressively, any attempts to dissolve the relationship, ship components back to the United States and have access to stock and supplier interests.
Trade negotiations between Xi Peng and Donald Trump. The Chinese are tough negotiators. Do not think for a minute that they will not take full advantage of any situation.
This entire matter would be contentious. As a result, most American corporate executives would refer the entire matter to their American legal branch to handle. But, and you all should know and realize this, American law has no jurisdiction in China. Chinese law is what is followed, and the courts will almost always rule in favor of the Chinese nationals.
The Chinese legal system will ALWAYS rule in favor of the Chinese national.
When ACME tried to dissolve their partnership with the joint venture, and went the Chinese legal route, the courts ruled that not only did the American firm not have any legal standing, but they then awarded the American 49% legal controlling interest to the Chinese factory owner as punitive punishment.
Thus as a result, the ACME American company ended up with 0% ownership of the company, with their Chinese partner ended up with 100% ownership.
China is a serious, serious nation. They do not fool around, and they have laws that protect Chinese nationals. Americans should realize this and consider alternative solutions to any legal issues instead of going through the “proper” legal avenues.
Loss of Market Share in China
How things have changed. I’ve since returned to China many times, and I’ve watched its economy grow to become the second-largest in the world.
Based on purchasing power parity (PPP), it’s the largest. And according to Credit Suisse, the size of China’s middle class has for the first time overtaken the U.S. to become the world’s most populous—109 million Chinese compared to 92 million Americans.
-Frank Talk
It might surprise many typical Americans, but China is a POTENTIALLY much larger consumer market than America is.
Presently the United States is the world leader in consumer product purchases, but that will change in the future. Most projections place China in the leadership role in the early to middle 2030’s.
China is growing, and the amount of growth just boggles the mind, and Americans are absolutely oblivious to this fact.
Thus, if you want to have a global “slice of the pie” for what ever products you make, you will need to sell them in China.
Now, in order to sell products in China, you will need a Chinese “presence”. This can be a regional headquarters, a partner factory, or some other kind of legal entity to “open the door” for your products to be sold in China.
China is a huge market that can be exploited by American factories and businesses. However, they must be free to be able to sell their products to Chinese consumers. Were China to implement Trump-style tariffs, this will not occur, and Germany, Japan and Korea will capture those markets.
Do not be under the erroneous assumption that you can just carry some of your products to China and then just sell them openly. Nope.
All products must meet Chinese regulatory requirements.
It is similar to that in the USA. (Remember the Billionaire Boys Club where they were having a difficult time importing Mercedes Benz automobiles into the USA because they would not meet the emissions requirements?)
Now, it is far, far easier to sell American made, or American sourced (out of a Chinese joint-venture, or a WOFE) than trying to exporting the product directly to China. There is already a legal presence within China.
An opportunity exists for American companies to sell to China. However, they must do so carefully and maintain their name recognition.
Corporate Identity
What ever you do, you must maintain your logo and trademark or else you would no longer have any kind of “product identity” associated with your products. However, if you have partnered with a Chinese factory to make your products, then THEY, not you, own the registration and trademarks within China.
By relocating the “American” factory to America out of China, ACME ran the risk of totally closing off the Chinese Market. This is because their Chinese partner OWNED all royalties, Logos, Copyright, and trademarks for the ACME brand. Under Chinese law, as practiced, the Chinese person who first manufactures a logo, or uses a symbol automatically owns the rights to it. Once ACME leaves, they can never return back to China and use their brand. If they did so they would be in violation of Chinese law.
Long Term Consequences
I long ago concluded that the world will eventually essentially divide into two spheres: China and the United States. But what I have not been able to figure out is what that will mean overall nor what that will mean for particular regions and countries. In particular, I get stuck when trying to figure out which countries will go to which side.
I have always believed some countries will essentially be required to choose between the United States and China, some countries will want to choose between the United States and China, and some countries will want to straddle between the United States and China.
-China Law Blog
China is growing and it appears that the United States does not appreciate competition. The USA wants to maintain it’s role as a global superpower, fighting and policing the globe by taxation of it’s citizenry. While China is looking for economic dominance through cooperation with national partnerships.
You know, you do not need to relocate the factory back to America. you can relocate it to another nation with similar conditions to China. Here, you can make a joint venture partnership between the Chinese factory and a local factory, say in Cambodia, Vietnam, or Laos.
There are work-arounds. Products made in China, can be shipped to a nation that does not have Trump-level tariffs against it. The shipping container would then go to this second “pass through” nation, the documents would then specify that it was made and originated out of the third nation. Then shipped to the United States.
Of course, it is possible that the economic pain China is feeling from the trade war has been mitigated by some businesses trying to “work around” the tariffs. This is typically done by exporting to an unsanctioned country where some “value added” is created before being shipped onto the final destination – thus avoiding the tariff.
This is a tried and tested formula with one of the more extreme examples being Russia. It takes time to find alternative suppliers from different countries or to develop domestic ones. When sanctions were first imposed on imports from the EU, Russia companies used business relationships to import EU products via 3rd party countries, including Belarus. This put up costs, but ensured supply chains could continue functioning until alternatives were found.
If that has indeed been happening as a result of the US-China stand-off, the most likely avenue is Vietnam. While US imports from Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan have certainly increased, it is from Vietnam that they have surged. ...
... It is difficult for an economy to build extra production capacity and related supply chains in a short period of time to substitute even part of the production from China. Vietnam’s manufacturing production growth was quite flat at around 10% year-on-year in 2019. It was even slower in 2018. It is hard to believe that the surge in Vietnam’s exports to the US (in US dollar terms, remember) has all come from production within Vietnam.
The obvious response is that it hasn't. Chinese exports to Vietnam have displayed a strong upward growth trend in 2019, which is in contrast to the slowdown in 2018, and also in contrast to the moderately flattish growth of Vietnam’s production.
-ING
This is a mature solution. Many of the products that American believe are made in Germany, Japan and Korea are actually made in China. They are made in China and then shipped and stored in the respective warehouses for later shipment to the United States.
Pass-through trade option.
This option might increase the price of the products from 1% to 5%. This is a viable solution as opposed to the 30% to 40% tariffs that Donald Trump is talking about.
"The Trump administration made a very serious miscalculation in launching the ‘trade war’ with China. It believed that either, or both, the leadership of China would submit to the Trump administrations threats or the Chinese population would not be prepared for a serious struggle with the US. Both calculations have proved entirely wrong. China’s leadership did not surrender to but hit back against the US attacks. Furthermore anyone who follows China’s domestic discussion, on what is now by far the world’s largest internet community, knows that this line was strongly supported by the Chinese population."
- China prepares for economic ‘prolonged war’ with Trump
There are many considerations that a company must take into account when faced with a Presidential decree that the company relocate from China to the United States. It’s a complex issue with many facets.
When discussing relocation of American factories back to America you must also include the contentious corporate history over the last four decades that led up to the situation that exists today. Nothing happens in isolation. It is all the result of society, and corporate behaviors that are nurtured by the political class in Washington D.C..
In any event, it is up to each individual company to determine what actions would be in their own corporate interests. I would advise obtaining knowledgeable legal representation, and employment of experienced “old hand” expats residing in China, rather than some “expert” out of an “ivory tower” in Los Angles.
Other great articles
Here’s some articles by others in the business. They pretty much say the same things as what I am presenting here. Only they are better written. LOL.
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
Part 9 of 17.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Pricing
Of course everything at a KTV comes at a price. If you are being given hospitality, you won’t need to pay for anything. However, it is always a good thing to have an idea of what the costs will be like. The days of $50 USD for dinner and all-night sex are long over. KTV activity has a price tag associated with it. So let’s look at the KTV prices.
Here we discuss the pricing scheme; the “KTV prices”. Yah. It looks so easy when things are given and provided to you. However, in reality on this planet, everything comes at a price. Do not think that it is just “freebees”.
Never the less, you should understand that if you are given this kind of hospitality, you are expected to be “worth the investment”.
Keep in mind that $1 USD = 6.3 RMB. So, to get a handle on these prices, consider 100 RMB = $16. And a 1000 RMB = $160 dollars.
Renting the KTV room alone will vary from a few thousand RMB to 20,000 RMB and up. If the boss has a running VIP account, the rate might be lower, but offset by his repeat business. Location is everything. Two KTV’s in different areas can have wildly different pricing schemes.
Just having a pretty girl to be with you and play will vary from 300 RMB to 750 RMB for four hours. Guys are more expensive for the girls to play with.
Stripped down playfulness might cost you another 500 to 2000 RMB. All of the girls in the room will strip down to their panties, and play with you. Trust me, on this, don’t decline if offered.
Drinks are usually provided as part of a “meal plan” where beer and drinks are provided with snacks. This will cost from 500 RMB to 7000 RMB.
High end drinks like whiskey and XO, will be at a premium price. They will have package deals. For instance, a bottle of Johnny Walker Red with ten bottle of green tea for a “sale” price. Most drinks will be fake, or cheap whiskey in an expensive bottle.
The girl will run from 600 RMB to 5000 RMB for a “short time” with “one shot”. (One “shot” is one ejaculation.) Multiple shots and longer periods of time (longer than 40 minutes) can be negotiated. The standard “short time” is around 40 minutes. If the phone starts ringing off the hook after 20 minutes, you are not getting your money’s worth.
“Long time” girls will be double that. A “long time” is an overnight sleepover. This will typically allow for two shots. One before bed and one upon awakening. These girls will leave at 6am, so make sure that you don’t wait until the “crack of dawn” to take her to your room. To get the most “bang for the buck” leave before 11pm. That gives you seven hours of frolic fun.
Additionally, some girls might ask for further “tips” and prices. Make perfectly clear that all expenses have been taken cared of before you go to the room under what ever expectations you might have.
While the vast bulk of girls are in their mid-20's to thirties, be cautious. I have heard of, but never experienced, younger girls lying and working as KTV hostesses. These girls might be under 21, and I have heard that they can be as young as 14! Make absolutely clear that the chick that you are with is what you want, and that she is an adult. Her behavior, more than anything else, will tell you her age.
Anyways, it should be understood that the boss could easily spend 60,000 RMB for you to have fun with and provide you hospitality. This is $10,000 USD.
Do not take the hospitality lightly, and don’t insult his face in the process.
Singing
All KTV’s have a huge big-screen television that is hooked up to the KTV machine. It is a touch activated screen that you can pick a song out of. The songs are provided along with some kind of cheap video (if the actual MTV video is not available). Ask your English speaking aide to assist you.
The screen to select the KTV songs is a touch activated device. There are different systems in use. But, all use a basic search engine technique and basic controls. You can search by name of song, artist, album, year, gender, theme, emotion, and a host of other criteria. These devices have everything from children’s songs to songs suitable for grandparents.
Typically, I carry in my wallet a list of groups, singers and songs that I can program and search for in the KTV. Else, you would have a dickens of a time trying to think of a song to sing. The environment is noisy and the songs that the other people are all singing are Chinese. So you will have a real hard time thinking of a song.
Once you pick out a song, you can adjust the percentage of the vocals to sing along with. It can be anywhere from 100% (as in listening to the full song) where you just sing along, to 0%, where the only vocals are your own. Personally, I like around 60% that way it doesn’t sound so bad. No one really cares how well you can sing. They just want to see you release emotion. As that is the entire purpose of a KTV in the first place.
The reverb and sound can be adjusted with echo and other effects. I personally don’t like the effect. However, others do. You just go with the flow and use the presets unless someone else says differently.
There are decades of technology behind this. Today, you can connect to the KTV player and sing to songs on your smartphone. You can search the internet, if there aren’t any songs on the local hard drive. You can do all kinds of things. HERE is a link to one manufacturer that makes these devices.
Dancing
Often people get up and start dancing. You know, the Chinese are often nerds, and so the girls and the guys will get us and shake their body to the music. Not me. I took five years of professional ballroom dancing lessons. I can dance.
Which surprises the heck out of the girls. Most of the girls don’t get much of a chance to dance with a real dancer. Instead, they are fun and just content to dance with each other and shake and gyrate…
It’s a happy and welcome surprise. These girls are trained and experienced Hostesses. they can follow my lead in dancing, and it is a real pleasure. We do the foxtrot, the merengue, the waltz, the two step and of course the Rumba and Tango. You know, for a guy like myself, just being able to dance, with a experienced and qualified partner is worth everything.
Yet, truthfully, there is absolutely nothing wrong with formal dancing, shaking and gyrating or some kind of line dance. You do what ever makes you feel wonderful. And since this is a KTV, just have fun. No one will make fun of you. It’s all about having fun.
Now, the ballroom dances are very popular in China. Often huge classes are held outdoors in the empty plazas in front of the malls and such. People dance and learn the movements on their own. But, to dance with a partner is just… magical.
I typically start out rather easy with a two-step or something basic. If they can follow well, then it eventually evolves into a tango. There, I like to get really dramatic, and the girls really get into it as well. It is truly amazing. There is something about booze, sex and dancing that brings out the raw emotion in us all.
Dancing the tango. It’s a dance of battle and wits. Once led properly, the woman can release and let herself go. She becomes the dance. The experience becomes magical.
But heck… It’s all about having fun. Whether you are at a KTV, or in a club or in a bar, enjoy life. Seriously, life is far too short to get all worked up and bothered about things that have no direct connection to our lives…read “so called news”.
Get out and enjoy yourself. If this housekeeper can enjoy herself, why not you? Eh?
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
