Thanks to Mike Daisey’s appearance on “This American Life,” denial about Apple’s labor abuses has become impossible.
Apple’s iEconomy a Veritable Labor Dystopia
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China
The Apple Connection
Ever since the beginning of the current global economic crisis, the focus of both critical analysis and public odium has been speculative capital. In the populist narrative, it was the breathtaking shenanigans of the banks in an atmosphere of deregulation that led to the economic collapse. The “financial economy,” characterized as parasitic and bad, was contrasted to the “real economy,” which was said to produce real goods and real value. Resources flowed into speculative activities in finance, resulting in a loss of dynamism in the real economy and eventually leading to credit cutoff at the height of the crisis, causing bankruptcies and massive layoffs.
North Korea More Dependent on China Than Ever
Support from China for Kim Jong-un would give him added weight with North Korea’s military.
Burma’s Big Brother
Over 70 percent of Burma’s FDI has come from China, largely for development projects in ethnic-minority regions. These projects, along with smaller initiatives worth millions if not billions of dollars more in undocumented investment, have now brought tensions in ethnic regions to a boiling point. In turn, such tensions have led to the breakdown of a handful of ceasefire agreements between ethnic armed groups and the government army, which, incidentally, receives the majority of its weaponry from China.
Chinese Tunnels: And We’re Worried About Iran’s Nuclear Program?
If China’s tunnel system turns out to be for nuclear weapons, it makes Iran’s underground enrichment facilities seem like small change in comparison.
China’s Looming Economic Crisis
China’s economy has been growing at a phenomenal pace in recent decades, averaging around 10 percent a year. Few people seemed to worry, therefore, when the Chinese government announced recently that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2011 slowed to “only” 9.1 percent. Almost any country in the world would envy such growth. Yet beneath the continued robust appearances, there are signs that China is heading toward a crash reminiscent of the one that brought down the U.S. economy during 2007-2008.
The China Divide and the Future of the GOP
The current Republican presidential field has given little indication of any serious thought on the future of the critical relationship between the United States and China.
Playing With Fire on the Korean Peninsula
The six-party talks may or may not resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, but they are the only game in town.
A Hakka Man Farms Rare Earth in South China
First of all, it’s not earth nor it’s rare, as they say
It lies under our feet, sparkling the soil we farm
Red, green, yellow, blue, purple, sky of grass
And buffalos, patches of rice, bamboos, sweet yams
U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan Accomplishes Little More Than Pushing China’s Buttons
In a rare show of bipartisanship, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and John Cornyn (R-Tx) jointly introduced legislation demanding that the administration sell F-16s to Taiwan.