Silk Road International Blog

More news has come out on the freezing of North Korean assets in Macao. Last week I wrote and said that the freezing of assets was just a political maneuver and didn’t really mean anything. Guess what? I was right. The freezing of assets took place months ago to help the Bank of China’s IPO and the release of the news this last week was timed to quell the rising tide of criticism against China for their position on NK. Here’s a link.

And another step back

The Ministry of Information Industry has confirmed that “a clamp-down on foreign internet companies was imminent and some foreign internet companies could be stripped of their operating licenses.” This is coming as the internet is starting to boom in China and both the flow of information and money are enticing the Chinese central government to get involved. China has the second biggest internet market in the world, behind the US.

It is not surprising that both of these issues about government control have more to do with money than concrete solutions to problems. While information is power and no one knows face like the Chinese, the bottom line is that the government, to stay legitimate must be at least financially viable. With more than 87,000 illegal protests in China last year alone and government corruption at new highs the government needs to be at least financially viable to maintain legitimacy and control. And since the government is directly responsible for 38% of GDP and employees about 1/3 of the urban work force government financial viability directly affects hundreds of millions of people!

Tags: Business, Culture by david
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My observation about Chinese hospitals is that the birth rate is higher than the death rate, so their still in business. They’re not saving lives, in fact I believe that it’s more dangerous to go to a hospital in China than not!

The first time I came to China in 1995 the doctors in the “healthy department,” as my boss called it, asked me if I brought my own syringes. “Most foreigners do,” I was told. In the ten plus years that have passed the healthcare system here has certainly improved. Now they ask me “do you want real or fake medicine? The real is more expensive.” Even with these great improvements, the Carnegie Institute ranks China in the bottom 3 of the world for fair access to health care—yes, that’s right only Burma and Brazil are worse. Half of the poor in China receive no health care at all.

The Chinese government, bless their little red hearts, is trying to correct this by eliminating graft (Imagine that, corruption in China’s SOE’s!). No doubt this is a good place to start, but limiting big budget technology imports and back-door payments for surgery is not going to raise the standard of health care that most Chinese people receive. How about more incentives for bright students to go into medicine or more education for doctors to raise the quality of care given (4 years after high school is the standard now)? Or how about some competition in the industry? There is tons of competition in the cosmetic medical industry (boob jobs, nose jobs, eye lifts, tummy tucks and skin and teeth whitening) and the standards are much higher than the hospitals and clinics that serve the rest of China.

Tags: Book Reviews by david
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