Speakeasy forum: China flexes muscles again

by the Japanese I think during the invasion leading to WW2, so China might understandably be touchy about it.

I don't think there's a power in the world that would put soldiers on their soil. China needs only a mediocre military. Their biggest area of might comes from its potential labor force. Labor produces money. When Japan was on the rise economically, what was it they had to sell to the world? They've no abundance of natural resources and rely on other countries for those. What Japan had was labor. Virtually everyone worked. There wasn't a 40 hour work week either. They were able to out produce anyone in some market segments. They offered quality at reasonable prices. No longer did "Made in Japan" mean you were buying junk. Japan had more money than it could spend and even began buying up US real estate. It was the high prices wealthy Japanese would pay that drove markets in this country.

Right now, we think of Chinese goods as being sub-standard and we laugh at the junky stuff they sell that was once made here. My observations is that the quality of many of their goods is slowly improving. They are learning just as did the Japanese that other parts of the world still have higher quality standards and that they'll lose markets if they don't improve. Once they achieve those higher standards, they've got a labor pool that can overwhelm anyone. Why would they need the biggest, baddest fighter jets in the world when they could buy up all the material that other countries use to make them?

Japan and USSR had a non-aggression pac during WWII. Until the last days of WWII, USSR invaded and took possession of some islands, when of course Japan could do little on the matter. So, that too is in contention til this day. Japan made the pac in order use all its resources on the Allies, mainly US and Britain. Go figure.... ------Willy

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