Update on U.S. Subsidies to China
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) reports: "Each year the people of the United States write a check to subsidize China, one of the most brutal, anti-American regimes in the world. No one in our federal government has been willing to take China on in any meaningful way.
China is one of the biggest beneficiaries of American taxpayer subsidies. [We should end] the $4 billion subsidy our nation quietly gives China through the U.S. government's Export-Import Bank. The bank underwrites the purchases of goods and services by the Chinese government and others around the world.
Some of your money went to fund a nuclear power plant in Shanghai owned by the China National Nuclear Corporation, a state-run company. Many U.S.-based multinational corporations benefit directly from Export-Import Bank subsidies to China, including Boeing, Westinghouse, and McDonnell Douglas. So it's not hard to understand that business trumps the feelgood rhetoric condemning China. Let's stop sending tax dollars to support a government we claim to despise." (8-15-06)
Update on Trade with China
China makes approximately 75% of the world's toys. As noted by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), U.S. companies such as Disney, Mattel (maker of the Barbie doll), Hasbro, McDonald's (Happy Meal toys), and Warner Brothers utilize factories in China to produce toys for virtually all major U.S. retailers, including Toys-R-Us, Wal-Mart, and Target, as well as for direct marketing.
The AHRC documents this description of the Chinese toy worker industry: Average age of worker: between 12 and 15 years old. Typical wage of workers: from as little as 6 cents an hour up to
40 cents an hour (in U.S. dollar terms). Typical number of hours worked in a day during busy periods: up to 19. Typical number of days worked per week: 6. Young workers work all day in 104-degree temperature, handling toxic glues, paints, and solvents. Typical profile of workers:
single young women migrants from rural areas. Jerome R. Corsi, Human Events, 8-21-06
Human organs taken from executed prisoners are sold to foreigners who need transplants, and such sales are thriving in China. The price of a liver is $126,326. BBC, 9-28-06
Update on Military Threat
China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices. Satellites are especially vulnerable to attack because they have predetermined orbits, allowing an enemy to know where they will appear. Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge U.S. military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites. At the same time, China is engaged in a large-scale espionage effort against U.S. high-tech firms. London Telegraph, 9-28-06
According to former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, The ultimate threat is China, which "is now building their 600-ship navy, and they're very good ships. . . . We're on the way to a 150-ship Navy. That is not enough to cover our security requirements. If you have combat operations going on, you need air cover and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that comes form the Navy." New York Sun, 9-27-06
Venezuela will send an additional 50,000 barrels of oil to China daily for a total of 200,000 barrels. President Hugo Chavez said he would ideally like to send China a daily 300,000 barrels of oil by the end of 2006. UPI, 8-16-06
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