On China, Tibet, the Olympics and Hollywood Celebrities

"It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem." - Malcolm Forbes

Sorry my well-meaning friends but, I have no sympathy for the Dalai Lama (DL). After reading The Wisdom of Forgiveness, a 2004 release by "His Holiness" and Victor Chan, I nominate the DL as a master of passive-agressivity. This book is peppered with blame, cloaked as forgiveness. Following his lead, I too am ready to forgive the DL, his monks and the aristocracy that ruled in Tibet before 1949.

• I forgive you for dominating and suppressing the Chinese Tibetan people under a social order that was far more cruel and reactionary than serfdom in Europe in the Middle Ages.
  
• I forgive you and your cadre for failing to provide the people of Tibet with any system of public schools or universities.
• I forgive you for taking young boys away from their families to enlist them in your religious order. I am sure they were much better off living in cloistered seclusion with a bunch of men in orange robes.
  
• I forgive you for being especially dismissive of the women and girls of Tibet who were considered second class citizens and had no opportunity for education.
• I forgive you DL for living in Portola, a 1,000-room palace while your serfs struggled to fend off the weather in mud huts.
• I forgive you and your monks for living like parasites, doing no work, and demanding tithes from the masses you ruled over in Tibet.
  

The DL pretends complete innocence in perpetrating the quite timely outbreak of global protests and violence aimed at shaming China in its moment of pride and glory in Beijing on 08-08-2008. You succeeded in destroying the possibility of spreading a pervasive sense of global unity with the Olympic Torch relay. But I forgive you.

We Americans who live in a glass house (Gitmo, torture, corporate war profiteering, domestic spying, corporate death squads and the criminal invasion of Iraq) have NO business throwing stones at ANY other nation. Whenever the western media reflects on Tibet, the only invasion they ever mention is 1949, when Mao reclaimed the region as part of China, but no mention is EVER made of the brutal invasion of Tibetan China by the British in 1904. Armed with machine guns and cannons the British imperialists "liberated Tibet" by murdering the Tibetan army as they bravely tried to defend themselves with swords and flintlock rifles.

We Americans need to become global citizens once again, finding ways to open communications and increase our historical and cultural knowledge of other nations... and what better time than during the Olympic Games in 2008. Instead, we have the DL and his mindless Hollywood followers grabbing for the spotlight.

Today, under China, all Tibetan children, both boys and girls, have equal rights to a free and compulsory public school education. Increased tourism in part due to the completion of a modern railway connection and ongoing improvements in the infrastructure underway throughout Tibet have eased the former sense of isolation. Better health care and a wide array of environmental improvements have made Tibet a much healthier place to live.

It's time for Americans, especially those in Hollywood, to crack a book and do their homework before deciding to speak out loud. I also suggest taking a field trip to China.

China Overtakes United States In Georgia Tech's Global High-Tech Competitiveness Index

No 'Sputnik' Moment To Reassess U.S. Capabilities

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By Richard McCormack
richard@manufacturingnews.com

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China has surpassed the United States in a key measure of high tech competitiveness. The Georgia Institute of Technology's bi-annual "High-Tech Indicators" finds that China improved its "technological standing" by 9 points over the period of 2005 to 2007, with the United States and Japan suffering declines of 6.8 and 7.1 respectively. In Georgia Tech's scale of one to 100, China's technological standing now rests at 82.8, compared to the U.S. at 76.1. The United States peaked at 95.4 in 1999. China has increased from 22.5 in 1996 to 82.8 in 2007.

"The message speaks out pretty loudly," says Alan Porter, co-director of Georgia Tech's Technology Policy and Assessment Center, which produces the benchmark. "I think the prospects are pretty scary."

The Georgia Tech center has been measuring high-tech competitiveness of 33 nations for the past 20 years. It has watched as China has zoomed up to the leading global position in technology. But other nations are showing gains as well including South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil, India and Chile. "If the increasingly integrated European Union were considered one entity instead of 27 separate countries, it would surpass the United States," says the Georgia Tech indicator report.

Researchers and technologists in developing countries all have access to the latest computing and networking technologies. They are engaged in leading-edge research and know where that research is taking place globally. "So what is our big advantage?' Porter asks.

The Georgia Tech "High-Tech Indicator" does not measure how active countries are in research, "but in areas like nanotechnology, China now leads the United States in published articles, but what scares me is China is getting better at marrying that research to their low-cost productive processes," says Porter. "When you put those together with our buzzword of innovation, China is big, they're tough and cheap. Again, where is our edge?"

Adds Nils Newman, a Georgia Tech co-author of the indicator study: "We have a situation in which technology products are going to be appearing in the marketplace that were not developed or commercialized here. We won't have had any involvement in them and may not even know they are coming."

The surge of China past the United States as the global technology powerhouse should be a "Sputnik" moment, but it isn't proving to be. For the most part, federal officials and politicians have been silent. As the economy heads into a downturn, both political parties "are jumping all over each other for the instant fix -- the tax rebate," Porter observes. " 'Problem is all solved. Congratulations!' Wow. I think long term there are things that are not amenable to that solution."

The High-Tech Indicator tells a consistent story over the past 15 years of China's authoritarian government setting its mind on achieving global technology and industrial dominance. "China's entire orientation is toward competing," says Porter. "We frown on planning and don't do much, but they have set their mind on it."

China's gains have been dramatic. The country has not stumbled once in 15 years. "There is no real sense that any kind of leveling off is occurring," says Newman. "Most industrialized countries reach a kind of equilibrium, but the study shows no interruptions in China's advance."

China is training more scientists and engineers and is generously funding their research endeavors. The United States is headed in the opposite direction. "The training of scientists and engineers has lagged, and post 9-11 immigration barriers have kept out international scholars who could help fill the gap," says the Georgia Tech indicator study.

The Georgia Tech "technology standing" measure of 33 countries is based upon four factors: national orientation toward technological competitiveness, socioeconomic infrastructure, technological infrastructure and productive capacity. Each of the indicators is based on a combination of statistical data and expert opinions.

China's ascendancy over 33 nations has "changed the world economic landscape in technology," says Porter. Its continued growth and dominance "won't leave much room for other countries."

Adds Newman: "It's like being 40 years old and playing basketball against a competitor who's only 12 years old -- but is already at your height. You are a little better right now and have more experience, but you're not going to squeeze much more performance out. The future clearly doesn't look good for the United States."

The study is located at http://tpac.gatech.edu/.

China Sacks Plastic Bags

Ban could save 37 million barrels of oil and alleviate "white pollution"
By David Biello for Scientific American

SHANGHAI—Thin plastic bags are used for everything in China and the Chinese use up to three billion of them a day--an environmentally costly habit picked up by shopkeepers and consumers in the late 1980s for convenience over traditional cloth bags. Fruit mongers weigh produce in them, tailors stuff shirts into them, even street food vendors plunk their piping hot wares directly into see-through plastic bags that do nothing to protect one's hands from being burned or coated in hot grease. They even have a special name for the plastic bags found blowing, hanging and floating everywhere from trees to rivers: bai si wu le, or "white pollution," for the bags' most common color.

Yet, the Chinese government is set to ban the manufacture and force shopkeepers to charge for the distribution of bags thinner than .025 millimeters thick as of June 1—and no one seems prepared. "I don't know what we'll do," Zhang Gui Lin, a tailor at Shanghai's famous fabric market, tells me through a translator. "I guess our shopping complex will figure it out and tell us what to buy to use as bags."

His wife adds: "Maybe it will be like this," tugging a thicker mesh orange plastic bag she is using to carry some shoes. Such thicker bags may prove one replacement for the ubiquitous thinner versions.

The clothes makers are not alone. "I don't know actually," says a vendor of Chinese tamales, known as zong si, who declined to give her name. "I'm sure the government will come up with a solution. Maybe people will just eat it [the zong si directly.]"

The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and "scenic locations." The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nation's largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.

The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.

More than one million reusable cloth bags have already been sold on various Chinese merchandising Web sites, according to Taobao.com, and local environmental groups, such as Shanghai Roots & Shoots, are promoting and giving away cloth bags in schools.

"Too many plastic bags is a great waste of natural resources," retired Communist Party cadre Liu Zhidong says through a translator. "When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded."

But it remains to be seen how strong enforcement will be. Specific penalties have not been set but will include fines. Other environmental efforts—such as a similar ban on disposable wooden chopsticks (a waster of trees) and so-called "green GDP," or gross domestic product, an effort to account for environmental costs when calculating overall economic development— fell by the wayside because they proved too difficult to implement and created significant opposition at the local level. It also remains to be seen whether some of the possible replacements—thicker or biodegradable plastic bags—will be any better.

"This is a very good measure to protect the environment. However, whether it can last long is still very doubting," chemistry graduate student Oliver says. "And another problem is [that] the so-called biodegradable plastic bags, it seems, cannot be totally degraded. Whether or not they are really good for environment protection in the long run remains unknown."

Yet, the ban enjoys enthusiastic support from many residents here, particularly students, who may not even recall the more traditional practice of cloth bags or baskets. "I will just carry the things by my hands," one young man told me on the campus of Shanghai International Studies University. "I will never use the plastic bags supplied in supermarkets and I'll ask my friends not to use them, too."

For global citizens who wish to respond...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao consoles families in Beichuan.
Photo: AFP

'Grandpa' Wen weeps amid quake victims

With 5 million homeless and the death toll surpassing 40,000, Hong Kong leads in providing global relief to China's quake victims offering 38 million dollars (24.5 million euros), the lion's share of the 46.5 million dollars pledged worldwide. Japan is sending 500 million yen (4.8 million dollars) worth of blankets, tents and cash aid. Norway has pledged $4 million in aid, Three cheers for Google... for donating $2 million, including $1.7 million from Google.org, to help assist in relief and rebuilding efforts. The Canadian government is matching private donations. And, the Bush administration's initial aid package for Chinese earthquake relief... $500,000.

Are you surprised or embarrassed by the White House response?

You want to help... but what organization(s) can you trust to use your donations most effectively? Some people criticize the US Red Cross for extracting "processing fees" from the contributions. Donations to aid China's earthquake victims can safely be sent to the following organizations:

MercyCorps
is mounting an emergency response for survivors through its local partner, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA). Together, they are procuring food, water, clothing and shelter supplies for affected families.

onefoundation, is the charity organization founded by movie star Jet Li. The foundation provides full public disclosure in annual finance reports.

Tzu Chi has been working in China providing disaster relief efforts since 1991. They don't pass donations on to the Chinese Red Cross. Instead they have their own workers in China and purchase clothing and food themselves to guarantee that 100% of collected donations are directly provided to the earthquake victims. They also have an office in Seattle:

Tzu-Chi Seattle Office
12639 NE 85th St.,
Kirkland, WA 98033
(425)8227678

Tzu Chi US is a 501(c)3 organization. Your donation to Tzu Chi is tax deductible (Tax ID No. 94-2952782). Tzu Chi has opened a special account to accept your donation for Sichuan earthquake.

For credit card donation, please call: 1-888.989.8244 1.888.9TZUCHI

For check donation: Please make check payable to Tzu Chi
Mailing address: Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, U.S.A.
1100 S. Valley Center Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773
Tel: (909) 447-7799

For direct deposit or wire transfer:
Cathay Bank (777 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012)
ABA: 122203950
Account No: 01-130005

Unicef

World Vision

Here's a story on one American organization that has managed to take an active role...
Kansas group helps get relief to China quake zone

By TINI TRAN

MIANYANG, China (AP) — Donated vans came from another Chinese province. American students arranged extra warehouse space for donated food, water and medicine. A Canadian couple offered free medical expertise.

Linking them all is Heart to Heart, an Olathe, Kan.-based humanitarian group that is putting foreign volunteers and Chinese together to get help to survivors of China's worst earthquake in decades.

"We pay our own way to come here and help. People say, 'Why do you do that?' I say to the Chinese: 'One day we'll have this need. We will need to have the world help us,'" said Dr. Gary Morsch, founder of Heart to Heart.

Largely powered by volunteers, the disaster-aid group is a rarity in China, which has long been suspicious of non-governmental organizations and foreign influences.

China initially refused all offers to have foreign aid workers involved in disaster relief, saying it would accept emergency supplies but didn't have the capacity to accommodate foreign aid teams.

But the horrifying devastation across a wide swath of central Sichuan province quickly convinced Beijing it needed specialized help.

Search and rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Singapore and South Korea were allowed in, fanning out to extract survivors, and increasingly bodies, from unstable mounds of rubble. But China inexplicably refused entry to teams from Britain, Australia and several other nations.

Still, China's ability to respond using its own resources and manpower has been impressive, Morsch said.

"I think the response here has been as great and quick and fast as anywhere I've seen," he said.

Heart to Heart's unusual access is due to its long-standing presence in Chengdu, where it set up offices 11 years ago to work a variety of projects, including specialized medical training and disaster management.

Partnering with local Chinese groups and the provincial health bureau, the group slowly built up the trust that has allowed it to work unhampered during the earthquake crisis.

In the last week, an average of 100 volunteers a day has streamed through the group's main Chengdu office, some dropping off carloads of supplies, others offering to be part of relief teams. About half are foreigners, including Americans, Koreans and Germans, and the rest are Chinese.

"We live here in Mianyang," said one volunteer, Aaron Cyboron, 27, of Norfolk, Neb., who has been studying Chinese at a local university for three years. "When the quake happened, we were desperately looking for ways to help.

Two days after the quake, he and fellow student Aric Berger of Auburn, Wash., joined a group of Heart to Heart volunteers in hiking into the badly hit town of Beichuan, carrying supplies in their backpacks.

"It was surreal, the destruction there. I didn't recognize the place anymore," said Berger, 23. "The major residential area was probably 50 to 60 six-story buildings. Now it's virtually one pile."

The two students quickly became ad hoc organizers, finding a storage space — an empty garage in the apartment complex where Berger lived — where medical supplies and basic aid could be stockpiled. They scouted out four houses to hold volunteers

"Everyone I know has been completely willing to jump in on this, from big things to little stuff," Berger said.

The response from the Chinese people has been even more astounding, said Morsch, 56, a family practice physician.

"What we're seeing is a massive outpouring of support by Chinese, which is part of the long-term growth of a society. It's wonderful to see this happen," he said.

He attributes it in part to the increased economic success of a growing middle class: "They have the means to say, 'Let's go and do it ourselves.'"

Among the most impressive donations came from the Jiang Huai automotive company, based in Anhui Province, which loaned 200 vehicles — passengers cars, minivans and trucks — to the relief effort.

"We sent out cars on the first day of the quake," said Nick Xiong, 39, an employee who volunteered to make the 35-hour drive from Anhui to Sichuan to deliver a van. "We just want to help our people."

The chance to be a part of a bigger effort is part of the motivation for many of the volunteers.

Watching the devastation on TV in Beijing, three American friends decided to buy one-way tickets to Chengdu and showed up on the doorstep of Heart to Heart.

They initially planned to join a small team that backpacks supplies into the remotest of areas. But then they were told there was a need to work with children.

"We were open for anything," said Gabriel Mellan, 25, of Maui in Hawaii. "I had packed a pair of underwear, a couple pairs of socks, and my kazoo."

So Mellan, along with friends Doug McGee, 32, of Hilo, Hawaii, and Josh Kidwell, 26, of San Jose, Calif., went to a refugee camp outside Mianyang that is housing 20,000 people.

The three pulled out a guitar and the kazoo and put on an impromptu song and dance show for dozens of children. Shouts of laughter rang out from the giant circle as the kids giggled and chased their new friends.

As Morsch watched the dozens of children form a ring around the three, a wide grin stretched across his face.

"You don't have to be a brain surgeon. If you have a good heart, you can contribute. This is about ordinary people helping each other out," he said. "They are my heroes."

Opening China

by Peter M. Herford
Washington Post
Saturday, May 17, 2008; A17

SHANTOU, China - A small group of doctors and nurses just left for Chengdu loaded down with medicines to help in the aftermath of Monday's earthquake. This scene of homegrown assistance has been repeated all over China, because every Chinese knows the agonizing details of the story. Shantou is nearly 1,200 miles from the earthquake's epicenter. The ground here did not shake. But people feel the aftermath. This was a national event like no other in Chinese history because this one is on TV, in newspapers, on radio, and in the minds and hearts of every Chinese.

All media in China are owned by the government, and news coverage has long been controlled by the Communist Party. News is chosen by the propaganda ministry for what the ministry considers to be the benefit of society.

This time, the news flow is different. It is following the natural contours of the tragedy.

Traditionally in China, information about disasters has been suppressed, or the disasters have been played down. Five years ago, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was not a concern until the World Health Organization convinced new President Hu Jintao that he could not hide a pandemic that threatened the world. As recently as last month, the site of a train wreck with heavy loss of life was sealed off from foreign reporters, and coverage of the event was tempered in the domestic media.

But when the earthquake struck on Monday, we were instantly informed. We soon knew that Premier Wen Jiabao, the national consoler and go-to man during emergencies, headed for Sichuan province immediately, that he was directing the rescue efforts and cheering workers on with a bullhorn. We watched as tens of thousands of People's Liberation Army troops were mobilized. All of that might have been reported under the old rules -- but this time the national and foreign press corps followed rescuers to Chengdu and began an unprecedented stream of reporting. CCTV, the national network, has been broadcasting nonstop, often live from the disaster area. The images are horrific, as are many stories. Foreign reporters, usually barred from such events, have moved entire bureau staffs to Sichuan. Xinhua, the national news agency, has been pouring forth more reports than the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse combined. All have reporters in the field, working around the clock.

What made China decide to give the world an inside view of this tragedy and, more important, give the Chinese people the details of a story that would have been controlled in the past?

Theories abound. Coverage of the riots that began in Tibet this spring was carefully managed in Chinese media. The demonstrations that followed the Olympic torch around the world were invisible in Chinese media, and the country's image suffered. That experience may have prompted national leaders to show a compassionate face and move quickly to help after the earthquake.

The Burmese junta that continues to stonewall assistance for that country's even greater natural disaster is a lesson in international shame not lost on the Chinese leadership.

China's traditional reluctance to admit foreign aid workers has shifted. The government is accepting expert help from its Asian neighbors, including Japan.

The earth is shifting in China in more ways than geologic.

The Internet has opened the flow of information here. The same technology the government has promoted as a way to bring education and intellectual resources to an undereducated population has also been a vehicle for challenging censorship. Today, there are far fewer secrets than in the past. News appears on the Internet within minutes of breaking, and state media are often forced to follow.

Consider the 2005 case of a tainted water supply. The city of Harbin's 5 million inhabitants were told to drink only bottled water but were not told why. The news that a chemical factory had exploded upstream from the city was suppressed in the local media. Internet messages revealed the pollution in the region's main river, and, soon, municipal and provincially controlled media outlets had to tell the story.

These shifts have produced a tug of war in the propaganda ministry between traditionalists, who want to maintain control and suppress bad news, and reformers, who -- while not advocating unrestricted media -- see the need to accept the new realities of the Internet and the blogosphere. The government maintains as much control as it can by blocking the sites from which it fears direct attacks on the government and leadership.

When I came to China five years ago, I could not read The Post online during the annual National People's Congress. News of the many coal mine accidents that make mining in China the world's most perilous occupation went unreported by state media. Gradually, those veils have been lifted. I now read about the National People's Congresses during the meetings. Increasingly, when it comes to such events as the riots in Tibet or the earthquake in Chengdu, the flow of news is at least a trickle. A bright spot in this tragedy is the free flow of information about the disaster. It's been hard to get here, but I hope it's harder to turn back.

The writer teaches journalism at Shantou University.

The Man Who Loved China

Tuesday, while Jean Feraca is out, "west for a romp in the California wine country..." Veronica Rueckert presented another great Here On Earth broadcast featuring Simon Winchester, author of "The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom."

Click to listen to the show.

Many of Winchester's previous titles have been New York Times bestsellers, including:

• The Professor and the Madman,
• The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology,
• Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883, and
  
• A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906.

His latest work brings to life the extraordinary tale of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, its long and astonishing history of invention and technology. Amazon provides the following details:

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.

He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.

After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.

Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

The Needham Research Institute remains the home of the Science and Civilisation in China Project, and houses the East Asian History of Science Library. As a recognized global center of study, the NRI offers a unique collection of books and other published materials on the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia, and welcomes scholars from all over the world.

Check out Jean Fereca's blog to see what else is on her agenda.

China becomes 3rd largest export market in 2007 - buys $65 billion in US goods

(Michigan) Firms cash in on China
By Chris Gautz
Originally published in MLive.com - Michigan Business, International and Local Small Business News on Economics & Finance

Much has been said about the United States' trading relationship with China - and much of it negative - but a new report shows American companies are finding China has a wealth of opportunities.

The United States-China Business Council Inc. recently released a study showing a 300 percent increase in exports to China from across the country from 2000 to 2007.

Locally, the numbers are even more dramatic.

In Michigan's 7th Congressional District, which includes all or portions of Jackson, Branch, Calhoun, Eaton, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Washtenaw counties, exports to China are estimated to have increased by 516 percent during the same time period. Most of that comes from the exporting of transportation equipment and electronics.

Exports from the district to China amounted to $97 million in 2007.

David Dent, president of Melling Engine Parts, was surprised by the numbers, even though his company adds to them.

"It's kind of the reverse of everything you hear," he said.

Erin Ennis, vice president of the United States-China Business Council, said her group's report helps tell the other side of the story.

"While there are some very significant concerns the U.S. has with China, at the same time there are some (U.S.) companies that are benefiting from the trading relationships," she said.

One of those concerns, said U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, is the trade imbalance with China. While last year's U.S. exports to China topped $65 billion, Chinese imports amounted to about $321 billion, he said.

"That is certainly something we need to address," Walberg said. "China also has to respect our intellectual property rights."

But the growth of Chinese funds coming into the region is worth noting, he said.
"That's real money that's helping our businesses," Walberg said.

The United States-China Business Council is a private, nonprofit group of more than 250 American corporations that do business with China. The council provides guidance and market research to members.

According to the study's results, of the 435 congressional districts in the country, only 29 did not record triple-digit export growth to China between 2000 and 2007.
"Given the state of the U.S economy, a lot of companies are finding where the growth is, in terms of sales, is international markets," Ennis said.

Michigan ranked 13th in the country in 2007 in exports to China, which amounted to about $1.3 billion. But that figure was dwarfed by the state's $25.6 billion in exports to Canada. (Wisconsin's 2007 China exports totaled $1.2 billion. Canada was top at $5.9 billion with Mexico 2nd at $1.9 billion.)

After overtaking Germany and Japan, China is America's third-largest export market, behind Canada and Mexico - rankings that mirror Michigan's (and Wisconsin's.)

"China's growth is driving that growth," said Kellie Holloway, project manager for the China Business Information Center of the U.S. Commercial Service.

As China's already expansive middle class continues to grow, demand for American products rise.

Holloway said most experts don't see China's economy slowing down anytime soon. "It does continue to present opportunities for U.S. companies," she said.

Mike Wall, auto analyst at CSM Worldwide, a global automotive market analysis group, said the numbers aren't surprising.

"It's still a boom market," he said. "There is a lot of growth still to be had."

While there is a question of sustainability, as Chinese companies will undoubtedly strive to supply their local companies, it does give U.S. suppliers a chance to get in on the ground floor Wall said.

"The U.S. excels in its innovation," Holloway said. "We're never going to be the low-cost producer."

Holloway said U.S. firms are aided by the fact that Chinese companies know that quality standards in China aren't as high as in the United States.

"The perception of U.S quality isn't going away," she said.

Holloway said one way local economic development groups can aid businesses is to help create the bridge to the Chinese market.

That's already happening in Jackson (Michigan.)

In early April, a handful of Jackson manufacturers met with several Chinese business representatives touring the state looking for potential partners in the automotive business.

"There's been a lot of conversations back and forth between the companies since then," said Bill Rayl, executive director of the Jackson Area Manufacturers Association. "Corporate friendships are being built there."

Rayl said this can be a new revenue stream for local companies looking to sell their products.

Frank Ferro, special liaison with Michigan China office, said he often gets calls from Michigan companies inquiring about China and calls from Chinese companies looking for partners in the state.

"There's a tremendous interest in China for Michigan companies," he said.

At Melling's Blackman Township plant, workers once a month load a shipment of oil pumps bound for a General Motors Corp. plant in Shanghai. The pumps will be used in the HV V6 engine, which is used in several GM vehicle models.

Melling's exports to China are relatively small, Dent said, because most of the growth in China's automobile market is for smaller engines.

To expand what it offers into the Chinese market, Dent said GM wants his company to set up operations there. But Dent said he prefers to keep the work in Jackson.

"Certainly that's what they want," Dent said. "A weak dollar does help our position." Dent said he would recommend other Jackson suppliers look at the Chinese market, but only if they have a niche or a technical specialty.

"I think there's opportunity for companies that make a relatively sophisticated product," he said. "The simplest things are going to be built over there."

Why China Bright?

In many ways America is like an island. The once confident residents of that island are now a bit confused. Manufacturing jobs are slipping away. The economy is stumbling. Credit card debt and the national debt both spiral out of control. The value of the dollar is sinking along with the rise in IOUs held by China and Japan. Endless war coupled with the failure to provide a system for national health care and the incapacity to support a crumbling infrastructure have Americans wondering who to blame and how we got in such bad shape.

Rather than take responsibility for problems here on the "island," some people prefer to ship the blame offshore as well. China-bashing has become a means to avoid looking inward at our own problems. It's easy for millions of Americans to rally behind the Dalai Lama over issues regarding Tibet while ignoring the crimes and ongoing injustice experienced by Native Americans and prisoners held without trial in Guantanamo. It seems schizophrenic to rage against the repressive government of China while Congress debates the ethics of water-boarding and the FBI issues over 200,000 letters demanding private information on citizens from our nation's libraries.

We live in a glass house on this island and should not throw stones.

While I launch this publishing effort coming from the dark side, this blog intends to alert people to the Bright side of China. It is a nation emerging from poverty. It is an ancient nation that can trace its history back more than 4,000 years. It is ruled by a one-party system in a different manner than most Americans know or understand. We have much to learn from and to share with China... if we can learn respect and listen to voices other than our own.