[Please note this OpEd does not reflect the opinion of Hidden Harmonies, or even the author. It is a summarized survey of media coverage and netter comments in America.]
After getting their communist hands caught in the cookie jar with cyber espionage and covert theft of our technology and IP, the sneaky Communist Chinese are shifting tactics and resorting to overt acquisition of our safe, efficient pig husbandry and processing technologies to save their crumbling communist pork industry rife with disease, contamination, poison, censorship, lack of freedom.
They have to be stopped. Write to your congressman, boycott Communist-China-made products and turncoats who sell out to the communists. Burn all your possessions contaminated with Communist-China-made parts, like you and your neighbor’s cars (especially if they are ChiComs.) The evil Communist Chinese even force-feed Tibetan babies rotten pork (Tibetans abstain from pork as muslins) while wrapping them in flea blankets infested with smallpox.
Communist China is evil, we are great, USA, USA, USA…
Signed,
Freedom loving, patriotic but not nationalistic, America
James says
The concept behind this post is goddamn genius. I just wish that it were longer; that it contained more quotations and links to actual comments; and that it becomes a regular feature on this website.
“Studies have shown that 94% of advertising practitioners see humor as an effective way to gain attention…. these views do reflect a knowledge base built on years of day to day experience with priorietary research results. And in the case of attention, these practitioner views appear to be well supported by the available empirical evidence.”
A lot of the fenqing-hate (look at the word itself) comes from the perception that there’s no irony, no humor, no subversion, and no subtlety in the panda-hugging biz. But actually, there’s a lot. Sometimes you don’t need to rail against the stupidity, the xenophobia, and the racism of the media and the China hands. Just put it on display, as if you were curating a shit museum for enlightened future generations to stare at and study. “Were the American people really like this to the Chinese?” Yes, yes they were.
JJ says
Hahaha! Hilarious 🙂
Of course I think a lot of those complaining people are missing the big picture here. This is about feeding the people in China.
The demand for pork is so high that most of what’s being produced will probably be exported. So threatening to boycott is pointless.
pug_ster says
I recall that more than 100 years ago that Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy is “walk softly and carry a big stick.” Now it seems that Obama’s foreign policy is groan loudly and carry a big blowhorn in order to pat themselves on the back for their failures in their foreign policy especially within the last 10 years. This kind of stupidity even reflects itself in the opinion pages in NY Times ‘China’s Economic Empire.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/chinas-economic-empire.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp#comments
Black Pheonix says
@pug_ster
The opinion is quite stupid. It boils down to simply that China is more competitive in its investments.
Well, it’s relative. China is more competitive, because others are less competitive for whatever reasons.
If countries don’t want to do business with the competitive China, because of “human rights” or other issues, that’s their right. No one is pointing a gun at their heads.
On the other hand, if countries decide to “compromise” their own moral standards to deal with China, that’s their own duplicitous choice.
perspectivehere says
Charles, your HH OpEd post was quoted in full in the South China Morning Post yesterday (Wednesday, June 5, 2013). Your pithy and humorous mashup is being passed on. Kudos.
Will China’s Pig Deal Fly?
The offer of US$4.7b by Shuanghui for the American pork processor Smithfield Foods has brought cries of anger from US politicians
Kevin Rafferty
http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1253568/will-chinas-pigs-deal-fly
Here’s a short excerpt below:
“Yet the impending purchase of Smithfield shows how bad practical business relations are between the two political and economic giants. This is worrying, not only for the two countries, but for the rest of the world, which has suffered the consequences of the dangerous dance of the two monsters.
As a high-powered report from the China-United States Exchange Foundation (chaired by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa and businessman Victor Fung Kwok-king) said last month: “The bilateral economic relationship between the US and China has developed over the past few decades from virtually non-existent to the most important in the world.
“The US and China are the largest and second largest trading nations in the world. They are also each other’s second largest trading partners. A vast volume of trade in goods, integrated supply chains, a growing volume of trade in services, substantial direct American investment in China and even larger Chinese investment in US Treasury securities, speak to the importance of the relationship.”
Contrast this with an angry outburst from the Hidden Harmonies China blog, which purported to offer a summary of the media and internet comments from the US after the Smithfield deal was announced.
…..[HH Post Quoted Here]
Shuanghui’s takeover of Smithfield would be the biggest Chinese investment in the US, though dwarfed by the US$18 billion that CNOOC offered for the purchase of Unocal, a bid that CNOOC withdrew under political pressure, a continuing sore point with Beijing.
Shuanghui has promised that there will be no closures or relocations of Smithfield’s operations and that the current management will keep their jobs. What more can Americans want?”
***********************************
I thought Rafferty did a good job with this article, highlighting some of the concerns expressed by US politicians, as well as views from Asia, citing a few key statistics for reference. One didn’t come away feeling that the article was supporting either side.