China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy

You must never have watched clips from Fox News.

My other signature is a Gundam.

I don't watch the news. When they stop employing journalists and earn respect, I might deign to tune in. Until then, I'll just assume you know this from religiously watching Fox News yourself.

edited 14th Feb '11 3:54:47 PM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

Me? Watch Fox News?

Oh man, when hell freezes over.

Jon Stewart just has lots of clips of their idiocy though.

My other signature is a Gundam.

And Rachel Maddow. Honestly, maybe Fox wouldn't be the most watched "News Network" if there weren't so many other journalists (and pseudo-journalists) watching their channel for snippets to be used for editing.

I've noticed a lot of people seem to get rather ticked off when you try to reclaim terms they want to use as an insult. Or try to explain why they aren't so bad. Because they're apparently only good for dehumanizing others.

It's amazing how many people think of Communism in Post-Communist countries.

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

If you don't watch Fox News, how do you know what's on it that isn't pre-selected?

Fight smart, not fair.

Because it's Jon Stewart. Besides, it's not like Fox is either subtle or misunderstood about it. They lie about these things on a regular basis.

edited 14th Feb '11 8:57:13 PM by CommandoDude

My other signature is a Gundam.

So do most journalists.

Fight smart, not fair.

I'm more concerned with China working more to cooperate with the UN in peacekeeping operations, dealing with domestic corruption, improving healthcare/education, reducing the rich/poor divide that came up ever since the economic liberalisation programs created them, combat gender inequality that sprung up since the end of communism in the early 80s, continue with liberalisation on views on homosexuality, continue with reducing death penalty, continue with military reductions and try to build more honest/open trade relations with other countries (especially mine). They already work on most of the issues I care about, except the environment (though they still do better than North America on that respect), so I'm just cautiously optimistic for now.

^ Wow...that's way more than you can possibly expect from any country. One or two seems reasonable, but...

No. Just... No ...one of the few things China is doing right, and you want them to lose it? Besides, free organ donors.

All the other countries should be learning from China in this respect.

...why?

Countries like the US and other industrialized country makes military their #1 priority at all times.

"Stock market crash? Pfft. Trilllions of dollars of debt? **** that! Thousands of homeless in the streets? Suck it! Continue pouring millions into making our metaphorical penis larger!?"

If you were to personafiy countries as individual humans. Imagine the super powers as a bunch of hyper-paranoid gun maniacs locked in the same room. None of them want to be the one without a gun...as much as I disagree with all the country's decisions in this area.

Although if I were to be naive for a while, I wish every country in the world de-militarized...and leave all foreign conflicts to be solved with a game of Star Craft or Guilty Gear.

---

As for everything else, it's pretty YMMV. For example, most of the population are well educated enough. Their divide in rich and poor isn't any worse/better than other countries. And gender equality isn't a big a deal outside of the Western world.

I rather they deal with their censorship problems and pressure Japan to apologize for WWII.

edited 14th Feb '11 11:18:27 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

What? When the hell did China start reducing their military budget?

Fight smart, not fair.

: I guess US increasing it budget from 6 times chinas military budget to 7 times did make it look smaller xD

A guy called dvorak is tired. Tired of humanity not wanting to change to improve itself. Quite the sad tale.

Population Base; the USSR and USA had a similar rate of industrialization in their time periods.

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

And?

Fight smart, not fair.

Any particular reason you wish to make South Korea the new superpower?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

Super power? Try...Unstoppable Juggernaut of destruction.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Their permit system essentially makes people in rural areas second class citizens, thus keeping them much poorer than the people who are allowed to work in cities. Just because we've got something similar doesn't mean that it isn't a problem.

And wtf makes you think that gender inequality isn't a problem in China? Just look at the sex ratios at birth (and all the selective abortions that implies).

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

SIPRI has shown that in the past 20 years it's gone from 2.2% of GDP to around 1.9% of GDP. Basically only Canada in NATO spends less than that, everyone else spends at least twice that and America... well... America.

@All the other replies

Yeah I think gender inequality still occurs. The birth ratio difference occurs in the lawless regions where federal oversight is low, so I think that is a matter of money. If the government had more cash to spend into proper policing, alongside corruption reduction, then nobody will be able to do selective abortions anymore. (Remember, in China, selective abortion, the penalty is death!)

The gender pay inequality went from zero to women earning around 70% of men (that stat is like 5 years old, so I'm not sure if it has improved significantly since then but I wouldn't imagine it is any better than 80% of men). Although China is famous for women achieving high economic power (most female billionaires in the world), I don't think they're anywhere close to actual equality. I feel hypocritical saying that since Canada isn't equal either.

The permit system has been loosened significantly but I think they should still work on reducing road tolls, illegal taxation by regional bureaucrats and have total freedom of movement. They've eliminated almost all the permit system of before but there's still some of it left. They've turned over to mostly soft control methods on that front to urge people to stay in rural regions. Really I think they should just concentrate on making the rural regions more economically viable if they want people to stay there.

Oh...I thought he meant stuff like "blah blah blah women are discriminated blah blah blah sexism is wrong mmmkay..."

Anyways, that's not a gender problem, that's just the result of a retarded law that needs to be fixed. One child per family? That kind of thing is waiting for disaster.

Cut down on immigration if they're really worried about being overpopulated.

edited 15th Feb '11 11:15:47 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

How much immigration does China even have?

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

I think there's some from the surrounding countries, and some from the West — but it's probably going to (attempt) to rise, I'd guess.

Keep Rolling On

And THAT is the last thing China needs. Even more people running around.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."