Communism has triumphed! Or at least the Chinese version of it, in a rudimentary mass-produced sort of fashion. There is a vicious rumor that if you were to examine the small print on the back of a dollar bill with a magnifying glass, you might see in tiny letters: "MADE IN HONG KONG.' Recently one blogger on Yahoo 360 complained that most or all American flags were being produced in China, just examine the label. Well, never mind that, a huge proportion of the AK47's used to kill American troops in Vietnam (and indeed probably in Iraq now) were constructed in the factories of this Asiatic socialist country. U.S. businesses have wholeheartedly embraced trade relations with their Chinese counterparts, to the extent that now it is extremely difficult to find anything in any store that is not made there!

But what of the consequences and implications? So much of this stuff is shoddy workmanship that is liable to fall apart after a few days service. It is produced by the exploitation of the lowest and poorest levels of Chinese society; children, sick and old people, itinerants, and prisoners of a system that clearly avoids any notion of democracy. And these workers are paid as little as a few dollars a month for this repetitive, endless, monotonous and mind destroying labor. Yet it is cheap and the perhaps the only ones to really profit from this are the big bosses of the manufacturing companies; who take all the credit and save millions for cutting us all short. This is why we get toothpaste contaminated with engine oil, life-endangering toys with lead paint, poisoned foodstuffs and nasty little plastic Christmas tree decorations which take a thousand years to decompose in our land-fills.

The volume of imports from China is so great that the FDA doesn't have the manpower to check everything. It is like a tsunami of incredibly bad taste, but also dangerously close to impairing our health, even killing people!

Beijing is hosting the Olympic games in 2008 despite it's deplorable track record in human rights. The Chinese government has craftily avoided the installation of any type of democracy, and in collusion with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) it has consistently ignored responsibility and accountability for abuses of its officials. The most common human rights violations of the PCR (Peoples Republic of China) include arbitrary detention for exercising freedom of speech, religion and expression, torture, rape, execution, the abduction of women for purposes of prostitution and slavery, and unwarranted imprisonment. Even European and Americans who have gone to China to protest over the illegal invasion and occupation of Tibet have been summarily arrested and detained without formal charges. Whilst all along the thousands of displaced Tibetans (including the prominent spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama) are forced to manage their government in estrangement and exile.

So how have we become caught in this complex and dysfunctional scenario?

Well, if we return to the back of that dollar bill again... the small print also includes a clause about the 'power of money!'

China:

Workers rights:

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/workers_rights/wr_china/wr_china.htm

Olympics:

http://en.beijing2008.cn/media/

Human rights:

http://www.hrichina.org/public/index

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/hr_facts.html

The American Flag, Made in China.com:

http://www.made-in-china.com/china-products/productviewsbXEAKYvZnrO/American-National-Flag.html