Ravaging Downtowns, Subsidizing the Butchers of Beijing: Walton's Good Works. Robert B. Ward pretends to see nothing wrong with the devastation to multitudinous small businesses and the downtowns they lie in, produced by "superstores", like Walton's. He claims that the big chains keep inflation low, and that eases interest rates and makes home ownership possible. That's all well and good if you have a job. But if the business your job was in closes because of superstores, you'll be lucky to hold onto a home you already bought. And if major employers are paying low wages, that drags wage rates down for everyone not just in the same industry but also in every locality in which that low-paying employer operates.
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How do Walton's and the other big retailers keep prices low? They import masses of goods from Communist China. This, according to some conservative observers like the New York Post, is supposed to be good for us. In the year 2003, the United States had a trade deficit with China of $124  billion. Think about that for a moment, and ask yourself "How far does $124 billion go in China as regards developing nuclear weapons, missile systems, technology for disabling U.S. computer networks, and other preparations for war against us?" Oh, you didn't know that Communist China was planning war against us? Consider this passage from a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal of July 11, 2001:

NEWPORT, R.I.--The U.S. is at war with China, and U.S. Navy commanders are using a new breed of ship called Streetfighter to sail perilously close to the Chinese coast.
There, the small, fast, inexpensive warships — designed to go into harm's way and, if necessary, be lost — hunt down Chinese subs and missile launchers hidden among fishing boats and cargo ships. Some Streetfighters are sunk by enemy fire, and casualties are high, but they help the U.S. win earlier than the military pros had projected.
The "war" was a computer simulation set around 2015, carried out in windowless rooms at the Naval War College here about a year ago. The Streetfighters existed only on paper.
("Risk Assessment: Plans for a Small Ship Pose Big Questions For the U.S. Navy", 7/11/01, p. 1, rightmost column)

So why are we subsidizing the Butchers of Beijing to the tune of $124 billion a year? (I pass over, for purposes of this blog entry, the fact that the overall trade deficit in 2003, with all countries, was $489.4 billion, which doesn't seem to concern the Republican free traders. So, we're going into debt to foreigners, big-time. How could that possibly be important?)
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The bulk of this $124 billion goes to the government of Communist China, directly, when the trade is with state-owned enterprises ("Communist China", remember: Communist), indirectly, in the form of taxes on profits and the wages of workers, when the trade is with privately owned (but governmentally controlled) businesses. The pretense is that this economic "engagement" encourages the Butchers of Beijing to moderate their behavior; they can relax, for feeling all is well, and reform politically, to bring the benefits not just of capitalism but also of democracy to their people. And this losing trade gives us leverage to open their enormous market and ultimately make tons of money in fair trade! Fat chance. (Sounds like a Chinese name, doesn't it? Fat Qans!)
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The people of China are too poor to afford any American consumer goods at all. Per capita income in China is $960 - for a whole year! How are they going to be able to spend even $400 for a home computer? It's ridiculous. (Internally, that $960 equates, in "purchasing power parity", with $4,520 per person, but that's before all basic living expenses are deducted, which leaves very little disposable income. If they buy domestic products, the pittance they have in the way of disposable income allows them to live modestly. But they certainly can't afford imported goods.)
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Everything made here costs something like ten times as much in China as comparable goods made locally. It is absolutely impossible for us to compete in most segments of the economy. Impossible. It doesn't matter how low the dollar sinks, thanks to free trade. There will never, for the foreseeable future, be more than a tiny number of Chinese who can afford to buy anything Made in USA. Big American businesses can sell only to big Chinese businesses, and the bulk of them are government-owned. When we sell advanced technology to such enterprises, we are really turning over our technology to the Butchers of Beijing.
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Not all conservatives are as naive as the free-traders. Cal Thomas suggested that Communists still believe that military conflict with the West is inevitable. In 2001 he reported that "Last spring, China announced it was boosting defense spending by nearly 18 percent." Where are they getting the money? Oh, that's right. From us.
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Lenin said it: "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."
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Let us remember why the leaders of Communist China are called "The Butchers of Beijing". No one knows the exact figure, because China was so backward it had no reliable census nor efficient Department of Vital Statistics, but the website "Murder By Communism" suggests that over 36 million Chinese were killed by Communists up to 1987. In 1989, a democracy movement erupted in Tienanmen Square and, after diddling for a few weeks, the government crushed that movement, literally: they sent tanks into the Square, squashing some of China's "best and brightest" under tank treads. Followup arrests and executions may have totaled 5,000 or even 13,000. China isn't free with such information.
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I won't even try to calculate how many of the 34,000 Americans killed in the Korean War were killed by Chinese "volunteers" sent across the Yalu River in hordes. Nor will I attempt to figure how many Americans will be killed if China does indeed go to war against us in or about 2015.
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Each year, the Chinese government executes a great many people. Amnesty International cites a figure of 1,067, which it believes to be too low (I have heard 5,000), as compared to the United States' total of 68 a year. There have even been claims that China is eager to execute people not just to relieve population pressure but also to provide 'spare parts' to paying foreigners in the form of kidneys, livers, hearts, and other valuable organs to be 'harvested' from the executed. Chinese-style execution is a bullet to the back of the head. And the government makes the family of the convict pay for the bullet!
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I have no problem with execution of people for horrible crimes, but I don't count promoting democracy as a crime worthy of death.
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It is sometimes inescapable for Americans of limited means to buy Chinese, and some of that money does go to workers, even tho much does go to the Butchers of Beijing. But when the success of Walton's superstores is built on the bones of ruined small businesses and ravaged downtowns, and it subsidizes the People's Liberation Army in its preparation for war against the United States, I can't be enthusiastic about the boon to us that Walton's is supposed to be. Wherever you may shop, please check the national-origin label on everything you plan to purchase, and buy Chinese only if there is no practical alternative. (Responsive to "The (Class) War on Walton's", New York Post, May 31, 2004)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 2:48 PM