today im in one of those days... just need to say useless things, proceed as if i hadnt been here
PS: warlight is where i come to avoid any kind of credibility

To reply to Kusanagi:

I've never visited China and dont have any chinese friend so what I said is just a generalization from my experience and observation in Vietnam. But I believe there is a real similarity between China and Vietnam society.

In Vietnam and China, there are two types of rich people, those who have political connections and those who dont. And the rich people who can live like kings in China and Vietnam obviously belong to the first group.

The other group of rich ppl consist of those who are experts in some fields and those who can game the system. But without political connections, these people always feel insecure and difficult to live here. In Vietnam (and I believe in mainland China as well), the competition in mostly everything is about who your parents and relatives are, meaning that only those from the right families can succeed. Even if you work hard and keep improving yourself, you will still have little chance to move upwards. And if you have any conflict with someone who has more political than you do, you will be in big trouble. I myself currently can be considered as the 1% in my country, but most of my income come from my dirty businesses instead of my legit job.

Thats why rich ppl with political connections will enjoy living here because they can do mostly whatever they want. And those who dont have political connections want to move out to enjoy the security and fairness ( in a higher level) in western countries.

Cont'd

About the modern skyline and the giant buildings in China cities, Im not surprised about that. I can make a safe bet that China's economics depends a lot of the construction and real estate industry. I can also make another safe bet that every major economical player in China is into the real estate business. And of course, the government is the biggest real estate capitalist.

Thats why its not a surprise to see a lot of giant buildings in China cities. And I believe, in the future, there will be even more giant buildings. And I m pretty sure that the developers of these buildings are real estate investors. The developers’ motive is actually no secret to industry insiders. First of all, these giant buildings raise the price of land and apartments in its neighborhood. Moreover, the local governments, who can give developers cheap land, love to have more giant buildings in their territories. Giant buildings are a symbol of local economic success and serve the officials’ vanity well.

But one problem with these buildings is, what is the occupancy rate of these buildings? Are all offices, rooms and apartments in these building in used? I myself seriously dont think so.

I agree with Alababi's ideas about the 1%, connections, and real estate, and also think Vietnam and China are comparable both socio-economically and politically.

To rank these countries based on current 'power' or economic projections is a bit odd. Asian countries' demographic situations; political, economic, and legal systems; levels of industrialization and interconnectedness with the global economy (and the consequent bell jar effects: http://www.thepowerofthepoor.com/concepts/c2.php); developing welfare states; environmental situations; progress with respect to 'democratization' (with respect to civil rights and how much influence citizens have on public officials); and the overall transparency (http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2005/012705.htm) of the above factors are in such a state of flux that (a) nobody really knows enough to rank these countries objectively and purely based on reality and (b) future projections become outdated almost as quickly as computers do.

For example, who among us knows with any degree of certainty what the effects of Japan's aging population will have on Japan, the region, and the world? Who knows how the coming election in the Philippines will affect it?

When I was in China in 2004-5, I thought the imbalances and inefficiencies of China's development were such that a major collapse within ten years would not be a surprise. Later, I discovered Michael Pettis' blog (http://www.mpettis.com/) on China's financial markets and have noticed that he thinks the same way I do, but with an economist's jargon. If I only looked at skylines, infrastructure, and the rich Chinese I saw and met when my rich friends took me out, I'd be convinced that China is the richest and greatest country on earth.

Bump

THE ISLANDS ARE CHINESE!!!! PISS-OFF JAPS!

facepalm.

this general arun is an imposter

AI please stop saying that. We all know that. (no offense)

3 cheers for the U.S.A.!

There's no thread for American politics because the thread would end up being locked and several people would be banned from the game :D

Asia isn't a country - sorry about that, but it isn't. If you would like a thread on the realtions between the North American states by all means set it up. But apart from relatively small deviations and conflicts other things like trade or immigration, North American inter-state politics is rather stable.

other = over*

(Please can we get an edit button?)

the thing about and edit button is when the trolls say something stupid and somebody calls them on it, they could go back and edit and say they never said it

On other sites it shows in italics at the bottom the time of edit.

If that were the case then i would love the idea

I probably shouldn't have used the synonym 'states' for nations.

You probably shouldn't...
Asian Politics, or politics in general I have no time for...ask my relatives in Hong Kong what they think...

Fantastic contribution there awesome guy :D

Lol, no.
What I meant is that my relatives have some...interesting...ideas about Politics, or so they tell me. They keep relocating though, so, I doubt they will execute anything drastic soon...