2006 April

Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.

Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.

April 5, 2006

Written by C.N.

Viet Nam Becoming Too Capitalistic

It is rather ironic that one of the last remaining capitalist countries is being criticized for abandoning communist principles by its own citizens. That is apparently what’s happening in Viet Nam, where workers are protesting the erosion of worker rights and socialist ideals as the government focuses on joining the globalized capitalist economy:

In Vietnam, workers across the nation are organizing in numbers rarely seen since the communist takeover in 1975. Some 60,000 workers are demanding, among other things, the right to a decent salary, improved working conditions and, most important, to strike and to form their own union. . . .

The great majority of the workers come from impoverished rural areas in search of job opportunities in urban centers. They earn an average wage of about $2 per day — the lowest in Southeast Asia — and can’t pay for basic living needs. Urbanization, globalization and tourism have sent the cost of living skyward. . . .

[Some of their demands:] “Wherever there is exploitation, oppression, people must rise up in mass to take over the ownership, overthrow the capitalist conglomerations, and seize control for the poor people. . . . In case our eight-point demands are not realized, we will select one site to launch our struggle (and) seize the plant, the business of foreign capitalists, similarly to what the Communist Party has done in the past.”

This development only highlights a fundamental fact that many of us have known for years — Viet Nam is not a communist country. Instead, it is a totalitarian country, controlled by a paranoid regime that only uses communist principles as a facade. True communism would involve exactly what the workers are asking for — protection for the poor, workers’ rights, and a social philosophy focused on the well-being of the entire country, rather than just a privileged few.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this situation, but it would be quite a story if the fake communists are shamed into acting like real communists.

April 4, 2006

Written by C.N.

Japan Suspends Loans to China

In a sign of the increasingly tense and even hostile relationship between the two Asian superpowers, Japan just announced that it will indefinitely cease providing loans to Japan:

Ties between Japan and China have deteriorated sharply in the past year. The two are feuding over maritime gas deposits, interpretations of World War II history and other issues. Japanese aid to China has also come under increasing domestic scrutiny the past few years as Beijing’s economy has boomed while Japan’s had wallowed in a decade-long slowdown. . . .

Much is at stake for both sides. Energy-hungry China wants to expand its own resource base, while trade with its fast-growing neighbor is a key factor in Japan’s own economic revival.

The turmoil continues. This seems to be related to Japan’s recent spate of actions that have antagonized its Asian neighbors and the international community. As such, it again highlights how Japan is apparently acting like a spoiled and overprivileged little brat — always used to getting its way, but once somebody begins to stand up to it, it throws a tantrum.

Memo to Japan: the world is becoming increasing interdependent. Globalization is real. If you don’t keep up with the times, you’re going to be left in the dust.

April 2, 2006

Written by C.N.

Asian Automakers in the U.S.

I’ve written before about Toyota being the first “foreign” automaker to compete in NASCAR, the “all-American” racing series. Despite Toyota and other Asian car companies having several factories in the U.S. that employ tens of thousands of workers, many Americans will forever consider them a foreign (and therefore ‘un-American’) company. Well, a new Christian Science Monitor article argues that the prosperity of Asian factories in the U.S. benefits the auto industry in the long run:

It’s a tale of two industries. One is downsizing its workforce, discounting its prices, and is based in Detroit. The other is building factories, expanding its market share, and calls the South its regional home. But these days, domestic and foreign automakers are two sides of the same US auto industry. . . .

Against that backdrop of cutbacks, the rise of foreign “transplant” factories helps explain a surprising fact: For all the difficult news about plant closings and big quarterly losses, America’s auto industry is retaining jobs better than other traditional industries. Overall employment in domestic manufacturing is down sharply during the past 15 years, yet the automotive sector employs more people than it did in 1990.

In some ways, each Ford pickup that rolls off a Michigan assembly line still represents a bigger boon for the US economy than a made-in-America Toyota. Domestic nameplates tend to contain more US-made parts and more US-based design value. But the larger trend is that such lines are increasingly blurring as all major auto companies go global. Productivity gains, too, have been spurred by the arrival of transplants.

As the article mentions, the “social value” of a Ford, GM, or Chrysler car is perceived to be higher than that for a similar Toyota, Honda, Mazda, or Hyundai that’s also built in the U.S. (we’ll conveniently ignore for now that Chrysler is owned by Daimler-Benz, a German company).

Americans have a right to judge different companies however they want and certainly, to spend their own money however they want. But at the least, Americans should recognize that whenever someone buys a car that has a Toyota, Honda, or other Asian nameplate on it, that it too represents another benefit for the U.S. economy in many ways.

Remember that a Japanese car has been the best selling passenger car in the U.S. for the past ten years or so. In other words, Americans can be “patriotic” but also sensible at the same time.

« Previous Page

Home

Culture

Ethnic Groups

History

Issues

Links

Viet Nam

April 5, 2006

Written by C.N.

Viet Nam Becoming Too Capitalistic

April 4, 2006

Written by C.N.

Japan Suspends Loans to China

April 2, 2006

Written by C.N.

Asian Automakers in the U.S.