Comments on: Chinese Military Dictatorship Bans Car Pollution, Manages New Car Market

By: 86er

86er — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:13:59 +0000

I believe they’re also shutting down the coal power plants that surround the city for the duration of the Games. Hopefully they have enough nukes on backup or else it’ll be the first non-televised Olympics since the 1930s. :)

By: TonyTiger

TonyTiger — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:00:36 +0000

Shaker says “Funny — I watched a Frontline (on that wretched, left wing propaganda network, PBS) that looked at the lives of several individual younger Chinese people, and how they were dealing with the sudden entrance of their country into the 21st century. All of the people chronicled showed a high degree of intelligence and morality (they even had a story of the emerging Christianity movement there).”

And implies that everything’s on the up and up in China and on NPR.

Yeah, right. Just like when CBS, NBC, ABC or NPR go to Iraq and interview “The Troops” and report that – hey, they’re almost all voting for Obama. Yeah, right.

By: Banned User

Banned User — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:24:53 +0000

The Chinese stock market has tanked in 2008(down like 50%) and they are suffering from high inflation. Not a bowl of cherries over there. And now the government starts acting like a bunch of California Democrats. Crash coming.

By: William C Montgomery

William C Montgomery — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:14:36 +0000

In other news, PRC autocrats banned farting to cut methane emissions in a show of solidarity with international initiatives to curb global warming gasses and to politely clear the miasma of fusty Beijing air for their western guests. Chinese hoi polloi are restricted to expelling said gasses on dates that correspond with their zodiac sign. To wit, since 2008 is the year of the Rat, only Rats (those souls born in 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 or 2008 [newborns]) are permitted to fart until the Olympic torch has been extinguished.

This directive will place a particular hardship on prolifically flatulent Chinese citizens born during the year of the Ox, Horse, Monkey, Dog and Pig. Roosters are instructed to leave the Beijing metro area since it is a known fact that birds don’t have muscles to control such things. Meanwhile, the Snakes and Dragons get off easy due to their traditional low-fiber diets. Back to you Robert…

By: shaker

shaker — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:49:26 +0000

Funny — I watched a Frontline (on that wretched, left wing propaganda network, PBS) that looked at the lives of several individual younger Chinese people, and how they were dealing with the sudden entrance of their country into the 21st century. All of the people chronicled showed a high degree of intelligence and morality (they even had a story of the emerging Christianity movement there).
Maybe it was “influenced” by the governement, but I didn’t get that sense; they just seemed like regular people, trying to make thier way in a crazy, changing world.
Maybe (like we here) that in groups and organizations people become more “evil”.

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:17:44 +0000

When that place blows up, there will be one helluva bang.

By: brent

brent — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:02:07 +0000

TonyTiger:

You took the words right out of my mouth (or is it, “my hands,” seeing that I’m typing this?). Those socialists just love China and can’t wait to make us just like them.

montgomery burns:

Indeed, and that’s why it’s maddening to see the West perceive the East as one big lump, ascribing to it the values they’ve come to expect from countries such as Japan.

China? Not so much — at least these days.

I swear — there must be a bunch of people out there who’ll blindly buy Chinese cars because they’ll think they’re “perfect” by mere virtue of being an Asian product.

Maybe they’ll sell them at Wal-Mart.

By: montgomery burns

montgomery burns — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:47:28 +0000

CarShark:

I’ve wondered about that myself. Did they really think that the Olympics in China was not going to be a problem? Where did they leave their brains?

Maybe, just maybe people will wake up here and realize that China doesn’t care about anything more than making money anyway possible, while trying to put a happy face on. They will lie, cheat and steal and not think twice about it. They will cut corners and make the products that we buy here (soon maybe cars) the absolute cheapest way possible. And most people, in the US anyway, don’t seem to care.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:40:55 +0000

Well I’m no expert in Chinese political science but last I checked they’re not a “military” dictatorship. The premier of China isn’t a General (or sillier yet, a Colonel).

Actually I don’t believe they’re a dictatorship at all, since China doesn’t have a dictator.

You can be an obsolescent authoritarian one-party fascist regime without being a “military dictatorship” per se. Look at Michigan.

By: canfood

canfood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:23:06 +0000

banning cars based on license plates. Why that would work perfectly in China … where counterfeiting is extremely difficult to do and where breaking petty laws is a huge social taboo and is strictly enforced by massive amounts of incorruptible cops and government officials

I smell success!

By: CarShark

CarShark — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:09:03 +0000

What gets me is that Olympic committee had to know about the air pollution in Beijing, but let it continue anyways. This has to be the biggest PR campaign ever seen.

By: carlisimo

carlisimo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:57:26 +0000

Now that we’re breathing in all the smoke from the wildfires here in CA, I can really sympathize with the Olympic athletes. This is probably nothing compared to what they’ll face in Beijing.

By: TonyTiger

TonyTiger — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:39:11 +0000

Monkey-See, Monkey-Do.

This gives the left wing-nuts in this country a blueprint for removing SUVs and other ‘non-party’ vehicles.

By: menno

menno — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:08:59 +0000

Well, of course, freedom and rights are not really concepts familiar to managed economies and the people behind them.

Recall that in the soviet union, where “everyone was equal” (NOT) the politburo and big wheels all had chauffer driven, black ZIL and GAZ Chaika limousines with V8 engines, automatic transmission, air conditioning and all of the luxuries while the average Russian had to cope with trying to save cash money over years to buy a car priced at the equivalent of several years of income, pay his money, wait five years, not get a color choice, no air conditioning, no power steering, no automatic transmission and of course ended up with either an updated 1936 Opel (a Moskvich), likewise with a “borrowed” technology BMW look like (not performance-like) four cylinder engine (Moskvich 412) or a brand new 1967 Fiat (Lada).

Likewise China. Do you think the communist party apartchiks will be giving up their cars on the even and odd days?