And one other advantage over the Yanks, no cultural aversion to bribery. A bit of baksheesh goes a long way.

Unhampered by Judeo Christian ethics, the Chinese government and its agents have a reputation in Asia for dishonesty, duplicity and greasing palms, and that from a corner of the world where such behaviour is rarely even remarked upon.

LEGO, what makes you think that bribery and corruption is not alive and well in our part of the world.

Fifty years ago, in my local town we had a dairy factory which thrived because the manager was not averse to having his palm greased by companies which supplied him with the latest manufacturing equipment, while he in his turn greased the palms of the Japanese to whom he sold our products. When he retired, it all went down the tube because the new manager was too honest.

David

A rare description of the Central Asian oil market that recognises the competition for energy security.

Up until 2002 "Energy Security" was part of the US vocabulary in describing its own foreign policy motivations. But the false liberation of Iraq the Middle East's second largest oil country caused Energy Security to be struck off, now a taboo word in official US foreign policy circles.

This article's Chinese angles mesh with Pilger's theory (OLO April 12, 2011 http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11888) that the Libyan intervention is partly about NATO ejection Chinese oil competitors from Libya.

Pete
see http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2011/03/us-covert-action-to-be-scaled-up-in.html

"Unhampered by Judeo Christian ethics"

Just off the top of my head: AWB, FAI/HIH, Qintex, Bond Corp, Amcor/Visy, Tricom, Enron, WorldCom, Greece, BAE and Optiver.

I'm sure a good google would find more examples of being 'hampered'.

"Unhampered by Judeo Christian ethics...."

What a hoot! LEGO.

I omitted to mention the way the Yanks are operation in Afghanistan. The whole system depends on giving money (bribes) to Afghan troops who they are currently training. Once they go home and the money runs out it will revert to same old same old.

Just because most Americans think that God is on their side, doesn't mean that the government is honest, just look at the record.

David

To Poirot, David and Neutral.

If any of you bothered to access any of Transparency Internationals websites, you will discover that those countries that are least corrupt are (unsurprisingly) Western Europe, and those countries still largely populated by Western Europeans. The singular exception to this rule is Italy, because of the traditional reverence that Italians have always had for family, religion, and graft.

I find it odd that Poirot and Neutral are so sneery of Judeo-Christian ethics, when they almost certainly choose to live in those countries who’s cultural values they are so contemptuous of. If you think that corruption is bad in Western European countries boys, I suggest you go and live in sub Saharan Africa of the Middle East and get yourselves a reality check.

To David, it is unsurprising that you personally know of a case of corruption involving the Japs. Japan may like to give the impression that it is a country full of principled and respectable businessmen, but in Japan, all is not what it seems. That is hardly surprising in a county where child pornography is illegal, but where 80% of child pornography websites originate from.

Japan is virtually a one party police state where real power is held by “shadow shoguns” exercising brokered politics formulated within secret meetings and back-room-deals. The close connection between politicians, bureaucrats, ultranationalists, media barons, and organized gangsters, has always been a curious fact of Japanese life.

Prostitution is officially illegal and there are no streetwalkers, But behind the official façade there are numerous “night clubs” which are simply brothels, where politicians, captains of industry, celebrities, police commissioners, mob bosses and the judiciary toast each other with sake before indulging in the pleasures which these establishments have to offer.

I'm in Samoa now. China is building markets and other structures. They have a TV channel which looks a lot like propaganda to me. Watch out for the Aian tiger

"Let China sleep- for when she awakes, the world will tremble"

Napoleon

(as best I can recall the quote)

Why doesn't Australia stop people buying our land unless they are Aussies? Samoans wont let any foreigner buy their land.

Worth thinking about, Bob Brown

At LEGO,

It was more a dismissive laugh than a sneer. Having prompted me though, any further preaching of shallow hypocrisy will certainly attract a sneer.

BTW the Chinese can buy their 'Judeo Christian ethics' from http://holysee.biz/Papal_Indulgince/indulgence.htm

Problem solved!

PS. I choose to live in a secular democracy.

Lego,
For examples of US oil related Judeo Christian ethics look at Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi, Nigeria, Iraq, Venezuela, Columbia and Iran. For non oil related look at Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Palestine or Cuba.