so the week started with my hot water system breaking down. ive had no hot water since. ive resorted to turning my heater up and just wiping down my body with a wet towel.
i hooked up my younger cousin to play piano on Wednesday at this media conference for avene, in my opinion, she played crap. i was not happy with her performance.
on thursday night, the biggest failure of my life happened, but thats another story.
Friday morning I finally got the poster I ordered last week, it was really awesome, BUT the edges were a little torn because the guy that sent it didn't use a real poster tube, instead he used a pvc pipe that wasn't cut properly, so when you put it in, it ripped a little....sigh
thats ok i thought, because a mate of mine organized a gathering tonight with apparently alot of girls and unlimited alcohol for 20 aud, where i could drink my sorrows of the week away and sing my failures of Thursday night away. We got there, there were like 4 girls and 20 guys and everyone was ugly and singing Chinese songs from the 80s.
We ended up going to this bar that played really shit music and i had 1 free beer and decided to bail to my friends apartment where we were gonna watch some dvds, but that beer made me so sleepy, i fell right asleep on his couch.
i woke up in the morning, thinking what a crap night but thats ok. I was going out to watch 2012 or This is it with Lydia and then eat some dinner tonight. i go and buy a new shirt because all my other shirts are unwashed and creased, 30 minutes after i bought the shirt, Lydia messages me: My cold on friday has turned into a fever, im so sorry, i don't think i can come out tonight.
today, i was on my way home. i checked the bag pocket where i usually put my keys, they werent there. i thought i must have left them on my office desk, lucky i had spare keys. i bought some baked goods and some shanghai mini buns for dinner. i really needed to pee.
got home, reached for the toilet door. gg. it was for some reason locked, i noticed there was a slot for a key on the door, i checked through my key ring and found no such key. called my landlord to inquire weather he possessed this key which would enable me access to the lavatory, negative. he said he will call the locksmith. i desperately waited until i could wait no more, i considered peeing into the sink but then realised its a bad idea, i finally got a bottle, unscrewed the cap, took off my belt and....the doorbell rang, the lock smith was here. phew
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
"The noble art of losing face will someday save the human race" - hans blix
today i bought a new sigma 10-20mm wide angle, the result was an instant adventure. but not the type i had hoped for and certainly too instant. From this point on, all dialogue in english will be in bold.
i was eager. eager to experience the adventures my new sigma was about to provide.
i happily stepped out of the store having been convinced (scammed?) to purchase a kenko UV cover.
i put the viewfinder to my eyes, my right hand was trembling with excitement. there was no time to look for the right lighting, i needed to take a photo as fast as i could manage, a masterpiece is about to happe...oops, lens cap is still on. i embarrassingly remove the lens cap secretly hoping no one had saw such an amateurish mistake. "must happen to everyone at one stage," i convinced myself.
as i press down to take what could have been a masterpiece, i see with my preferal vision, someone walking with extreme direction, that is to say they were moving in my direction with strong intent. "Someones in a hurry," i thought out loud in english "better step out of their way."
i move forward just enough for this man to pass behind me, though the space was not very generous, it was all the distance i could spare without ruining my masterpiece of a photo. "finally...i can take my photo".
as these thoughts moved through my head, i felt a bony hand placed on my shoulder also with extreme direction and strong intent. "GIVE ME BACK MY CAMERA"
"What the hell?" i asked rhetorically.
"Why did you steal my camera?"
"Buddy, you better let go of my tie, i did not steal your camera," I said as I contemplated the possible reasons for his violation of my personal space.
This guy is most likely trying to cause a scene, make me show him my camera and then run away after scamming me of my camera. I just bought this new lens and I was in no mood to be that generous. He was definitely going to ask me to show him my camera.
"Show me your camera, let me see it!" he demanded.
"Buddy, you are not touching my camera, i did not steal yours, if you let go now, i'll pretend nothing happened and i'll let you go."
After that statement, he paused for a second, maybe to contemplate my offer. At this stage i had my left hand on his neck and my right hand firmly gripping my SLR. This would be scammer was very skinny, looked like maybe he was suffering from malnutrition. I could count the amount of hairs coming out of his chin, they were whisker-like, like that time me and John Low decided to do Movember and failed. I snapped out of this thought just as he pulled on my tie which was choking me, he then grabbed my shirt and ripped two buttons off. I had no hands free to strike him with, for a second i thought maybe I should pummel him on the head with my camera, but i was not willing to sacrifice my camera either way. I still had my fingers tightly wrapped around his neck and i pulled his face close to mine and semi-bluffed "Friend, I'm traveling on a passport, not only will I beat you up, not only will the police arrest you, my government will look for you."
The Australian government most likely would not do anything for me in this situation except tell me they couldn't do anything.
Just as I realised I was close enough to head butt him in the nose, 3 men surrounded us and attempted to break us off.
"Stop! We're the police, what the hell is going on here?"
I examined the face that these words came from, a tall middle aged man, he had a greasy comb-over and an extremely wrinkled face. The two men standing next to him, one slightly overweight with a semi-guile-from-street-fighter haircut, and another man who was darker than I and missing a tooth. My instincts were telling me these guys are probably apart of the scam, they will probably ask me to handover the camera in a few seconds.
"He stole my camera!" the scammer yelled
"Buddy, this is my camera, if you lost a camera, tell me the model number."
"Give me the camera," the first cop calmly stated. (ah-ha! scam indeed)
"Sorry, I am not letting go of this camera, I can't be sure if you really are indeed a cop"
He quickly reached for a badge and displayed it, i apologised again and stated i don't trust it.
"How about we go to the police station then, is that enough to prove we're cops?"
"Sure," I said "but this camera isn't leaving my hand."
At this stage the scammer had a sudden change of expression and his eyes seemed to have lost the strong purpose it had before.
"I can't go," he said as he started backing off "I have a friend still waiting for me in KFC, my things are still there."
The police were quick to grab a hold of him, after a short negotiation, we decided to go into KFC and I wanted to see if this guy really lost a camera or if he was trying to scam me. After questioning some people in KFC, turns out he had been sitting in KFC for about 45 minutes prior to our incident with his girlfriend who was waiting for him at the seat. Surveillance cameras revealed that whilst he was passionately "displaying his affection" for his lady friend, a man some would consider obese simply walked by and put the camera in his bag and mingled away. The police pleaded that i don't press charges, I assumed it was because I held a passport and would definitely mean more paperwork, I initially refused and wanted to teach this guy a lesson about taking action before thinking. He had lost a Canon camera whilst I was taking photos with a Sony that had a strap clearly visible displaying the brand name. He clearly was not thinking straight and he clearly was distressed, I contemplated for a while and decided not to press charges, he just lost a pretty expensive camera and almost had his ass whooped for no good reason (apart from ruining my shirt). I gave him a 20 minute lecture about how to be a decent human being and just because he was wronged doesn't give him the right to act like he did. The lecture also included how he is embarrassing himself, his girlfriend, his city and his country.
I departed KFC with a friendly chat to the police, apologising for my distrust and thanking them for their timely arrival. They apologised again on behalf of the foolish man and hope my views on Shanghai weren't tarnished by this experience.
The End
Regardless, I'm still pretty stoked on my new lens (Sigma 10-20mm f3.5). As you can I gave my blog a mild update with another picture of my wife. Now i need to purchase an external flash and a camera bag, I'm gonna be out of money real soon.
china celebrates the last 60 years of change, china celebrates the last few decades of relative peace and unprecedented development.
i feel a strange mix of pride and shame.
my grandmother anticipates this day more so than her own birthday, in fact shes not even sure when her real birthday is. i vaguely recall my mother telling me that my grandmother lied about her age at one point in her life to register for something and ever since the revolution shes forgotten her real birthday.
"if the communist party did not exist, my life would not be so comfortable right now"- my grandmother
my grandma belongs to a special de-facto club of elderly party members whose membership dates prior to the revolution. the government of china does indeed take special care of these members and thus they are ever so grateful. its true that the pension rate for these elderly members exceed the average wages, sometimes by a lot. if my grandpa was still alive, apparently he would get roughly 4-5 times the average wage.
but then i think to myself, whats the average wage in taiwan like? and whats the average pension there? theres no doubt that the average wage in taiwan is higher than that of the mainland, and there is no doubt the average living standard is higher. but its unfair to compare the entire mainland with that of one developed island. but then even if i compare shanghai, the flagship city of china's economic development to taipei, i still think taipei's average numbers are probably higher (i could be wrong).
so i was watching the parade and it seemed that blatant inconsistencies and doublethink contradictions were the theme...
the first float for the leaders was for mao, a tribute paid to him standing on tiananmen and pronouncing the birth of new china to the the people of china and the world. a tribute was also laid to the establishment of mao's school of thought otherwise known as maosim. statements were made about his benevolence and god-like decision making skills and then the next float was for deng, the successor of mao.
statements were also made about deng's endeavours and his pioneering decisions to open china to the rest of the world and how great he is for starting the revolutionary market changes that has made china the economic power it is today...
theres the contradiction.
i'm going to avoid giving everyone a history lesson so i'll just simplify it for everyone.
mao didnt like deng very much, infact, he didnt like him enough to spread propaganda against him which eventually lead him into exile.
maoism included self dependency, if maoism continued, china would be just like DPRK. infact juche was formed under heavy influence from mao.
deng introduced market reforms that opened up china's boarders to FDI's and Macdonalds etc.
polar opposites it seems.
yet they're both praised openly with no question...
many of you already know, blogspot is blocked in china. (omg how am i on this website??)
and though i can access facebook seemlessly i cant seem to upload photos to it through my means of accessing it.
so i've made a flickr account to upload some photos, more like a picture blog i guess. flickr isnt blocked so i dare say i'll be using it more than i'll be using blogspot for the time being
apart from the excellent waitresses at this bar i like to frequent, you meet some interesting people. in terms of enviroment, i think korea is like a shanghai except less dirty and less people.
i've met a few different people in the past few days in korea. yeongsoo, yeonhwa, hyeari, brian
yeongsoo i met through my friend justin. as yeongsoo is also a fan of snsd and has the disillusion that taeyeon is his wife. first time i met him i battled him over soju for taeyeon, i had just purchased CDs and a poster and he had cards in his wallet, it was touche. but second day i pulled out my big gun, taeyeon tshirt, i win (i lose?). he doesnt speak much english but snsd and soju is our medium of communication.
yeonhwa and hyeari are two waitresses who work at this bar called queensbar. they speak english so whenever me and the frenchies go, they serve us and speak with us. in these korean bars, the waitresses chat with you if you want and are more like ppl you meet rather than at chinese bars where theyre instructed to milk your cash. hyeari worked in brisbane and sydney for a year but never visited melbourne. yeonhwa recently broke up with her boyfriend of 2 years (who is also a body builder) and is apparently looking for a new boyfriend.
brian, random dude i met at the bar. korean guy, finished his degree in america and is i think an english professor at a uni near by. we discussed many political issues and historical issues and i found him very interesting, i had a great time discussing chinese/korean history and the development of the asian economy.
so i'm back in snsd country for a little while and im back to shanghai. my main mission is to obtain as much snsd goods as i possibly could before i have to leave for shanghai
yesterday, i found the store wwhich is doing cross promo with snsd. you can buy a diary for 2 dollars ONLY if you purchase mass amounts of roasted chicken first.
and so i did:
now the smart thing to do would have been to buy this chicken when i was actually hungry or for an actual meal, but i could no control myself when i saw the diaries and i had to do whatever it took to buy the diary. because i bought so much chicken to buy the diary, i bought 3 diaries...
sml
ps: tiffany...jessica...taeyeon...hyoyeon, i know you guys can speak/read english, if you ever read this...please stop your madness, i am powerful but powerless against your sorcery.
you are the one ring and i am gandalf, you have put this sorcery into the wrong hands, i could potentially destory everyone including myself.
hello, my name is ken. even though i was born in china, i am legally not chinese...probably for the better.
last night at roughly 7:45, facebook was blocked.
for a month now, youtube and blogspot have also been blocked.
i don't know what your purpose of blocking these things are, but according to foreign media, it is in response to events that occurred in 1989 and also recent riots in the Xinjiang region.
if so, then my lack of understanding of the decision to block these websites continues . "questionable" and "unauthorized" accounts of said events can still be accessed via a simple google search. these sites can still be accessed by those who dearly wish to access them via proxy servers or a vpn.
i can say that if these websites were indeed used to spread "malicious" rumours about the chinese government/people, they can still be spread by those who are dedicated to these causes and still be accessed by those dedicated to their causes.
so why bother blocking these websites?
personally i want to access youtube to watch my 9 wives dance around (in HD), i want to access blogspot so i can blog about how i love them dancing around and i need facebook to publically display my love of watching them dance around.
but today, i officially can't do any of these, so thus i use my proxy server to blog about how angry i am.
i will get a VPN tonight so i am able to access all the sites i want to as the web proxy server i have been using is unreliable. furthermore as i have had nothing to do, i have read many articles that would be classified as "questionable" by your standards about the xinjiang region (i would rather be watching my 9 wives dance around).
in conclusion i would like to say your attempts at censoring information are annoying at most, they do not censor information from those who want to access them and only nurtures disgust and discontent at the conduct of this government. these half-hearted attempts at censoring information is not only useless, but it hurts party reputation and the reputation of china as a whole.
so yo, i'm coming to you from a proxy server because the chinese government has blocked blogspot, this proxy server doesnt seem to support alot of scripts so i can't add any photos and i can't click on the html mode either, but most of y'all who read this have facebook so you can see them anyway.
anyway, so i've met a few ppl and done a few things since i've gotten to shanghai. i moved into my bachelor pad last night and i gotta say its been mildly boring haha, was going to go and explore the neighbourhood this afternoon but it rained like a biatch.
stories:
tress, strip and beach.
so i met three girls in jingshan (an outter suburb south of shanghai cbd). they all have chinese names but i gave them some english nicknames to refer to them in my stories.
beach:
i met a dude named alko 3 years ago when i came back after year 12, he owned a hiphop store and i walked in whilst he was watching you got served and i asked him about dancing and stuff and we trained. we stayed in contact after that.
when i got back this time round, alko invited me to go out and have a cruise in his car and we bumped into a few girls, one of them was beach. later that night we went to the club and he invited beach and some of her girlfriends.
now this is probably the most uninteresting story, because the only reason her name is beach is coz she called me up to go beach yesterday but i had to move houses.
strip:
2nd time we went to the bar, strip had ALOT to drink. she was going nuts shaking her head like she was some wild horse. alko was pretty high up there and did a bit of a dance with her. i saw him dancing with her, turned around and looked at the crowd and then by the time i turned back around, alko was sitting on the couch, his shirt was off and was in strip's hands being swung around. he had this look of amazement whilst she was on his lap doing the crazy dance, her name is strip because she stripped him.
tress:
also one of beach's girlfriends. her name if pronounced with a different tone, means "mrs" BUT said in a particular context it means mistress. calling someone a mistress is degrading along the lines of calling a girl a whore in english. i purposely mispronounce her name to call her mistress = tress.
but there is justification to cal her a variation of teacher or something, coz she put on some thick frames at the club, and told me i can pretend shes my teacher.
but maybe heaven and hell are the same place with the same thing, but the characteristics of a good person will allow them to enjoy it and be content with it whilst the characteristics of a bad person will hate it and to them it may be like torture.
so if you're not a naturally good person, don't even bother faking it. we're all going to the same place.
good people will be good regardless of the existence of a heaven.
world's a mess, life's a mess, but maybe its just one big test i must confess, sometimes i feel different, like a division in my mind a fine line, opposite opinions on each side, holding out which ever one is right at the time. doublethink, probably need to see a shrink.
its funny how we can get carried away doing anything. even carried away trying not to get carried away.
eg. some dudes in relationships get carried away with proving love for their lady and they end up being perceived as whipped whilst other guys get carried away demonstrating theyre not whipped and end up being cold and shit and lose their girl.
its especially hard once you realise this because you have no idea what to do.
for me personally, to be honest, i've never been one to make much plans in life for the long run. up until now, i'm a lot better at going with the flow and then hopefully something good comes out of that and then i can say i planned it all along.
so now i've got plans for the next few years of my life and perhaps even the rest of my life.
now i fear that i will get too carried away trying to make unrealistic plans happen but then im also afraid i'll get too carried away not bothering to put effort into said plan and it will fail when it could have succeeded.
going with the flow and doing what i feel like at the time hasn't worked out very well this year.
Relations between these two states, economic or otherwise have always been close.Korea was content to look up to China for centuries as the centre of world civilisation, this relationship meant that starting in 1637, three official embassies from Korea travelled to China every year. These travels occurred during the New Year, birthday of the emperor and the birthday of the crown prince. The inauguration of a new king in Korea or the death of an emperor in China required special missions. The Korean kings seeked and wanted the approval of the Chinese Emperor otherwise known as the “son of heaven”. These missions could be seen as early trade envoys, the Korean king would send gold and silver as well as skins of precious animals to Beijing whilst the emperor would send back the best quality silk, herbal medicines, pottery and libraries of books. Tribute trade was a cultural exchange as well as an economic exchange between the two states. Language wise, roughly 50% of Korean vocabulary have Chinese origins and could be written with traditional Chinese characters (Hanja).
When invading Japanese forces attacked Korea in the 1590s, Chinese troops were sent to help repel them. This relationship has lasted well into the 21st century and played a strong part in the Korean War which resulted in the division of the peninsular. Chairman Mao personally refused to intervene to stop his eldest son to be sent to Korea and was subsequently killed in the Korean War as a Chinese volunteer.
In the beginnings of the last century, exiled Korean governments organized liberation movements and set up in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing to fight against Japanese colonial invaders.
China (PRC) has risen above the depressions and atrocities (economic and otherwise) of the past two centuries and continued process of retaking its place in the world as a major power rivalling that of the United States, as of January 2009, China overtook Germany as the world’s 3rd largest economy. Rising from the Asian financial crisis and the after-effects of the Korean War, South Korea (ROK) has also risen to a major economy in the world, being Asia’s third largest economy (after Japan and China). Today, PRC is ROK’s largest trading partner.
After defeating the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), in October 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Wealthy landlords and peasants immediately had assets and land confiscated and redistributed to poorer peasants. Titles to roughly 45 percent of arable land were redistributed from wealthy owners to families that had previously owned little amounts to no land at all. The ultimate goal of the CPC was to transform the China into a powerful, industrialised and modern nation. This would mean industrialization, improvement of living standards, production of modern military equipment and narrowing the income gap. From 1949 to 1952, the chief concern of the government was to restore China’s economy to normal working order. The CPC quickly repaired infrastructure such has transportation and communication links to restore economic activity. A central banking system was also established.
In the 1953, the first 5 year plan begun. This policy aimed to achieve fast growth rates in heavy industry and was achieved. Soviet technicians, economists, scientists amongst other personnel helped the PRC develop this plan. Equipment for industry was also purchased from the USSR. State control over all forms of industry was increased during this time by introducing financial pressure and incentives to convince owners of private firms to sell them to the PRC. By 1956, privately owned firms had ceased to exist, 67.5 percent of modern industrial firms were state owned and the rest were joint public-private ventures. Agricultural sector also went through vast changes. From the mutual aid teams within communities, villages of farmers were to ascend into early forms of agricultural collectives.Economically the first Five-Year plan was largely successful, key industries such as iron and steel manufacturing, cement production, machine building and electricity generation expanded rapidly.
Whilst changes were happening, certain prominent members in the party such as Liu Shao Qi argued against Mao’s radical stance and expressed that change should be gradual and collectivization of the agriculture industry should wait until industrialization has occurred.
However, the extensive economic growth would come to a halt when the second Five-Year plan was introduced; it was dubbed “The Great Leap Forward (GLF)” by Chairman Mao. Ironically, this “great leap forward” was practically many leaps backwards in terms economic development and triggered various social upheavals which would haunt the economy and the society of China for many years to come. The GLF was intended to dramatically increase steel and agricultural production to twice the amount that was produced in 1957. As peasants were poorly educated and ill equipped, too much low quality steel had been produced.Local authorities quite often reported unrealistic and unreachable production statistics to hide the problem. Even though that steel production had indeed increased by almost 3 times as much, most of the steel produced was impure and useless and was unable to be used for its intended purposes: the production of machinery for industry and weaponry for the military.
The GLF has since been reviewed and approached as a huge economic disaster. Chairman Mao stood down as the State Chairman of the PRC in 1959 presuming he would take most of the blame and responsibility of this failure in policy. Economic recovery and progress seemed reachable under new leadership that aimed to make Mao a figurehead, realised this Mao initiated the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” otherwise simply known as the Cultural Revolution to expel his political enemies who included Liu Shao Qi beand Deng Xiao Ping whom later succeeded as de facto leader after Mao’s death. This Cultural Revolution further crippled the Chinese economy and society with the abolition of tertiary education and persecution of senior academics, doctors, politicians amongst others by the youth league formed by Mao otherwise known as the “Red Guard”. Plans such as the “Down to the Countryside Movement” aimed at sending privileged urban youth to mountainous areas or countryside farms to learn from the workers and farmers increased the destructiveness of the Cultural Revolution as many high school graduates were forced out of cities and exiled to remote areas of China. Although Mao himself declared the revolution to be over in 1969, the period of unrest remained from the power struggles between factions within the party until the death of Mao in 1976.
Deng, who was previously purged from the party, slowly emerged as the de factor leader of the country in the few years after the death of Mao. Immediately policies that prevented “land lord class” citizens to join the communist party were removed. Though Deng provided the political support to allow economic reform to occur, Deng‘s economic were not originally conceived by him and only furthers those by previous party leaders such as Liu Shao Qi and Zhou Enlai. Deng’s proposed reforms included planned and centralized management of the macro-economy but management was unlike Mao’s model which included vast projects and campaigns to construct the economy, Deng’s management was indirect through market mechanisms that were free to an extent. Deng had also decided to advance modernization speed by stepping up the volume of foreign trade conducted with purchases of machinery from countries other than the USSR. There reforms were a complete u-turn of policies and philosophies of self reliance set by Mao himself. Under this new program, relations with foreign nations improved drastically. Deng travelled to meet with western leaders and became the first Chinese leader to visit the USA in 1979. The UN also switched recognition from the ROC (Taiwan) administered by Kuomintang to PRC.
Korea had been in a state of unrest for many years leading up to and after WWII. Japanese occupation before and during WWII crippled Korea in all ways possible. After being unified since the 6th century, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel by the USA (occupying the south) and the USSR (occupying the north). The USSR agreed to the 38th parallel being the demarcation between the occupation zones in the Korean peninsula. In December 1945, the US and USSR agreed to administer the nation under the US-Soviet Join Commission.It was agreed that Korea would be allowed to govern itself independently after five years of international oversight.Both the US and USSR would proceed to endorse their own sponsored governments as the inheriting government of the peninsular and an agreement could not be reached. The majority of the South Korean population disapproved of further foreign rule and occupation within Korea as it had been occupied by the Japanese for almost 35 years prior. The US called for an election to be held in all of Korea but the USSR refused. During this time separate governments were established. Both these governments had the vision of uniting Korea under their respective system. Yi Seungman (aka. Rhee Syngman) was appointed the head of the Korean government with strong backing by the United States whilst Kim Il Sung was chosen by Stalin himself to lead. These de facto governments intended to run all of Korea became governments for their respective geographic associations on each side of the 38th parallel. Initially Kim’s proposal for military aid from the USSR and PRC were refused by the USSER, but with the withdrawal of US troops from the south and the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, Stalin soon reconsidered Kim’s requests. Soon after receiving Mao’s support and promise to send troops to aid Kim, Stalin approved the invasion to reunite Korea by force under the communist structured government. On June 25, 1950 Kim escalated small battles into a committed offense and crossed the parallel with huge numbers of troops. The South Korean army were ill equipped, poorly trained, inexperienced and were caught by surprise. Kim quickly captured Seoul and Yi’s forces were forced into a pocket around Busan. Tides quickly changed as UN and US forces arrived and pushed Kim’s forces back into a small pocket along the Chinese/Soviet border, fortunes once again changed when Mao’s forces were sent in to repel the US troops, pushing them back close to where the original border was drawn. Since then a ceasefire was declared, however the two sides are technically still at war as an official peace treaty had never been signed.
A period of political instability followed the split of the peninsular; in 1960 a student uprising overthrew Yi’s government and established 2nd Republic of Korea, Yi peacefully resigned. On May 16, 1961, a group of military officers supported a coup that overthrew the 2nd Republic of Korea, lead by General Park Chung Hee. Though it was the government of the 2nd republic to have originally conceived the plans, it was the military government (Supreme Council for National Reconstruction) that implemented the first five-year plan, which was inaugurated in 1962. This military rule was soon replaced by the 3rd Republic with Park Chung-hee a former general as head of government; he ruled the country by authoritarian means. Park however has been credited as a turning point in developing the ROK economy by shifting goals to focus on export-orientated industrialization.Park was able to enforce his policies by declaring a state of emergency and tightening down on personal freedoms. In 1979, Park was assassinated by the KCIA director Kim Jaegyu. Kim believed that Park’s authoritarian rule was a threat to the long term development of Korea and its democracy. Park’s administration saw the establishment of POSCO, which is now the world’s second largest steel maker. Despite the unpopularity of his dictatorial rule, the economic growth during his years in office was unprecedented; it was during this time that another two 5 year plan had been implemented. The first 5 year plan under Park’s administration aimed to convert ROK into a heavy industry making nation competitive in the international marketplace. The second 5 year plan saw the government borrow heavily from foreign countries so it could direct its projects. The days of Park saw the passing of two new governments (4th and 5th republics of Korea) from the initial rule to the change in constitution which resulted in Authoritarian rule. After the assassination in 1979, another series of protests lead by students emerged. Another coup soon took place in December of that year and saw the establishment of the current government, the 6th Republic of South Korea.
Due to the cold war and other political reasons, for a long period of time, PRC and ROK had only little indirect trade carried out through Colonial Hong Kong. In 1991, PRC and ROK both established trade and economic representative offices in Seoul and Beijing respectively.Bilateral trade between two states was only at a rough US$5 billion in 1992. It had increased to nearly US$60 billion by 2000.
China’s economy regained its momentum after the beginning of economic reforms established by Deng. China’s key task as stated by Deng was to create a “socialist market economy”. In 1993, economic expansion had been growing rapidly with the induction of more than 2000 special economic zones (SEZs), this brought in foreign capital and investment far beyond the state budget. The Chinese economy continued to grow at a fast pace in 1996, the GDP growth rate was roughly 9.5%. A policy named “Grasping the large and letting the small go” was produced as part of a wave of industrial reforms in 1996. The concept was adopted in 1997; it aimed to corporatize state owned enterprises and to downsize the state sector by relinquishing state control over small state-owned enterprises whilst maintaining state control over the larger enterprises.
Larger enterprises were also nurtured by the Korean government in the form of “Chaebols” which are business conglomerates; they have accounted for almost 100% of the South Korea economy since the 1960s and experienced rapid growth since the late 80s. The largest 3 conglomerates include Samsung Group, Hyundai KIA Automotive Group and LG Group. These conglomerates have facilitated the growth of the Korean economy; by the 1990s South Korea was one of the largest Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs).
In 1997, the Asian financial crisis showed the weaknesses in all financial systems in Asia. Korea was hit especially hard, of the 30 largest conglomerates, 11 had collapsed between 1997 and 1999. Under President Kim Dae-Jung, the government made several reforms to the economy and business strategies of these conglomerates. Instead of competing in every market and industry, conglomerates were pressured to focus on a core competency and a core business. Accounting regulations were tightened to limit the ability of these businesses to hide financial losses.
China’s economy was also hit by the Asian financial crisis though the damage was not as severe as those of South Korea. Unlike most other Asian nations at the time, most of China’s FDI were physical assets such as factories rather than securities which shielded the country from sudden capital flight. Whilst it was left relatively unharmed compared to the collapse of major conglomerates in South Korea, GDP growth rates had dramatically declined in 1998 and 1999. China saw the weaknesses in other economies and corrected them within its own economy such as having too many non-performing loans and relying too heavily on trade with the United States.
PRC is both ROK’s largest export partner and import partner. 27% of exports go to the PRC including its SARs whilst 17.7% of imports are from the PRC. Even though China’s total GDP is the 3rd largest in the world it is still considered a developing nation as its average income and GDP per capita is still extremely low. In contrast Korea has the world’s 13th largest economy but is classified as a high income economy by the World Bank and an advanced economy by both the IMF and CIA. In 1992, only 265 investment projects in China were approved by the Bank of Korea. According to the Ministry of Commerce of China, the Chinese government approved 5625 FDI projects from Korea in 2004 with a total value of US$13.911 billion. By the end of 2004, the Chinese government altogether approved 32,753 Korean investment projects with a total contract value of US$50.56 billion.
The growth of the industrial sector contributed heavily to both nations’ GDP. In 1987 manufacturing industries accounted for approximately 30% of the GDP and 25% of employment. In 1990, the ROK government decided to focus on high-technology industries such as robotics, micro-electronics, fine chemistry, aerospace etc. Industry and construction contributes to 48% of China’s total GDP. Roughly 8% of the total manufacturing output in the world comes from the PRC. Major state industries are iron, steel, coal, machinery construction, armaments, textiles and light industrial products. These industries survived the reforms of Deng with little management change.
Both the PRC and ROK have succeeded in the expansion of their automotive industries. The Hyundai Kia Automotive Group was formed by merging ROK’s largest car company with the second largest. It is the third largest automaker in Asia and one of the top five automakers in the world as of 2008. PRC’s automobile industry has also experienced rapid development since 2000. In 2008, over 9 million vehicles were manufactured in China, surpassing the USA as the second largest automobile maker in the world. China also has the world’s largest automobile market which has meant numerous foreign firms have entered the market. Some of these enter the market as joint ventures with local firms. Hyundai entered into the market as a joint venture with the Beijing Automotive Industry.
Hyundai has raised its sales growth forecast for China this year from 22 percent to 36 percent as economic stimulus measures increase demand in china.Hyundai’s forecast in China was raised from 360,000 to 400,000 units compared to the previous year of 294,508 units. This target also does not include imported cars from ROK which is expected to be at 30,000 this year. The success of Hyundai in China in recent years can be contrasted with toughening conditions for General Motors who entered in 1997 and Volkswagen who arrived 21 years ago. Hyundai Elantra compact cars have increases sales by 156% from this time last year. As GM fails in its own domestic market it is struggling to compete on price against Hyundai in the Chinese market. Market capacity is forecasted to grow roughly 30% this year and Hyundai plans to invest $1.1 billion USD to triple its annual production capacity.
At present, roughly 18000 Korean firms are operating in the PRC. President Lee Myung-bak urged Korean and Chinese companies to expand investments in each other’s countries, proposing to turn the Yellow Sea between the two nations into an “inland sea”. President Lee expressed a wish to help Korean firms to be included in large inland development projects in the north eastern and western parts of China.Shanghai Motor also bought a controlling stake of 48.9% in Ssangyong, becoming the first Chinese firm to own a major stake in Korea.
In terms of bilateral trade between ROK and PRC, China has always had a trade deficit which has been growing every year. China’s exports are mainly products from labour intensive industries such as textiles. Where as Korean exports are mostly capital/technology-intensive products such as integrated circuit components, micro electronics, communication instruments etc. It products, heavy industries and chemical industries dominated Korea’s exports to China, these products accounted for 57% of total exports from Korea.These included computers, wireless communication apparatus, steel sheets, petrochemical products, semiconductors, automobile components.Whilst 40% of China’s exports took form of commodities, such as garments, coal, aluminium, steel sheeting, crude chemical materials, acoustic equipment etc. The main difference between the economies is that China and Korea are in different stages of economic development and have different competitive/comparative advantages. According to the economic history of various other nations, the transformation and development of a nations industry generally follow the same route:
Agricultural Light and Textile industry - Heavy and chemical industry - High Tech IT industry - Service industry
The structure and characteristics of Chinese export show that China is in a transition stage from light textile industry to heavy chemical industry, where as Korea is in a transition stage from heavy chemical industry to high tech IT industry. Korea seems to be one stage ahead of China; this fact makes cooperation between China and Korea complimentary rather than competitive.
Rapid growth in sales of Korean products in China will accelerate future prospects for Korean firms in the Chinese market. Samsung entered into the market in 1992 and it has achieved significant success in the past decade. The total sales revenue in China was US$9.7 billion in 2003, which is roughly 26% of its total sales worldwide.LG Chem’s export to China makes up 50% of its total export amount. In 2004, it earned a profit of US$120 million from its operations in China. As the Chinese economy develops, its market will become more open and its domestic market will expand. This will stimulate the development and growth of Korean enterprises whilst their advanced technology and managerial experiences will bring more vitality and dynamics to the Chinese marketplace.
In 2006, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is also being discussed by ROK and PRC. PRC’s Commerce and Industry Minister Bo Xilai met with his Korean counterpart Chung Sye-kyun to discuss issues such as the push for a FTA. Seoul however is treading carefully with the push for an FTA as it could mean a sudden surge in cheap agricultural products and light industry goods. Bo visited Korea 3 times as of 2006 and met not only with Chung but also the Trade Minister and other entrepreneurs during his visits. In contrast, Japan and ROK begun negotiations for a FTA in 2003 but negotiations came to a halt during 2006 when the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koziumi was reported to visit Toyko’s Yasukuni Shrine regularly. This shrine honours Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals who committed atrocities in Korea, China and other various Asian countries. Meanwhile, ROK and PRC have agreed to make efforts to double trade between the two states to US$200 billion per year by 2012.
There have been other indirect relations such as PRC and ROK’s interest and purchase of Australian iron ore. China has made strategic equity investments to secure Australian iron ore supplies. The Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon expressed that his government had no concerns about China’s moves to secure supply.
As the current crisis develops China is leveraging its position and trade surplus to achieve a new position in the world as a financial leader. Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders of the party have blamed the West for the current economic crisis. Chinese officials are challenging the primacy of the dollar and warning other countries about the risks of using just the USD or EURO as their main reserve.
Much like the Asian Financial Crisis, Korea’s economy has been hit harder than the Chinese counterpart. The South Korean Won has been heavily depreciating against the USD. Unlike the crisis of 1997 which stemmed from domestic financial mismanagement, the current crisis stems from outside its borders. The shrinking of US and EU markets has heavily effects the export driven economy of ROK, this crisis has highlighted the need for its regional trade efforts. Even though the US and EU markets are driven into recession, Korean exports to China has expanded by almost 34% in the second quarter of 2008. China has been pressured to float its currency which will cut down its exports as a way of correcting the current global imbalance. However, the real solution is to increase domestic consumption so it does not need to heavily rely on export. China has been implementing economic stimulus to increase domestic demand. This includes RMB¥ 4 trillion to be invested into infrastructure and public welfare. Key areas including housing, transportation, environment, industry, income building, tax cuts and finance. These will not only help shield against the financial crisis but will increase consumption and demand as living standards increase, this is not only a good opportunity for Korea but also a lifeline out of the current financial turmoil. Korea has also proposed a joint fund of US$80 billion with China, Japan and ASEAN members to fight the current global economic crisis.
As the Chinese and Korean economies develop well into the future and as the large Chinese population develops and matures into a well educated and consuming market, unlike the tainted relations between Korea/China and Japan, Korea will be in the perfect position to benefit from China’s economic developments with a history of good relations, geographic proximity to support and reinforce the relation between the nations. As both nations move out of the depressions and turmoils of the last century, both will look to each other for support economically and culturally.
South Korea’s Sunshine Policy and its ultimate and eventual goal of reuniting the ROK with the DPRK into a single Korea cannot be realised without China to provide a channel of dialogue as a friend of both sides of the peninsular. Though traditionally China was looked up to by Korea as a bigger brother, in this new world it resembles a relationship of two close friends who have been through hell together and on the road to recovery, both nations need each other and both have a lot to learn from each other.
The challenge issued now for both nations is to continue its streak of economic advancements in the wake of a global recession. Both nations need to decrease dependency on US and European markets as demand in those regions decrease. China will work towards not only continuing to increase its total GDP output but also improve average income levels. Being one step ahead of the Chinese economy, Korea will no doubt compliment China with its high tech and high capital industries whilst China supports it with what could be the largest consuming market in the world.
