You Europeans Are All Lazy, Says Chinese Minister

[Guest_FaFa!_*]

Jin Liqun, chairman of China Investment Corporation (CIC), the nation's sovereign wealth fund, warned that Europeans should "work a bit harder" if they want to pull the eurozone out of recession.

He said people in the West are too reliant on welfare payments and the benefits system, looking for external solutions to the debt crisis rather than tackling the problem from within.

Mr Jin also said the long-term economic slide could only be solved by amending the restrictive labour laws that mean Western workers are unable to compete in global markets.

He told Channel Four News: "Europe is not really short of money. Europe needs to give a clear picture to the Europeans themselves and to the rest of the world that their problems could be worked out.

"The root cause of the trouble is the over-burdened welfare system , built up since the Second World War in Europe - the sloth-inducing, indolence-inducing labour laws.

"People need to work a bit harder, they need to work a bit longer, and they should be more innovative . We (the Chinese) work like crazy.

"European countries have a lot of advantages. They just need to tap these advantages and they will be back on their feet."

This is not the first time Mr Jin has aired his views on the inner workings of Western economies.

Last month, at a forum organised by The Economist magazine, he said he was "concerned about the unravelling of the situation" in Europe.

He told guests he was "sorry if I have ruffled feathers", adding: "China cannot be expected to buy into high risk in the eurozone without a clear picture of debt work-out programmes."

Mr Jin, a graduate of Boston University, was formerly China's deputy finance minister and vice-president of the Asian Development Bank.

He is now chairman of CIC, China's sovereign wealth fund, which has a budget of around $300 billion.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8837768/Britons-are-lazy-and-addicted-to-benefits-China-claims.html

Everyone work harder for your masters, bitches! Reduce wages and work in a sweatshop for demand that isn't there!

What's the problem Mr Jin, concerned we might have lent money to people who ain't gonna pay it back?

[KingBingo]

Well he is correct though. The Chinese get paid to work, and this country we pay people not to work, and some of those people are occasionally British citizens too.

[KingBingo]

I would not be so fast to laugh, he has a country full of farms and factories, we have estate agents and welfare offices. I know which one I would be betting on for the next 50 years. Even if when all those loans we made him go bad.

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

As I have been taught "Work smarter not harder" - The Chinese seem incapable of this.

One thing I will say is that there is no incentive to work then generally people will not.

[KingBingo]

As I have been taught "Work smarter not harder" - The Chinese seem incapable of this.

Which is why they work hard, then send their kids to western schools to learn the smarts.

One thing I will say is that there is no incentive to work then generally people will not.

British welfare state.

[(Blizzard)]

And for the second time in less than a minute:

Arbeit does not macht frei.

The goal of technology is to reduce the amount of work.

[interestrateripoff]

Hmmm if we work harder to produce tat are the Chinese going to buy it? Or are the Chinese people hoarding because there is no welfare state in China and they fear spending money because there is no safety net?

[aa3]

One interesting fact is that in China nearly all the factories are piecemeal. The workers get paid based on their production. Those type of factories were outlawed in Europe and the United States back in the 1930's.

But there are a handful of the factories still remaining that pay employees based on piecemeal.. they were grandfathered in way back in the 1930's. At one factory in Virginia the average worker made 180,000$ a year.

But they had something like 7 times the output per worker as the pay by the hour factories.

In Britain it takes a lot of money and effort just to hire someone, and try to comply with countless regulations - and those are just hte labour regulations, which is one of dozens of regulatory agencies. Most corporations are saying why bother, and simply moving production to Asia. Not like this is a new trend, but we are starting to wake up and say, wow there is actually no jobs in our country.

[Gone baby gone]

I would not be so fast to laugh, he has a country full of farms and factories, we have estate agents and welfare offices. I know which one I would be betting on for the next 50 years. Even if when all those loans we made him go bad.

Actually, we have a country full of farms too. We have a surplus of meat and dairy products. We import vegetables (UK is something like 50% self sufficient), but this is partly due to seasonal produce, and partly to do with cost (cheaper to import veg and use our land for meat).

China has a policy of self sufficiency as has for many years, but still has to import large amounts of corn and other staples from time to time.

As for the factories. You got me there!

The Chinese need to start buying the stuff they produce (and the stuff the west produce, other than low quality debt ). Until that happens both they and we will not be in a good position.

[Gone baby gone]

Hmmm if we work harder to produce tat are the Chinese going to buy it? Or are the Chinese people hoarding because there is no welfare state in China and they fear spending money because there is no safety net?

The Chinese don't even buy their own stuff, never mind ours, and therein lies the problem.

[Milton]

Wont the kind of Human Rights abuses and suicidally inducing slave driving conditions China is renowned for, lead directly to another 'Peoples Revolution?'

Where Mao, the greatest mass murderer in world history massacred over 50 million in just a few months?

And the Chinese people still do not know about it. The suppression of the worlds worst genocide carried out by the state, cannot be healthy for any nation. Or the World.

Never mind one that was carried out against its own people.

And the present totalitarian government is the direct descendant of Mao's.

Following an economic collapse, civil war would seem like one possibility.

Very Scary place if you ask me.

And of course all Western governments are happy to remain complicit.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Milton

[Nationalist]

Innovative?

He's a cheeky little Chinaman. They don't innovate - they copy us! They have a culture that suppresses individuality. You invent something in China and you're a bad person. Tall poppies get culled.

I mean, they invented gunpowder a thousand years ago. What do they they do with it? Fireworks!

We discover gunpowder a few hundred years ago - next thing, Gatling gun!

They invent printing press... then... nothing.

We invent printing press... billions of books, newspapers, magazines,even computers are descendants of the printing press.

Only fools and horses and Chinese coolies, Mr Jin.

[yellerkat]

Innovative?

He's a cheeky little Chinaman. They don't innovate - they copy us! They have a culture that suppresses individuality. You invent something in China and you're a bad person. Tall poppies get culled.

I mean, they invented gunpowder a thousand years ago. What do they they do with it? Fireworks!

We discover gunpowder a few hundred years ago - next thing, Gatling gun!

They invent printing press... then... nothing.

We invent printing press... billions of books, newspapers, magazines,even computers are descendants of the printing press.

Only fools and horses and Chinese coolies, Mr Jin.

It's precisely this grotesque sense of cultural superiority and entitlement that will seal our doom.

[Krackersdave]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8837768/Britons-are-lazy-and-addicted-to-benefits-China-claims.html

Everyone work harder for your masters, bitches! Reduce wages and work in a sweatshop for demand that isn't there!

What's the problem Mr Jin, concerned we might have lent money to people who ain't gonna pay it back?

I'm sorry but are we seriously to believe this Mr Jin has EVER worked hard in his life?

There's a special place in hell for the Mr Jin's of the world.

[Guest_FaFa!_*]

They invent printing press... then... nothing.

I'm no Sinophile, but that's utter nonsense. Chinese cultural output is vast and until the complacency set in with the Manchus, Chinese inventions were world leading. Just because you are ignorant of Chinese history and culture doesn't mean that it doesn't exist

[Gone baby gone]

I'm no Sinophile, but that's utter nonsense. Chinese cultural output is vast and until the complacency set in with the Manchus, Chinese inventions were world leading. Just because you are ignorant of Chinese history and culture doesn't mean that it doesn't exist

They did invent the first paper currency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote#Development_in_China

Maybe they've been planning this crash for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggg time

[yellerkat]

I'm no Sinophile, but that's utter nonsense. Chinese cultural output is vast and until the complacency set in with the Manchus, Chinese inventions were world leading. Just because you are ignorant of Chinese history and culture doesn't mean that it doesn't exist

Quite. It was only the destruction of the Indian and Chinese economies at the point of a gun less than 200 years ago that led to temporary "Western" supremacy.

[Krackersdave]

I'm no Sinophile, but that's utter nonsense. Chinese cultural output is vast and until the complacency set in with the Manchus, Chinese inventions were world leading. Just because you are ignorant of Chinese history and culture doesn't mean that it doesn't exist

All big empires fall the same way - complacency and arrogance - China ignored the outside world, tried to lock out the hairy barbarians and hold back time to preserve what it's ruling class saw as the pinacle of humanity - themselves of course. A place for everything and everything in it's place for all eternity.

Problem is, things change......

As for Chinese cultural output - I have to admit I'm ignorant on that (Jackie Chan movies probably don't count). But I'd assume the same general stagnation in culture as in science, anything new was crushed or stamped out for centuries.

[Nationalist]

Quite. It was only the destruction of the Indian and Chinese economies at the point of a gun less than 200 years ago that led to temporary "Western" supremacy.

Yes, but they had guns first!

They could have been all over us. But instead they decided to spend most of their time growing rice.

I've worked with Chinese people. Their fear of losing face is so extreme it precludes any risk-taking or innovation. They cannot take criticism constructively.

Does anyone really think if Tim Berners-Lee had been born in China the web would have started in China and grown out across the world from there? No, of course not. He would have been told to stop messing about and go back to the paddy fields.

[TwoWolves]

It's precisely this grotesque sense of cultural superiority and entitlement that will seal our doom.

While I agree with the thrust of what you are saying, the comment by "Nationalist" has quite a lot of truth in it too. Modern China is a post-communist shadow of its imperial glory.

They did invent the first paper currency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote#Development_in_China

Maybe they've been planning this crash for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggg time

Historically every paper currency in China has ended in an inflationary collapse. Looks to me like its heading the same way now.

Quite. It was only the destruction of the Indian and Chinese economies at the point of a gun less than 200 years ago that led to temporary "Western" supremacy.

Its this sort left-wing ignorant posturing which is hastening the destruction of the west. The Indian economy was already crippled by Persian and Mughal rule and China was bloated with corruption and civil war when the west turned-up. Seems that the roles have now only reversed, a situation which is likely to be eternally in flux.

['Bart']

I mean, they invented gunpowder a thousand years ago. What do they they do with it? Fireworks!

We discover gunpowder a few hundred years ago - next thing, Gatling gun!

They invent printing press... then... nothing.

We invent printing press... billions of books, newspapers, magazines,even computers are descendants of the printing press.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztr7TOWKzXs

4 minutes in. A viewpoint on why change didn't occur in China like it did in the West (and by implication why this may no longer be true).

[PopGun]

Oh dear, Mr Jin is another industrialist who conveniently ignores the modern day perils of over production.

I’ll say it again, expectation and entitlement isn’t some rogue malignant western gene. It’s manifested and determined by your current surroundings, until reality hits home. Moan at and name call us all you want Mr Jin, you’ll have a few billion problems closer to home to worry about instead soon enough.

[PopGun]

Its this sort left-wing ignorant posturing which is hastening the destruction of the west. The Indian economy was already crippled by Persian and Mughal rule and China was bloated with corruption and civil war when the west turned-up. Seems that the roles have now only reversed, a situation which is likely to be eternally in flux.

+1

[Guest_FaFa!_*]

I'm sorry but are we seriously to believe this Mr Jin has EVER worked hard in his life?

There's a special place in hell for the Mr Jin's of the world.

Picking peanuts out of pooh, to get where Mr Jin is he would have had to have worked very hard. First he'll have had to pass some eye-wateringly competitive and difficult exams and then he'll have had to work very hard kissing **** to get his position. But there is, as you say, a special place in hell for him.

As for Chinese cultural output - I have to admit I'm ignorant on that (Jackie Chan movies probably don't count). But I'd assume the same general stagnation in culture as in science, anything new was crushed or stamped out for centuries.

Not really stamped out. My understanding is that it died of neglect through neo-Confucianism, which counted getting into the bureaucracy as the pinnacle of achievement in life. Failing that if you were a decent poet you could also get some face. So anyone in China with half a brain pursued those avenues rather than scientific discovery.

Its this sort left-wing ignorant posturing which is hastening the destruction of the west. The Indian economy was already crippled by Persian and Mughal rule and China was bloated with corruption and civil war when the west turned-up. Seems that the roles have now only reversed, a situation which is likely to be eternally in flux.

Indeed. We did not become dominant by crushing India and China - we were able to crush India and China because we were already dominant. And frankly, I doubt that the average person on the street in India and China spotted much of a difference in being ruled by the Brits or the local corrupt idiots. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Edited October 20, 2011 by FaFa!

[Britney's Piers]

The Chinese need to start buying the stuff they produce (and the stuff the west produce, other than low quality debt ). Until that happens both they and we will not be in a good position.

This will happen in time. They are working to a 50 year plan which was initiated in the 1980s but I think they are well ahead of schedule and didn't forsee exactly how willing the west were to bankrupt themselves. They know they can't keep hoarding forex forever. This is the advantage of a communist government over a democratic one, since it enables long range planning, instead of chopping and changing every few years. Chinese leadership act in the interests of China, the leadership of Europe and America seems to be suicidal.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Britney's Piers