An almost identically named article from Reuters talked about the gains coffee is making in China, not only in the amount of coffee consumed, but the production of coffee beans as well. Chinese homes are increasingly drinking coffee (albeit overwhelmingly instant in the home) and Chinese coffee producers are a strengthening presence in the world coffee trade.
I have talked about the coffee culture in China before, but I was very interested in what this article had to say about China's coffee production. Though only briefly, they did hint toward the same conclusions I see for China's coffee beans.
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What is going on with education in China's countryside? Since I live and work here, I thought I would make a few comments on a very interesting article I just read on the Washington Post's website.
Western nations' governments, researchers, and reporters often blast China for this and that policy. And clear statistics of the illiteracy rate among China's massive rural population is of great concern for the Chinese government. In this matter, though, there are a great many factors at play. This is not a matter that more money or better drafted government resolutions are going to solve. I would say the biggest factor is cultural.
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I just found out that what I have been talking about the past few months—providing a more direct route from rural sellers to end buyer and giving an honest wage to the farmer or initial producer who does most of the hard work—is actually a hot topic in the world of global trade and development these days, especially for consumable, specialty products like coffee and tea. So, I want to give myself a big welcome to the world of "fair trade" products.
I have been heading there for some time, but only now find out the name of this brave new world. The object of fair trade goods is to assure that the farmer receives an acceptable wage for the goods produced. Sounds reasonable, right? The problem is that for years, especially with products in such high demand as coffee, the big companies (most of them are not even names you would necessarily associate with coffee) have managed to starve farmers, provide end customers with stale product, and make their billions.
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In his 1996 book The Saints Among Us, George Gallup, Jr., the famous poll-taker, said this:
In other studies we have done, such as financial giving, we found that the poor give a larger proportion of their invome to charity than the rich. Being surrounded by misery, they see opportunities to help on every side. The rich, especially now, with the widening gap between rich and poor, have a tendency to cordon themselves off and therefore don't see much of the grimness of life.
The key to his comments, I think, is the isolation the rich maintain. Nobody quite understands why New Frontier Consulting does what it does, focusing business in areas where the profits are not as healthy as bigger cities. One reason (among many) for our decision comes out in Gallup's comments here.
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I enjoy comparing the rates of English teachers in the city and those of teachers in smaller towns here in China. I really think it says a lot about not only how much money people have on hand, but how much their felt needs are worth to them.
In the city, foreign English teachers can pull a premium price, even when their mother tongue is not English at all. In a more rural-based town, rarely can you find a foreigner that can sustain an English teaching position. What can we learn from these two situations? Well, not that I am in a position to preach on the topic, but here are some of my thoughts these past few days.
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What would happen if one of China's biggest manufacturing bases, Guangzhou, put a cap on the number of migrant workers allowed to live and work in its factories? That might soon happen. With few exceptions, people from these areas of Guangxi and Guizhou Provinces swarm to Guangzhou looking for work and opportunity.
It would most certainly affect Guangzhou businesses, factories, and, I would imagine, the pricing of entire industries worldwide (considering the amazing number of products produced there). Not being so suiting to speak to such high and glorious issues, I will focus my thoughts on the effects such a move would have on the migrants themselves and their home economies.
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What is the market like in China's second and third-tier cities? Companies are scurrying to jump into the China fray, but many completely miss the opportunities for their products and services which lie inland.
International News sources balk so much about the income gap in China that many foreign companies assume any Chinese city they have never heard most likely does not even have running water, much less the ability to buy foreign goods. To those companies who do not have the insight to truly evaluate the China market and the opportunities lying in wait, fine. Smarter companies who know what they are doing will make a killing on the second and third-tier cities while the losers try to edge their way in to an already blanketed market in China's famous, coastal cities.
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I wrote a few days ago about simple ways technology can greatly improve farmers' everyday lives. The China Daily article I had read mentioned a couple national Agriculture Bureau sites, but I wanted to take a look at the more local sites that farmers in my local area would be able to take advantage of.
I wanted to get a quick look at Liuzhou's Agriculture Bureau website, but it was something like the one afternoon I had many moons ago to take a quick look at the Lourve Museum. There is nothing quick about it. It has loads of information, so I decided to find what I could about the area tea business.
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China is striving to provide tuition-free schooling for children through middle school. This is all a part of the "new socialist countryside" they aim to create. Whatever they call it, it is a good move, but some questions still remain.
Tuition is not the only money students need to pay; they have additional costs that go along with schooling. Plus, many of the rural students must be boarded since schools, especially schools beyond primary level, are far from home villages. And, as it relates to this blog, this move for free tuition will have dramatic affects on the rural economy.
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It looks like the Chinese government is giddy to technologically advance the countryside, but from the sound of it, all they have is more flowery language to throw at the idea. Sure, I am all for using technology to aid China's farmers, but all I see is another speech from the government that is all show.
In the past week, I have seen both good and bad articles in China Daily about development in China's rural areas, one which would most likely exploit China's minority cultures and another using simple technology to bring great benefits to farmers. It seems to be a week for China's farmers in the news, with China's Vice Minister for the Information Industry jumping in to give the world his two cents.
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How does Guangxi and its booming city of Liuzhou compare with other Chinese cities and regions in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the ability of residents to afford products and services?
For foreign businesses looking to invest in China and trying to find the most suitable region and city for that investment, market opportunity and costs of running a business are obviously going to be the most important factors in any enterprise, and those differ widely from city to city in China.
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Yes, I know that is contradictory. And so are the reports. It is a bit hard to figure out what is happening to China's farmers if all you read is reports. The best thing I know to do is evaluate what I am seeing from my point of view working here in an agriculturally-based town in Southwest China.
Sure, first hand accounts can be deceiving because I am only one person. My statistics may not be as accurate as the World Bank or the Chinese government, but much of the time, more usable information can be drawn from experience than can from numbers. So, what is really happening with China's farmers' incomes?
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To start off on the right foot, I do not presume to know everything there is to know about solving great and grand issues like the gap between rich and poor in China. That should not stop us from delving into some of the possible solutions, though.
First, I would like to make a comment on some of the source of the problem. Many people cry out, "the gap is widening!" Well, sure it is. As Benjamin Franklin noted and we have all seen played out in life, "after getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy to get the second." It is only natural that the Chinese middle class are developing (i.e. become richer) faster than their rural counterparts. "It takes money to make money."
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Tourism or electric power? That is the struggle between residents and officials in the public in Guizhou Province's Xingyi City. The government wants to build a hydroelectric power station that would put scenic spots under water. I cannot say this is the first time I have heard this issue come up.
It is a tough issue, really. Not building a dam preserves the current scenic beauty which brings in tourist money, and building the dam provides tax revenue of around $14 million Chinese yuan (USD 1.7 million) per year. Actually, come to think of it, that sounds like more of an ethical issue than anything else. Those who have the power to say if the dam is built are also the same ones who would profit from the building of the dam.
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I stopped keeping track of foreigners who asked me about starting a cafe, restaurant, coffee shop, or some such food place in China. More and more foreigners are interested in staying in China on a long term basis, and somehow they keep coming up with the same idea for business.
Some foreigners (that is, foreign to China) have a very good idea of what they are doing and are very focused on making their cafe or restaurant make money. Many others are not so focused and are naïve to the costs involved in running a restaurant. It is all about location and market.
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The United States has now topped a population of 300 million people. The news has been full of talk about America's resources, immigration, and changing demographics. The reliably sensational news sources have been reporting these issues out of the proper context.
A couple days ago, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed CNN's Lou Dobbs, the author of War on the Middle Class. Mr. Dobbs postulated the future of the United States, feeding a greater number of people, and the use of our precious resources. When compared to China, though, many of his arguments seem much less pressing.
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The story is as old as China's development surge. Migrant workers from the countryside move into the big cities to find work, but leave their children behind with grandparents or relatives.
The Deputy director of the China Youth Research Center, Sun Xiaoyun, gave her "solution" to the problem in a China Daily article: "If kids can go out [to the cities to work] with their parents together, many problems will disappear." I sit silent, dumbfounded by such lack of insight.
Of course! But stating generalized, unrealistic, shallow solutions is not going to do anything to actually solve the problem. Moving to understand these problems on a deeper level and come to much more workable conclusions does not take much work. At the very least, we should ask the right questions. Do these rural workers want to leave their children behind? Do they want to travel to some unknown area to toil for meagre wages in hopes of helping their family survive? If not, then why do they?
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Chinese news organizations have reported that the income gap within Chinese cities has grown greater than that between the city and the countryside. I find that a strange fact. What is really going on behind the numbers?
Who are the people in that bottom tier in the city? Workers from the countryside, of course. And when the the gap between the city and rural areas is figured, do they use an average income for the city for those calculations? If so, the low incomes of countryside workers in the cities bring down the higher salaries in the average, and that average is compared with the salaries of the countryside workers who remain in the countryside. That was a breath full. Simply: there is very little new information here.
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It is amazing that something so small could affect so many people. At first glance, a government redefining the poverty line seems like another bureaucratic dance, but when the dance is over, that will be the line between who receives poverty relief and who does not.
In a country like China, with hundreds of millions of people in the countryside, the poverty line becomes quite important. The Chinese government is talking about reevaluating where that line is drawn.
Right now, they have it listed at $85 per year, and if they raised that to the international standard of $365 per year ($1/day…easy to remember!), they calculate that another 100 million Chinese would qualify for poverty aid.
That makes a lot of difference! China’s booming economy has forced them to rethink just about everything, and many feel it is time to rethink what can be done for those who have fallen behind the production of the big cities.
Napolean is quoted as saying, when China awakes “the world will tremble.” The West roused her from a deep sleep in the 1800s and she seemed to begin to rise, only to hit the snooze button again.
China is awake now. That much is clear. We can hardly pick up a child’s toy or household item without reading “Made in China.” They have been very busy the past 15 years.
China was the new frontier, but I would hardly call Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing a frontier now. Even the “small” cities like Liuzhou where we are based, are developing and building in a way that blows the mind of this small town boy. In stark contrast stands the Chinese countryside, hundreds of millions of farmers locked in China of yester-year.
What resources does the countryside have to offer? What part do they play in China’s booming economy? How can balance be achieved between the rich cities and the subsistance farming of the rural areas?
That is what New Frontier China is all about: bridging that gap.
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