Thread: Get ready for a rough ride from world recession, Chinese Pre

From The Times
December 1, 2008

Get ready for a rough ride from world recession, Chinese President tells party

Jane Macartney in Beijing

The Chinese President has issued a rare warning to the ruling Communist Party, telling his officials that the global economic downturn is so severe that it could shake its 59-year grip on power.

President Hu Jintao's remarks, at a weekend meeting of the ruling 25-member Politburo, appeared on the front page of the party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily. It was his bluntest message yet delivered on the crisis to China's 1.3 billion people and more than 70 million members of the party.

The subtext of his speech was the increasing risk of social unrest caused by China's rising unemployment, as a slump in exports leads to factory closures and a fall in property sales results in abandoned construction projects.

The President, who is also the head of the Communist Party, said: “In this coming period, we will starkly confront the effects of the sustained deepening of the international financial crisis and pressure as global economic growth clearly slows.â€

Knowing that China can no longer rely on exports, the Government is eager to boost the domestic consumer demand that was a major engine of growth in the 1990s. A nationwide rebate scheme to encourage rural residents to buy more refrigerators, washing machines, colour televisions and other domestic appliances will be expanded to 14 provinces from today and nationwide from February.

It takes a balance......we can't run on consumerism alone either.

Let me get this straight - the boneheads in charge of our country are planning on borrowing from China to fix our economy and now the Chinese are saying their economy is in trouble? Ain't globalization grand?

STOP THE INSANITY!!!