China's Telecom shake-up advances with mergers

Washington Post,June 3,2008 on page D8: The moves were expected as part of a government-mandated shake-up of China's telecommunications sector and called for six telecom firms to combine into three groups in a bid to create a more competitive industry and prevent a dominant operator from monopolizing the market.

At the Congressional hearing today,it is reported that speculation made gas price up about 25% but there is no law against such speculation. Well,American motorists have to pay more and more...in a free society.(sic) Free to make more profits at the expense of ordinary Americans. CEOs go overseas for making more profits as well. No American laws can be applied to international businesses in the name of globalization in the 21st century.

Competition is the essence and substance in economics in USA and in China. Let us watch the developments in the days to come for competition.

China is doing rapidly and dramatically in the 21st century and is going to play an important role in global economics in the days to come.

The following works are to be noted for readers to be aware of the tremendous impact of China's part in globalization.

1. "The End of Poverty" by Jeffry Sachs.
2. "China, Inc." by Ted Fishman.
3. "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.

Elasticity is significant in the economic concept because it determines the effects of price on supply and demand. It is published in media lately that some Americans go overseas for surgery due to low cost of hospitalization and MD's charges.

Some goods are essential to consumers and are inelastic to human esistence per se.

Gas is a necessity in USA to go to work,school, run errants, but bikes may replace cars as the mode of transportation in China. It is obvious that the lifestyles do vary in USA and in China.

When I came to the University of San Francisco in 1947 as an alumnus of St. John's University in Shanghai,I happened to read Insight Guides of SHANGHAI citing my alma mater on page 190. Alumni of St. John's University occupied the highest echelons in China such as the former President Mr. Yan in Taiwan and the former Vice President Ron in China. That is why the nickname of St. John's University is Harvard of China. It is interestng to note that it was the only university in China that all lectures for all courses were given in English under the tradition of rules and regulations of an American university. My diploma was printed in English as well and I still keep the copy of my diploma in English as a token of remembrance in the first part of the 20th century.

When I was in San Francisco in 1947-48,I learned the gold rush with names of John Sutter and James Marshall plus Sam Brannan. Moreover,I discovered "Chop Suey" (i.e. Za-sui in Pin Yin meaning mixed broken pieces) to name such Chinese food but it is the hodge podge(mess) during the gold rush: the hungry workers went to a Chinese restaurant,and the cook served all the mixed food but the workers named "chop Suey" as they only knew for the name of Chinese food. How pitiful,(kelian)naive(tianzhen) and interesting(youxingqu)! That is the history,however.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao, an octogenarian grad student from China in 1947 with focus on Sino-American economics for readers' benefits at www.Blogger.com. June 3, 2008 at 2 p.m.