Chinese Disputes Over Claimed Territorial Waters is a Future Wake Up Call

There are many academics who believe that China's recent aggressive international behavior towards Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and even the US Navy off their coasts is nothing to be concerned with, and that the US would do the same thing if there were incursions off our own coasts. Indeed, we would if there were incursions of pirates or drug smugglers. And realize we also only share our territorial waters with a few nations such as Mexico, Canada, and a few Caribbean Nation Islands.

Interestingly enough, we seem to be getting along fine unlike all the tensions off the coasts of China. There was an interesting paper put out by the Rand Think Tank not too long ago which insisted that China's international behavior was one of peace, not imperialistic visions of granger or strategies of world domination, however, I have a hard time buying into that academic fantasy based on actual events, and observations.

Not buying it for one-second.

In fact, with regards to issues in Tibet, territorial disputes with India, military conflict in Burma and the selling of weapons to Iran, Taliban, rogue governments of Africa, and to Iraq under Saddam - and the recent Japanese fishing boat incident, political rhetoric over Taiwan, and the many US Navy incursions, and displeasure of the US organization of all ASEAN nations, including challenges to friendly peaceful war games - I ask how could anyone buy into the logic that China's military ambitions are peaceful.

You see, there is simply no evidence for that.

And all this is above and beyond the "trade war" which China believes itself to be having with the USA, over such innocuous things as frozen chickens, subsidized steel, rare-earth elements - or its claim to water rights with bordering nations, or its theft of intellectual property. And we need not mention its ICBM anti-ship missiles, beyond horizon radars, spy satellites, or impeding sanctions and solutions to the Iranian or North Korean nuclear weapons programs.

No, I am not buying it.

And with that said, maybe none of us should buy into this nonsense or a peaceful China motif, in fact, maybe none of us should be buying anything from China at all when we can help it. Why? Because that's how many Chinese feel about US products, and perhaps that's why the trade between our two nations is so obviously lopsided and manipulated on their end.

No, I am not against China, rather I am marveling at their economic success, mostly because we funded it - it has been one impressive ride, but let's not be taken for a ride at our expense. I think China is a great nation with great potential, I just wish it would act and behave like it on the international trade front. Please consider this.

Ref.

1.) Wall Street Journal Article; "U.S., Allies Take Firmer Stance on China - Asean Seeks Stronger Positions on Territorial Disputes Amid Concern Over Beijing's Growth and Rising Military Powers," by Jeremy Page, Patrick Barta, and Jay Solomon, published on September 23, 2010.

2.) Wall Street Journal Article; "Beijing Discourages Japan Travel," by Hiroyuki Kachi - published on September 23, 2010.

3.) Wall Street Journal Article, "Business Sours on China - Foreign Executives Say Beijing Creates Fresh Barriers, Broadsides Patent Rules," by Andrew Browne and Jason Dean, March 27, 2010.

4.) Wall Street Journal Article, Editorial, "Farewell to America's China Station," by Mark Helprin,

5.) Wall Street Journal Article, "China Urges Restraint in Korean Crisis," by Evan Ramstad.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes some times it makes sense to use one of the phone companies and stay in contact with your trading partners, rather than engaging in trade wars or disputes.

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Chinese In The United States

According to historical linguists, Sino-Tibetan Chinese is more like a language family than a single language made up of a number of regional dialects. However, Chinese people often prefer to use the generic term Chinese when collectively referring to the various languages used in the country. This entry will adhere to that convention except as otherwise noted.

Usually, the Chinese language can be disaggregated into seven major dialect groups, called Fangyan: Mandarin, Wu, Gan, Xiang, Hakka, Yue, and Min. The northern varieties of Chinese are known as the Mandarin dialects. These dialects are spoken by more than two thirds of the Chinese people. Almost all of the Mandarin dialects are mutually intelligible.

Cantonese, which is widely used in Hong Kong and the Guangdong province, falls under the Yue dialect group. In 1956, Mandarin Chinese was adopted as the official language of the People's Republic of China (PRC). After the founding of the PRC in 1949, the country faced the problem of a very low literacy rate. To eliminate mass illiteracy, the government actively supported the simplification of Chinese traditional characters. Currently, simplified Chinese characters have been adopted in the PRC and Singapore, although in Taiwan, traditional characters are still widely used.

In Chinese instruction overseas, both traditional and simplified Chinese characters are taught, depending on whether the textbooks were published in Taiwan or the PRC. The Chinese people and their various languages have a long history in the United States. According to the decennial census, conducted in April 2000, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States exceeded 2 million persons, thus making up 0.8% of the total population.

This group has been growing rapidly and constitutes a significant ethnic and linguistic group. Many of the children of recent immigrants, especially in New York and California, participate in bilingual education programs. The history of Chinese immigration to the United States occurred in three major waves. The first wave of immigration started in the mid-19th century but was stopped by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This U.S. federal law arose from fears that too many Chinese immigrants would somehow damage the fabric of American culture.

Public sentiment against Chinese immigrants of the times was similar to what is now being expressed against Spanish-speaking immigrants, especially Mexicans. A large proportion of Chinese immigrants from the first wave were poor peasants from Guangdong Province (Canton). Most of them spoke Cantonese. The second wave of immigration started in the mid-20th century but decreased during the 1970s. This group of immigrants included anti-Communists from mainland China, bureaucrats, businessmen, and intellectuals, as well as some professionals from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

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Chinese Disputes Over Territorial Waters - More to Follow Predicted

My how things in just a few years, especially in Asia - why I can remember the RAND Think Tank putting out a really nice piece (nearly 300 page report) on China's International Behavior, assuring us that China was no threat to the rest of the world. Still, when I look deeper we see RAND is sponsored by various groups one of which, I truly believe is somewhat white-washing reality to propel a different sort of agenda, of which I don't fully understand.

Now then, if you will recall just a couple of years ago Japan basically told the US to pack up our stuff and move our military base there, downsize and put a little satellite base there, downsize and put a little satellite base out of the way. Remember the big uproar, it was a major campaign issue, and the Japanese voters threw out the old guard and took over the country in a political firestorm.

Now, it seems so much has changed with regards to all our best predictions of US Relations with Japan and China, in so many ways. For instance, we see China is not assisting (debated - but certainly not very hard) in the North Korea dispute to disarm their nuclear weapons, which I suppose could be expected, after all where do you think North Korea got that technology in the first place, and seriously, I do ask the reader not to give me that story about the world infamous Pakistani scientist and proliferator giving North Korea that technology.

We also find China selling advanced defense systems to Iran, trading weapons for oil to (what could be considered) illegitimate African Nation regimes. Challenging its neighbors for territorial waters (there have been many incidents between the US, Taiwan, Japan in the last couple of years), and while making "air craft carrier killer anti-ship ICBM like missiles. Surely, you recall the harassment of a US warship in the straits of Taiwan, the issues in the Sea of Japan with fishing vessels, and the Taiwan-China spats leading to further challenges in international diplomacy. And well, who can forget the P-3 incident which led to a stale-mate and increased international tensions between the US and China.

We see China building bases and sea ports along all the sea cargo corridors and straits, which seems to be more than just about trade cargo security of its fleets of cargo vessels in many cases, and more about strategic military-sea choke points (yes, one could debate that either way, but I see a pattern here). Consider if you will in the future, that is to say, once the anti-ship missiles go into those locations, and the radar systems (portable or fixed). You see, in my view, we will all know that the academics and politicians who don't know or understand China's good ole' boy communist leadership faction will have been shown wrong at that point.

However, I predict this within the next 24-months. Seriously people, let's not be so nave, consider these potential eventual realities. I am not trying to scare anyone here, but let's really look at the patterns of behavior and not be so quick to write off our observations for a few academic papers, a Rand Think Tank Report, or some wishful thinking. The trade winds are blowing, the trade wars are going, and the future is coming.

Like I said; "Chinese and Japanese Spat Over Territorial Waters Reminds Me of a Bully in Junior High." Hmm, but the China we know as an adolescent is growing up now, what will it be like in its high-testosterone 20's? Maybe it might be prudent to consider a little tough-love, draw some lines and boundaries of what is and what is not appropriate behavior in the world.

It's of course, always good to form your own opinion on threat assessments, don't just take my word for it, or adopt my views and opinions based on years of observations and studies. Do your own research, and with that -I offer some of the following for you to review and then I hope you will please think on this.

Now then, I recommend that you read some of the recent articles in the Wall Street Journal to see how the tension has been ramping up lately
- - - - - - - -
References:

1.) Sean Chen, John Feffer, " CHINA'S MILITARY SPENDING: SOFT RISE OR HARD THREAT?" published in ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2009, pp. 47-67.
2.) Stephen Daggett, " Quadrennial Defense Review 2010: Overview and Implications for National Security Planning," Congressional Research Service, May 17, 2010.
3.) "China's International Behavior - Activism, Opportunism, and Diversification," by Medeiros, Evan S. and Rand Project Air Force, Arlington VA, Published by RAND Think Tank, 2009, pp. 280, Accession Number: ADA508156 - ISBN 978-0-8330-4709-0.
4.) "Red Dragon Rising - Communist China's Military Threat to America," by Edward Timberlake & William C Triplett II, Regnery Publications division of Eagle Publishing, Washington DC, 1999, pp. 271, ISBN: 0-89526-258-4.
5.) "China - the Gathering Threat," by Constantine C Mengers, PhD, Nelson Current division of Nelson Communication, Nashville TN, 2005, ISBN: 1-5955-5005-4, pp. 567.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

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Learning Chinese - A Few Thoughts on Mandarin and Pinyin

The official language of mainland China and Taiwan is usually referred to as Mandarin in the Western world. The Chinese however, depending on the country or region you are in, use different expressions to refer to Mandarin. Literally translated from Chinese, they call it common speech, Han language, national language or just plain "Chinese (language)."

Keep in mind that China is a vast country with about eight major dialect groups, not counting the languages spoken by the different ethnic minority groups. While the majority of Chinese can speak Mandarin, their accents will differ greatly, reflecting their local dialect and making comprehension difficult at times. It is generally acknowledged that the correct Mandarin pronunciation can be heard in and around the capital Beijing.

Another characteristic of the arguably correctly pronounced Mandarin is the rolling 'r' which gets added to the end of a lot of words and expressions. Again, this is the typical Mandarin you will hear in the Beijing region. A more common and also correct pronunciation of Mandarin is spoken in Shanghai and Taiwan.

To a Westerner, the hardest and trickiest part in learning Chinese is mastering the tones. The example that comes to mind is the word "ma." This word means mother in most western languages. To a Chinese-speaking person, depending on the tone, this word might mean mother, to scold, horse, hemp or just an interrogative particle.

That is why audio lessons play a very important role in learning Chinese. It is vital to have a good Chinese learning software program that includes audio lessons if you want to learn Mandarin through self-study.

Another extra hurdle to take for a Westerners is reading Chinese. Their written language consists of pictographs. Luckily, the Chinese government adopted a romanization system for their writing language, commonly named Pinyin. Its counterpart in Taiwan is a phonetic system called bopomofo. A student learning Chinese will have to master one of these phonetic writing systems before he or she can begin to read Chinese without being able to read the characters or pictographs.

The good news is that it is much easier to learn how to read and write Pinyin or bopomofo than to learn how to read or write the traditional characters. Unfortunately, different types of romanization systems have been used in the past and you will still find a lot of street signs on the mainland and in Taiwan which do not conform to standard Pinyin. A good example is Peking which in proper Pinyin became Beijing.

So for those of you interested in studying Chinese at home I would recommend you invest in some good Chinese learning software that teaches you proper Pinyin and offers relevant audio lessons.

If you're looking to learn Chinese and don't know where to start, or just want to start to learn for whatever reason, why not take a look at http://chineselearningsoftware.net.

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Landmark Judgement for Starbucks in Chinese IPR Case

The protection of intellectual property in china has long been high on the list of concerns for innovative foreign companies looking to do business there. What little legal framework existed around intellectual property rights (IPR) has been difficult and time-consuming to enforce. There are signs, however, that the situation may be improving for companies which use trademarks, logos and branding in the People's Republic.

In a recent case, newly amended Chinese trademark legislation was put to the test when the American speciality coffee retailer Starbucks accused a local Shanghai company of copying their trading name and logo.

Starbucks opened its first Shanghai outlet on Huaihai Road on May 4, 2000, building on the success of its dozens of stores across Taiwan and the rest of mainland China. Shortly prior to this opening, a local company had registered its own business name - Xingbake Coffee Co. Ltd. - with the Shanghai authorities. By 2003, the Chinese firm had opened two outlets in Shanghai using the trade name 'Xingbake'.

The legal dispute between Starbucks and their local competitor arose because 'xing' translates from Mandarin as 'star' and 'ba-ke' is an approximate phonetic rendition of 'bucks'. Although Starbucks does not officially use this rough translation in China, the word 'Xingbake' has become synonymous with the US firm's outlets amongst the public.

Starbucks considered that, by trading under a similar name and by the use of a very similar green and white logo, Shanghai Xingbake was competing unfairly. On this basis, Starbucks filed a law suit against Xingbake in Shanghai on December 23, 2003, alleging trademark infringement.

In reply to the accusation, Mao Yibo, General Manager of Xingbake, said that his company has registered its enterprise name with the Shanghai authorities in March 2000, before Starbucks was established in the region. By using the name 'Xingbake', he claimed that his company was simply using its legitimate title instead of a trademark.

Mao denied that the name of his company and its logo had been influenced by their Seattle-based rival. "We invented 'Xingbake' as our brand when we planned to start a café business in Shanghai and it is just a coincidence that our name is the same with Chinese version of Starbuck [sic]", he said. "The logo was designed by our own staff. To be frank, I hadn't heard of Starbucks at the time, so how could I imitate its brand or logo?"

Chen Naiwei, director of the Intellectual Property Research Centre of Shanghai's Jiaotong University does not accept this, explaining that 'Xingbake' has been used as the sole translation of 'Starbucks' in Taiwan since 1998. This predates the registration of Xingbake's enterprise name in Shanghai by two years.

Despite Mao Yibo's claims and his further assertions that Xingbake's serving style and target market differ substantially from those of Starbucks, Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court found in favour of the American giant on December 31, 2005 - two years after the law suit was filed.

Shanghai Xingbake was ordered to stop using its name, issue an apology in a local newspaper and pay 500,000 Yuan (US$62,000) in compensation to Starbucks.

The basis of the Court's decision was the relatively newly amended Trademark Laws of the People's Republic of China, which came into force on October 27, 2001. The amendments form part of a raft of revised legislation introduced to protect the owners of intellectual property in China. Under the new laws, the Court determined that the name 'Starbucks', written in Chinese or English, was sufficiently well known to be deemed a famous trademark and was, therefore, entitled to protection.

This ruling is the first of its kind under the new legislation and may be an indication that China is responding to pressure from the European Union and the United States to crack down on IPR infringements and counterfeiting. China is believed to be the source of around 70% of the world's pirated goods at a cost of around US$250bn each year to US companies alone.

In a statement released on January 18, Jiang Zian, the attorney for Shanghai Xingbake confirmed that the company had already begun an appeal against the judgement in the Shanghai Higher People's Court. Jiang explained that Xingbake does not use the English translation 'Starbucks' and had no plans to counter claim against their competitor for using the same Chinese name. "The problem is they use Xingbake as the brand name in Chinese and we use it as our company name. We just want to keep our company name and run our own business", Jiang said. A spokesperson for Starbucks later confirmed that it would be defending itself against the appeal.

Starbucks now has 156 outlets in mainland China and has a presence close to some of the country's most iconic locations, including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. At up to US$6 per cup, the company's coffee costs more than the average Chinese worker makes in a day. Despite this, Starbucks coffee is increasingly popular with China's emerging urban middle class.

About the author Thomas Moore is Director of Computer Forensics for TKM Technologies Ltd. – a UK firm providing computer forensics and data recovery services to corporate clients in Europe, South-East Asia and the US.

Thomas is a professionally accredited member of the British Computer Society and the Expert Witness Institute.

Through the firm's website at [http://www.tkmtechnologies.com] he helps companies to identify and fulfil the need for computer forensics.

Thomas can be contacted by e-mail to thomas@tkmtechnologies.com or by phone on +44 (0)1773 770 267.

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Chinese Rise to Military Dominance Continues

China is progressing very well with its goals to have the strongest military in the world, which kind of freaks out many military analysts in the United States, because, the USA would protect China if anyone would attack them, which no one would dare. So, why is China gearing up such a strong military, can it be that they wish to challenge the United States someday or show their superior power to prevent anyone from interfering with their long-term (well, maybe not too long-term) strategy for the re-unification of Taiwan?

After all, amongst the stated goals of China's supreme leader, they wish to develop high speed intelligent torpedoes, but why? Are they planning on targeting US warships or challenging them on the high seas, or within their regional seas? Could be say some, as they are also looking into Stealthy Submarines and Long Range High Accuracy Missiles. And China makes no qualms about wanting to build a better and stronger Navy to fight in regional Sea Wars.

In fact, if you look closely the ancient Treasure Fleet, sails again and soon the Chinese will once again have more ships in their Navy than any other nation on the planet. And considering their nuclear submarines, well, one could hardly deny that they are well on their way. The Chinese rise to military dominance continues and indeed, it is merely a matter of time until they surpass the US Navy and have strength greater than all the other nations in the world combined. That day is coming fast, and within a decade or two it will be upon us. So, please consider this.

Lance Winslow enjoys community philanthropy - Lance Winslow likes small business. Lance Winslow has also been involved in the Oil Industry; www.oilchangeguys.com/aboutus.shtml/.

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You Can Learn Chinese in Asia - Opportunities Are Waiting

Thousands of people dream of traveling to Asia to learn Chinese. However, most of these people are not aware that it is very easy to obtain a scholarship at a university in China or Taiwan to learn the Chinese language. In fact, you can learn Chinese in Asia for a fraction of the cost of language lessons at home.

Of course, the first step is to arrive in Asia and that means buying a plane ticket and taking a plane. This is a significant expense. However, the cost of living in both Taiwan and China is very low. It is possible to live for quite a long time on very little money, even in major cities such as Hong Kong or Taipei. Also, the tuition for language courses at prominent universities is cheap to begin with, and is often made cheaper by scholarships. If you have a little money saved, you probably already have enough to achieve your dream of learning Chinese in Asia.

If you don't have much money, the opportunities for English teachers in both China and Taiwan are tremendous. If you speak English, and are generally friendly and patient person you'd probably have what it takes to be an English teacher. You don't need a TEFL certificate in order to get a teaching job in China or Taiwan, but you do need a university degree. An English teachers average monthly salary is about $2000, and probably enough for a comfortable standard of living and to cover the cost of tuition for a Chinese language learning program at a well-known university.

It is a frightening experience, to leave your home and travel to a foreign land to learn a foreign language, and the people who do will certainly tell you that it is not all wine and roses. However, I can almost guarantee that Westerners who learn Chinese in Asia do not regret their experiences. They are developing skills that will put them at the forefront of an expanding job market. And, most of them are having the time of their lives. It can be intimidating, but don't let your fear hold you back. It is possible to achieve your dream of learning Chinese in Asia.

Justin White lives in Jhubei Taiwan, and frantically works at learning Chinese.

Want to Learn Chinese Fast? Don't make the common mistakes that keep people struggling. Learn to avoid the pitfalls, and go to http://www.learn-chinese-fast.net for tips, tricks and strategies to improve the speed with which you learn Chinese, and decrease the amount of time it takes you to reach fluency.

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Chinese Rhetoric Over Taiwan, Back At You

It appears we are getting a little bit of Sun Tzu sword rattling as they set their sights on Taiwan. This is somewhat bothersome, as they have publicly stated that they would use nuclear weapons on the United States if we tried to interfere. Well, it seems that as if this is an International Terrorist threat by a nation state's General and therefore, it must be recanted by him and we must ask China to remove him from power. If they fail to do so, we must act decisively and attack China now using everything in our arsenal including large Mega tonnage Nuclear Weapons. After this is done, we can then prove to the world that Nuclear Weapons are evil and must not ever be used again. This will be proof positive of the devastating power of Nuclear Weapons.

We must not allow the super power positioning of a Dynasty Driven Communistic Long Term Strategy and thought process under Sun Tzu embedded mindset to dictate the future of this Planet and the human race. I propose the complete annihilation of China if we see any attempt to act on these threats based on the Carl von Clauswitz advice. We must act now.

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050715072732.3wgtz6t3.html

Repeating the strategies of the Cold War again is not worthy of the human race and the risk of such a catastrophic outcome as Nuclear War. If we are going to have a war with China, let's have it now, win it and get it over with rather than allowing escalation in the future which will lead to WWIII, causing WWIV to be fought with sticks and stones. China is capable of making good on such threats and therefore we must eliminate the risk, the general who made that comment and the entire 1.2 Billion people and their country immediately. We cannot allow such threats to continue and still have peace and free trade in the world. Furthermore we must impound all Chinese investments in the United States until that General is removed, stop all incoming ships with trade, renege on any and all bonds they have invested and Nuke N. Korea as an example of our position and proof that we will act accordingly, defend our nation and before sitting down to any negotiations.

We cannot and must not allow further positioning of the Communist Chinese advancements as it is obvious by these threats that China intends to eventually either have a war with us once its military build up is complete or force us into submission once we fund their economic future status at the World Leader. It is time to come to terms with these issues, not deny them. We have been threaten by a man in a cave and we took action, now we are being threatened by a General who is a leader of the World's second largest military power? The Chinese are will not simultaneously prepare and prevent war unless we fold, so before the stakes get too high, we must act and win decisively and rip the heart from those who plot against us. Don't be the paper tiger (fool) they are taking us for. If our leadership fails to act, they do so at the detriment and possible end of our civilization. Carl von Clauswitz predicted it, before we were even founded. Sun Tzu laid out the basic game plan of how the Chinese can achieve it. We better pay attention.

Hitler took one country and the world sought appeasement. It worked before, will we allow it to happen again? History is repeating itself you silly humans; wake up? The programming in this life experience simulation Matrix can be altered if you have the minds to face it head on. This is no time for weakness; we must put up, or give up. If China takes Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and the Philippines are next, why would they stop? Don't kid yourself.

They are using some pretty strong language therefore we must do the same and not hesitate for one second, if they attempt to force their will over the Free World. We need a Nuclear Weapons test on Chinese Soil, this month. It is not often you have such early warnings of your enemy's intentions. We need war plans to take out all military assets and large cities in China and retain their Industrial Capacity and in-country American Assets of our corporations, while changing out their leadership. These plans and our missiles must be pointed at Mainland China and we need to plan to win. If that means total annihilation of Mainland China and the death of 1.3 Billion people, so be it. We cannot be weak at heart; the world has too many people in it anyway. Don't Tread on US.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Should You Learn Traditional Chinese Characters Or the Simplified Ones? Pros and Cons

If you've been studying Chinese for a while and are considering moving on to learning to write Chinese characters, you've probably already realized that there is not one but two ways to write Chinese.

When China became a communist country, the new leadership faced a number of problems within the country. They had to modernize, to build international relationships, and to combat a tremendously high rate of illiteracy. Chinese peasants across the country lacked the ability to read and write. The Chinese government decided to simplify a number of characters in order to make learning to read and write in Chinese easier. The result is "simplified Chinese". Most of the characters are exactly the same, but a number of commonly used characters have been reduced and made simpler to facilitate literacy education in China.

The counterpoint to this is traditional Chinese, still widely used in Taiwan and in some other countries with Chinese populations. Traditional Chinese should not be confused with "classical Chinese", which a much older and more complex form that only scholars take the time to learn. Traditional Chinese is very similar to the simplified form, except that obviously some commonly used words are more difficult to write than in the simplified form.

If you've decided that you want to read and write in Chinese, you have to make a choice. You can either learn traditional Chinese, or the modern simplified form. There are a couple of things to consider before you make your final decision.

If you're traveling, your destination might make the decision for you. Travelers to Taiwan would be well advised to learn traditional Chinese because it is widely used there. If you plan to visit China, you can learn simplified Chinese and read it everywhere there.

If you have a serious scholarly interest in reading Chinese, it might be a better idea to make the extra effort to learn traditional Chinese. If you want to read any Chinese that was written before the People's Republic of China was formed, you'll need to learn traditional Chinese. If, for a masochistic or heroic reason you want to tackle classical Chinese, knowing the traditional characters will help you as well.

Finally, if you're still not sure which form you'd like to learn, consider this. If you learn traditional Chinese, it's fairly easy to switch over to the simplified form. The characters you're learning will always be easier to write than in the traditional form. If you learn simplified Chinese, it will take a significant amount of time and effort to learn traditional Chinese. You lay a better foundation when you learn traditional chinese first, but you do put slightly more time into it.

Consider your options, but don't worry to much about the writing system you start learning. Some commonly used characters are different, but many many characters are exactly the same in both forms. It's not like you need to start over from scratch should you need to switch later on.

Justin White lives in Jhubei Taiwan, and frantically works at learning Chinese.

Want to learn Chinese (or another language) quickly? Don't make the common mistakes that keep people struggling. Learn to avoid the pitfalls, and go to Learn Chinese Fast for tips, tricks and strategies to improve the speed with which you learn Chinese, and decrease the amount of time it takes you to reach fluency.

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Chinese Military Build Up - Sun Tzu and Chinese War Machine

We are currently seeing a build up in China of their military, with 7 new classes of warships. Buying of 15 Billion worth of jet fighters from Russia, advances in Space which can lead to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, Electromagnetic Weapons, training and recruiting of personal for army. Taiwan is extremely concerned as is Japan, Russia is thrilled having been able to sell them technologically advanced weaponry. Our defense industry is upset seeing sales go to other countries, also alarming in our trade deficit and money flows out of our country to China, which is being used to buy the weapons in the first place. Airbus is establishing a military division to catch some of that money flow too, having watched Boeing which also sells military and commercial make major end roads to markets thru R and D partially coming from US Government, which as we know has been a debate in the EU and fair trade rules as Airbus is funded in part and subsidized by European governments who are simultaneously deficit spending. The selling of weapons in the world is quite alarming and makes the case for Iranian or North Korea's nuclear weapon ambitions a tough one, in that shouldn't a country have the right to defend itself? A worthy debate although a government, which has proved untrustworthy in the past obviously should never be trusted with such destructive power which once used would surely change the history of mankind.

China is aware of the World's concern with the largest population base in the World and expanding industrial might, such concerns are warranted. One issue of supreme insight would be that of Dr. Einstein; "You cannot simultaneously prepare and prevent war." China says it wants to defend itself. Which is a noble cause of any nation, right? Yes, but the question is from whom? No one country on Earth is up to a challenge of the Chinese Military, except maybe the US, which of course is a trading partner whose purchases are funding their economy and their war machine. Having the world's largest and most powerful Army, Air Force and Navy has been for over 25 years undisputed territory of the United States. Chinese war theory predicts forcing political will without use of force or if possible not fighting a single battle as adequate method. If China wishes to force its political will with Taiwan, then who might defend them? Will the US show up for a political game poker game where each side tries to bluff the other. Chinese culture is much different than Western Culture despite the closeness in the end goals of the civilizations (certainly worthy of discussion for another topic). China is well aware of the tension created by this build up and the power and what that means for its future forceful negotiations of will. China currently does not wish to rock the boat until it has the military might to play at the poker table with the EU or with the United States and has suggested a Hotline to Washington DC in the interim. Keeping up communication is important to peaceful solutions to military issues, but are we playing into a grander plan. By opening military force hotline are we in fact admitting and raising their status as a World Power?

China, US Discuss Setting Up Defense Hotline

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05o.html

"Beijing (XNA) Feb 01, 2005 - Chinese Defense Ministry and its US counterpart rounded off their first special policy dialogue here Tuesday with both voicing their satisfactions, a sign of warming ties between two militaries of the two countries."

China is also testing its power and practicing the modern art of war:

China, Russia To Hold First Ever Joint Military Drill

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05n.html

"Beijing (AFP) Feb 01, 2005 - Russia and China will conduct their first ever joint military exercises in August or September to better coordinate the fight against terrorism, state media reported Tuesday."

The United States if it really expects to remain the world leader militarily ought to take notes of these trends and set a course to maintain the ability to negotiate from a position of strength and be prepared to make an example of any nation which tries to force our their will against us or our allies with annihilating force so that China realizes that we are not into the bluffing game and will not tolerate imperialism from any other nation in the future periods. Without such a demonstration China will test us with Taiwan and then other allies to see how far we can be pushed. Such a series of signs will be very similar to a previous set of threats which history had showed us during Germany's build up to power. We should be ready to negotiate but not fear the ultimate example and display of power to put away any possible attempt for any other nation to bluff us into backing down on what we know to be right.

This should not be a considered a warning of future events to come, but we should be ready and prepared to defend the free world and use unheard of force if necessary and all those in the wake should know in advance that we do not do threats, we do not play with bluffers and we will prevail no matter what. Do not challenge the free world and never mistake the United States' acts of kindness for a sign of weakness.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Mr Wang's Chinese Sunshine Policy vs Jill Swaitt's Get Serious Policy

L. Ling-chi Wang, I read his article on CNN today, and how un- empathetic can a man be (I preferred Jill Swaitt's commentary also from CNN). He, Mr. Wang scolds the world for protesting against the Chinese for their aggressive ways with Tibet, and other countries, and points the finger at others countries that are hypocrites for the way they live-yes, he likes to point fingers, but does not want them pointed at China. What is really happening is that Mr. L. Ling-chi Wang, the world is seeing China for what it is, and China is embarrassed, shameful, and should be, as any country that hogties another people, puts them under their heal should be.

He wants everyone to leave China alone, and let the Olympics go as planned; but this is perhaps the only opportunity Tibet will get for showing their case of persecution to the world, so how can he blame them. China uses every opportunity to lie to the world about this and that, it is Tibet's turn. No one like's equal aggressive play...they like to have the upper hand all the time, well not this time Wang. This is really a good chance for China to see how the world sees them (if the care they will take this to heart and clean up their act), not how they see the world, for China sees the world as an opportunity to build up an equal arsenal to threaten Taiwan and let the United States know they are equal in arms, so stand back; it is just a matter of time when the Chinese will come with the big bat and proclaim to Taiwan and the US, it is time to fight or back off.

And I suppose he is secure in his home, and should he have to live under the heal of the Chinese like the Tibetans, he'd have a different story to tell, they all do. And yes we get a lot of trinkets from China, not sure why he puts that into his article, things we don't really need that we can buy from another country, at any local dime-store. If anything, China should be grateful we are buying and employing their 1.3 billion people. Mr. Wang would have us all put tape over our months and pretend nothing is happening. If China goes into hibernation, as he indicates it might over this, well, so be it, and it is the price you have to pay when you open the doors to the world: everyone has paid that price, why is China different.

You can't have a picnic on dead bodies without some kind of disruption, unless you try like China did to hide the fact they are who they really are, aggressive and dominating to the Tibetans. He badmouths the United States over Iraq, and he and China have a right to do that, and I doubt the United States is going to hid its head in a hole over it, and let's hope the war in Iraq stops by all the protests we are now having, and let's hope, China stops playing the bully to Taiwan, and Tibet, and it if goes into a hole and hides its head, who cares anyhow, they will have to find another way how to steal American technology to build their war machine.

Jill Sawitt, puts it in the proper perspective: "...the Olympics are a necessary forum for political speech." She goes on to say: "The Olympic Charter says, 'The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."' And adds, China, in fact, has used the Games as a blunt political tool for 50 years, denying athletes from Taiwan the right to participate. Also she adds 'The right to protest and the ability to assemble and speak freely are some of the most basic human rights. The free exercise of these rights is what separates, in many cases, democracies from dictatorships. To call for a cessation of protests is to deny those basic rights and all they represent.' So good for Jill, I am for her powerful words. Her end sentence is: The question is not, 'Should protests be tied to the Olympics?" The question is, "Why aren't more people raising their voices?"'

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

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The Chinese Internet Crash of 2007

In late December of last year, a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Taiwan severely damaged Asia's undersea fiber-optic cables, disrupting telecommunication circuits across the continent.

China and Southeast Asia saw their communications capacity fall to between 2 and 10 percent, and though a portion of service has since been rerouted to alternative fixed lines and suicidally slow satellite transmissions, the P.R.C. has yet to fully recover from the technological aftershocks, what Mainlanders are now referring to as the "World Wide Wait.

Repair status is conflicting, with Chinese telecom officials publicly alternating between evasive ("the work is slow because of complicated conditions"), blameful ("the repairs are done by other companies we commissioned") and unrealistically optimistic ("a few more days"), as quoted in the state-run media.

International news sources cite a more likely and longer completion date of early-March for a return to full capacity, perhaps due to what global news service AFP disturbingly reports as China "relying on 19th century technology to fix a 21st century problem.

In an effort to downplay the crisis, China precipitately announced that it expects to become the world's largest Internet user, overtaking the United States with an estimated 137 million users. That's quite a bullish forecast for a country that has suffered nationwide telecommunications outages since the new year.

In fact, internet blackouts are nothing new to foreigners residing in the People's Republic, who are accustomed to limited access to overseas sites that have been blocked by the central government's web monitoring entity, commonly referred to as The Great Firewall of China.

But the newest online paralysis resulting from the recent natural and technological calamity has most certainly affected international businesses in Mainland China, many whom rely on consistent online communications and B2B transactions to stay above international water. Even multinational conglomerates Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, who are already struggling in the Asian market, are now regularly met with "cannot display" time-out errors.

Conversely, China's e-commerce giants just don't understand what all the fuss is about. China News Service reports that amidst the first several weeks of Internet outages, Chinese-based ISPs boasted a 99 percent uptime as the country's largest web corporations including Sina, Baidu, Alibaba, Tom and Tencent saw their site traffic, and earnings, multiply.

But for China's Internet-deprived expat community from Beijing to the Bund, hope is literally on the Verizon. A consortium of international telecom providers including China Telecom, CNC and U.S. carrier Verizon have jointly invested $500 million in the construction of a new Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) Cable Network connecting Mainland China directly with the United States.

The next-generation submarine optical cable system, expected to be completed in 2008, will span the Asia-Pacific at 60 times the present capacity, rendering obsolete the damaged FNAL cables beneath the Taiwan Strait.

Indubitably, China's easily-crippled telecommunications infrastructure and the prolonged aftermath can be blamed on poor foresight and co-dependent technology and is both a devastating episode for foreign companies in China and a chin check for a nation striving to compete as a 21st century world player.

But if the completion of a bigger and better trans-Pacific cable network has anything to do with the cause for the delay, then foreign and Chinese companies alike will just have to wait that much longer to resume to normal operating speeds.

###

Tom Carter of San Francisco is an internationally published freelance photographer and travel writer specializing in the People's Republic of China. Tom has traveled extensively throughout all 33 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions and currently resides in Beijing.

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Learning Chinese Tips For Children, Including Pre Schoolers and Toddlers

First things first: Which Chinese to Learn?

Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan. It is the dialect of the majority in Mainland China and the Chinese overseas. Cantonese is not as commonly used since Britain's turnover of Hong Kong to China. It may become a dialect that is used among family and friends.or business purposes, Mandarin is more practical to learn.

Learning Chinese at Home

A great way to start your children in learning the Chinese Language is through Learn Chinese DVDs and videos and audio CDs. These DVDs are specially designed to optimally expose your child to the tones of Chinese with fun things to watch. The learning pace in DVDs are carefully programmed to help your child remember the words and phrases. Chinese songs on CDs on the other hand, are great to use while travelling or during your child's relaxation time. For bigger children, Chinese stories on CDs can be played to expose them further to more Chinese vocabulary and sentence construction.

If one parent speaks Chinese, arrangements can be made that 1 parent will speak to the children in Chinese and the other will speak to them in English. Kids have an amazing ability to keep up with each parent's language.

Exposing Children to Native Chinese Speakers

o Chinese tutors are available to teach children and even the entire family to speak Chinese. Check online or newspaper ads for available tutors.

o Play dates with children who are learning or already know Chinese is a fantastic way to expose your kids.

o Another option is to hire Chinese-speaking baby sitters. Local universities often have students who are half-Chinese or spouses of Chinese. This can be an option you can try.

o Other families get au pairs from China.

o Some families hire Chinese nannies to ensure the children grow up hearing the native Chinese tones. Be careful in the hiring though. Truth to be told, there is a large number of people in the US from China who don't have the necessary papers but are working as nannies. Nannies also take care of your children, so picking the right person is extremely important, especially if they live with you. Friends of ours have gone through multiple nannies and it was not a good experience.

Learning Chinese Online

There are online Chinese programs available for adult English speakers. So far, I am not aware if there are any online programs available for English speaking children.

Chinese Private Schools

Traditionally, non-public Chinese schools teach a child the Chinese language when the child is old enough to sit still and copy characters. Most schools still use the method of rote teaching used in China and Taiwan. Children in the US are very independent, therefore the rote method may not be the best way for children to learn the words and characters. Instead, the Montessori or ESL method may be used to interest the kids to learn Chinese. These methods place emphasis on using Chinese in conversation . Other programs that teach using a lot of singing and other fun activities will definitely make children learn Chinese easier.

Summer Camps

Chinese summer camps expose the child to full immersion of the Chinese language. Summer camps may be a weekend trip in the US, a full boarding school stay, or traveling to live for several weeks to China or Taiwan. There are few sites that produce the largest list of Chinese summer camps available so stay tuned for updates.

Learn Chinese Materials

There are a lot of products available in the market to help children learn Chinese. Books, videos, audio CDs/ cassettes and software can be used at home to learn Chinese. These materials not only expose the child to vocabulary or tones, but also show the beauty of Chinese culture. These materials can also be used for parents and children to spend time together.

Books

A big challenge to teaching Chinese from books is that one parent/ adult should know how to read it. For families who are starting to learn from scratch together, bi-lingual books are a big help. Story books that can be read along with audio CDs are useful to learn the proper pronunciation. A great introductory book to reading and writing Chinese characters is Long is the Dragon. For smaller children, I Won't Bite is a very interesting material. Kids will be able to touch and feel the different types of animal skin textures.

Videos

Videos teach through engaging visuals, songs, and repetitive vocabulary. Viewers will also be exposed to how different places and persons look like. In 1 DVD of the Follow Jade series, Teacher Jade goes to a Chinese Kindergarten. Children will be able to compare how their own school and classmates look like. The Bao Bei series has 5 enjoyable videos that teach Chinese vocabulary of a lot of common words. Bao Bei is a panda puppet that children will like to study Chinese words.

Audio CDs

Chinese CDs can be grouped into 2:

o 100% Chinese songs and stories. Some do not have printed guides, others include a book/ booklet

o Learn-Chinese CDs specifically designed for those learning Chinese as a second language. These CDs usually include books, booklets with Chinese, English and Pinyin. Songs are sung in both Chinese and English, or booklets show the English translations. For example, the songs in Teach Me Chinese Book and CD are popular and sung in both English and Chinese. Parents can also learn songs to sing for their children, such as Happy Birthday. This series also comes with a Teacher Guide. Other Learn Chinese Book and CD series such as Sing and Learn Chinese Series and Let's Sing Chinese also engages its listeners with interesting songs.

Software

So far, I am still waiting for a very highly recommended software that is easy for learners to use.

ChildBook has many free materials that children may use to enhance their learning of the Chinese language and culture. Use the Chinese coloring pictures/pages, crafts projects and instruction for games to show the children that learning Chinese can be fun. You can buy discounted Chinese textbooks and English Chinese learning videos at Childbook.com an online Chinese Book Store store.

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Here Come the Chinese

Will They Run the World?

My main interest in China in my childhood years was the Flying Tigers. (Go to: http://www.flyingtigersavg.com/tiger1.htm to learn about the Flying Tigers at their official site.) Retired Air Force Captain Clair L. Chennault was invited to review air operations in China in 1937. He stayed there until the end of the war in 1945. Who invited him? Why Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

When Lt. General Joseph W. Stilwell entered the China defense, I took an interest in the Burma operations which tried to cut supply lines from Japan to China. We all know that Stilwell was captured by the Japanese and that he was on the Battleship Missouri at Japan’s surrender in 1945. (Read about the China defense at: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/72-38/72-38.htm.)

Other than the Boxer Rebellion, I still know little about the history of China. (Well, I watched the movie starring Ava Gardner. “55 Days at Peking” 1963 [http://www.avagardner.org/movientv.html])

The Boxers were really the “Righteous Harmony Society.” They resented the demands of foreigners and decided to drive them from Northern China in 1900. (Read about the Rebellion at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion.)

At the end of the war my brother sailed into China at Tiensen, strapped a 45 millimeter pistol on his hip, and went into town. He still talks about it.

The Chinese have always been suspicious about the intentions of foreigners. I think that continues to be a factor in our relationship with them today.

Now that I’ve established that I’m NOT an “Ol’ China Hand,” we can get on with whatever I’m trying to say.

History of U.S.-China Relations

From: [http://www.witn.psu.edu/articles/article.phtml?article_id=50&show_id=9], I have generated an outline of U.S.-China Relations.

1700s: Trading between China and the U.S.

1850s: Starvation in China, the Gold Rush in the U.S. Railroad building.

1880s: Economic depression in U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.

1965: Chinese immigration restrictions lifted.

1945-1949: Civil war in China. People’s Republic of China (Red China) formed. U.S. recognizes Taiwan but not Red China.

1972: President Richard Nixon visits China to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong and improve relations. Diplomatic relations resume. More freedom given to Chinese citizens and small businesses. (I think that Nixon just wanted to see the Great Wall. You can’t see it from Washington. You can’t even see it from the No Name Moon, despite what some folks say.)

Trade Deficits

Now days, when we hear about China, we usually hear about the humongous trade deficits increasing with time. What this means to most Americans is that what the Japanese and the Arabs haven’t bought in the U.S., the Chinese will.

Trade Deficits are presently and will remain high with China. For what this novice thinks is a good explanation of what this means read Daniel T. Griswold’s article at: http://www.freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-002.html. He claimed that many politicians have no idea what they are talking about in regard to trade deficits and that trade deficits can be beneficial.

I’m staying out of that argument, free trade versus restricted trade. I think that free trade is here to stay and will not be the only factor that gets us eaten alive by the Chinese Tiger. Gobble, gobble!

Our trade partners want a vibrant economy in the U. S. because they depend on it to support their economies. They will not jeopardize it in normal times. I said that to temporarily relieve tention.

Rome and the British Empire

The following has nothing to do with the discussion. I’ve added it to make it known that I suspect disaster ahead, maybe. If I could play some music from the “Twilight Zone,” I would do that instead.

Professor Gerhard Rempel, Western New England College, discusses the fall of the Roman empire at: [http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc1/lectures/14romefell.html]. Internal and external forces and the subsequent financial loads weakened the empire until it could not defend its self nor maintain stability.

If you stretch a nation outside its boundaries, as we are stretched, it will thin and weaken until its flaws will be opened and become vulnerable to attack (My words).

I added the last sentence to make things look scarier.

Anyway, we all know that the fall of the Roman Empire was due to drinking wine from lead vessels. My grandfather developed lead poisoning from working in mines with somewhat soluble lead ores. He said it completely sapped his strength and that it took years to recover. (Actually, I was an expert in this area having dealt with the FDA and OSHA over the years, but I don’t want to brag about it.)

According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire, “The British Empire was the world's first global power, a product of the European Age of Exploration that began with the global maritime empires of Portugal and Spain in the late 15th century. By 1921, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 470–570 million people — roughly a quarter of the world's population — and covered about 15 million square miles (nearly 37 million square kilometers), almost a third of the world's total land area.”

The British Empire freed its colonies after WWII per agreements made during the war. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada decided to make more of their own decisions. Financially weakened by World War II, the British people and their government decided that the days of their imperialism were over.

Is our empire fading too? (I ask, “Why not?”)

Will there be Chinese Aggression?

When I was in Korea, all of our fighting (my unit) was with Chinese troops. These were young men sent to free North Korea. Hundreds of thousands crossed the Manchurian border and in an organized attack chased the U.N. forces (including my unit and some of my friends) down to Pusan.

We captured some of these young men when I was there in 1951-1952. The ones I saw and talked to were very tall, dressed in quilted suits (that I later learned would stop a round from my carbine), and were glad to be out of the war. They surrendered after our air attacks wounded some of them and they needed medical attention.

There are many young men in China who do not have wives and sweethearts because of the desire to make sure the one child allowed is a boy. It may sound harsh but war is one way to reduce such a surplus male population. If an opportunity presents its self, could it happen again? Civil war in China would do the trick! Let's not hope for that.

Taiwan

Taiwan is a pain in Red China’s side. At least that is what they say. Before WW II, Hitler said that Czechoslovakia was a spear in Germany’s side. Look at the map! So, Hitler was first.

Actually, the Chinese didn’t say that. I made it up so that I could quote Hitler. I learned that the day I attended my brother’s History class at UCLA when I returned from Korea.

When the professor said that about Czechoslovakia, I laughed. He slowly turned from the blackboard and looked to see who had laughed.

My brother later explained that there was no culture at UCLA.

I went back to UCLA in 1966 to take a course in high temperature thermodynamics. I talked to the students then and they said that there was no culture there.

I went back again in 1974 and, behold, culture had returned!

I guess I shouldn’t call the Mainland “Red China” now they are strongly capitalistic.

It would seem that Taiwan and the Mainland would have resolved their differences because of the growth of capitalism in the area, but they have not been resolved. A major spat between the two could be disastrous to our country and the rest of the capitalistic world. They need to kiss and make up.

We have pledged to protect Taiwan. Perhaps that policy should be reconsidered. After all, our old ally Chiang Kai-shek is long gone. But remember that our State Department likes to honor past commitments and will probably not modify their policy toward Taiwan.

I don’t think that we will see the Chinese making a pilgrimage across the Bering Sea, but they do have missiles, airpower, and nasty nuclear weapons. The former Soviet Union always reinforced their borders and was ready to stop any Chinese aggression despite the fact they were allies.

My advice here is: Always be nice to the Chinese!

From Henny Penny

The competition for resources could precipitate trouble between China and the rest of the capitalistic world. A major shortage of food could drive the Chinese beyond their borders. The demand for the “good life” will probably create increased demand for oil and much higher oil prices even in the near future. The need to reduce their population could result in wars of attrition. The Chinese population may be reduced by pandemics. Is so, so will ours!

Let’s hope the “Old China Hands” know what is going on in China and will keep us out of war with China and in good commercial relations. Let's hope that China can successfully manage their problems.

How the Chinese Could Help Us All

The Chinese are use to managing difficult problems related to huge populations. They also have huge military resources that could be used to reduce tensions (not only intensify them) in the world. They seem to be natural business men and could help stabilize the world economy. I think it would be much better to form closer ties with China then to weaken them. What do you think now that you are an expert in the area?

copyright©2005 John T. Jones, Ph.D.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com), a retired college professor and business executive, Former editor of an international engineering magazine. To learn more about Wealthy Affiliate University go to his info site. If you desire a flagpole to Fly Old Glory, go to the business site.

More info: http://www.InternetBusinessToolCenter.com

Business web site: http://www.AAAFlagpoles.com

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China SEO and Chinese SEO-An Introduction

Companies that want to market to Chinese speakers must first decide on their target markets. Who are they trying to reach? But first let's define some China SEO terms.

What is China SEO?

For the keyword China SEO there are a few meanings:

1. Someone who wants find an SEO company to market to China.

2. Someone who wants to learn something about getting natural traffic from people who speak Chinese (This could include one or more of the following: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and even small numbers of Chinese speakers in other countries).

3. Someone who wants to work with a China SEO company for a variety of reasons. For example, if Chinese is your mother tongue it may be easier to launch a global SEO campaign working with people who understand you easily.

A company outside of China looking for information or SEO China companies would be interested in search results which focused on the meanings from 1 and 2. Search results for number 3 would mostly be in Chinese. However the savvy Chinese company which wants to do a global campaign may search in English or other target countries to narrow results.

Baidu.com is the most popular search engine in China

What is Chinese SEO?

Chinese SEO is more specific than China SEO and one of the indicators of this is that there are fewer searches for Chinese SEO. The intents of these searchers can be:

* Someone looking for somebody to help with SEO, in the Simplified Chinese language, in order to target mainland China, Singapore and some Chinese expatriates.

* Someone looking for somebody to help with SEO, in the Traditional Chinese language, in order to target people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and most Chinese expatriates.

Simplified and Traditional Chinese use different characters for the same word so it is important not to make a mistake about this. For example, if you were manufacturing chop sticks in Tel Aviv and you wanted to sell to restaurants in mainland China you would target this keyword in Simplified Chinese - yÉ ô+wP6 '

If however you wanted to sell to companies in Hong Kong you would write in Traditional Chinese - yÉ­+wPý à.

Chinese SEO Company Search

Now that we have our terms defined, it is obvious that the first thing we need to do is define our geographic markets. This will determine, for the most part, if we need Simplified or Traditional Chinese. Then we can search for a vendor who has the appropriate language skills. If we prefer to look for a company located in our target market, we must search in the appropriate search engine. You can use Google and press the radio button which limits the search just to sites in that country.

Here are some examples:

Hong Kong: google.hk (Traditional Chinese)

Singapore: google.sg (Simplified Chinese)

Taiwan: google.com.tw (Traditional Chinese)

PRC China: google.cn (Simplified Chinese-cannot access from inside China)

Traditional Chinese google.com/intl/zh-TW/

Simplified Chinese google.com/intl/zh-CN/ (If you are in China and type in Google.com you will be redirected to this site)

Of course, in China, baidu.com (in Simplified Chinese) or tw.baidu.com (in Traditional Chinese) is much more popular than Google. Although the interface is in Chinese you can search in English.

Another option is to look for a vendor who speaks your language. This kind of SEO company will be easier to communicate with and will most likely be able to offer additional languages, so you won't have to deal with so many vendors. This kind of search is relatively easy. For example, a good place to find an SEO company that can provide International SEO services is Israel, as it is an immigrant society with native speakers of many languages. A search for:

Chinese SEO Israel

brings up an SEO company which can handle Chinese SEO and many other languages

Using non Chinese SEO companies for SEO China work can make communications easier

Another option is to do Chinese SEO in house. You may have in house Chinese speakers or you can use outside vendors just for translation. In any case, this SEO China article gives you a basic start, so you won't waste your money translating to Traditional Chinese when your target market is in Mainland China.

Chinese Characters

You can learn about using Chinese characters in the URL in this post. One of the most important things to do is make sure your translations are not literal-use the keywords that your searchers use.

Chinese characters can be used in the URL.

Although Chinese SEO can look daunting to English speakers because the characters are so different this, it is now easier than ever due to technology. You can even get a quick translation The Google Translator for example can translate both Simplified and Traditional Chinese to English and back. It can also translate Simplified to Traditional Chinese and back. Today there is no excuse not to communicate with over a billion people.

Learn more about Chinese SEO and SEO China at AIMS Advanced Internet Marketing Strategies. An illustrated version of this article is available at http://www.aims.co.il/articles/chinese-seo.html

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Chinese Diplomacy - From Mao Tse-Tung and Deng Xiaoping to Ju Hintao

1949-1987 The Democratic People`s of Korea, also known as North Korea, became an ally of China. During the Korean War (1950-1953), Beijing sent several military troops into Korea to support to the Korean Communists. North Korea, a terrorist state in the 20th century, received millions of dollars in aid and trade from Mao Tse-tung.

1960 Cameroon did not have relations with the Communist regime.

1961 Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, did not recognize Bejing.

1960-1978 During the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Communist regime sent economical aid to Albania. Albania's dictator Enver Hoxha, China's only friend in Europe, was a Maoist leader in the world.

1964 France established diplomatic ties with Beijing. The French government recognized Taiwan as part of the People´s Republic of China.

1956 Haiti, an ex-French colony on the Caribbean Sea, did not recognize China as a sovereign state.

1957 Paraguay's dictator Alfredo Stroessner, South Africa's ally during the Cold War, did not recognize the People's Republic of China. This South American country recognized Taiwan as a state.

1960-1961 For ideological reasons, China broke off diplomatic relations with the USSR.

1961 Tanzania (Africa) maintained full diplomatic ties with China. Julyus Nyerere, country's President, was an admirer of the Chinese revolution. Since 1961 Beijing adopted a policy of cooperation with Tanzania.

1968 The Kingdom of Swaziland, a landlocked country on the African continent, did not have ties with the PRCH.

1970 Italy and Canada recognized the Chinese government.

1970-1979 Peru, a Spanish-speaking republic since 1821, became one of the China's Latin American partners.

1971 New York, USA. Many countries favored United Nations membership for the People´s Republic of China. The UN expelled Taiwan. Beijing is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

1971 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to the People's Republic of China, where he held historic meetings with Chinese leaders. For the first time, Washington began talks with Chinese authorities.

1971 The Maoist regime was an ally of the Chilean government, which was the second Marxist state in Latin America.

1972 China's leader Mao Tse-tung established formal diplomatic ties with Mauritius, Cameroon, Japan, Sierra Leone and Togo.

1972 At the invitation of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, President Richard Nixon visited Beijing.

1973 The national government had good relations with Brazil and Nigeria.

1973 The Communist regime, under the direction of Mao Tse-tung, recognized the military government of Augusto Pinochet (Chile), one of the world's six anti-Communist dictators. Chile's president Salvador Allende, a friend of Beijing, was overthrown by Pinochet. Unlike most Communist states, Beijing supported friendly relations with Augusto Pinochet.

1975-1979 The Maoist government supported the Cambodian dictatorship, one of the world's worst dictatorships.

1973-1985 For its close relations with Washington and Chile, Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuba's leader, began an international campaign against China in the Third World.

1975 This Asian country established formal diplomatic relations with the Philippines and the Kingdom of Thailand.

1975 America's President Gerald Ford traveled to Beijing and met with Communist leaders.

1976 The Central African Republic became an ally of the PRCH

1978 This year marked the end of 18 years of friendship between China and Albania. After Mao's death, China canceled aid to Albania because Enver Hoxha criticized the government of Hua Guofeng.

1978 Chile's Foreign Minister, Hernan Cubillos, traveled to Beijing. Cubillos was Chile´s first minister to visit the People's Republic of China since 1973.

1978-1979 Washington recognized the People`s Republic of China. Meanwhile, Taipei condemned the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing.

1979 After many decades, Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties. Subsequently China's leader Deng Xiaoping visited the United States. He was China's first leader to visit America.

1979-1980 Beijing condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. For this reason, China declined to participate in the Olympic Games in Moscow (USSR).

1980-1990 Nicaragua, Beijing's only diplomatic ally in Central America, had good relations with the Chinese government.

1983 Under the leadership of Mary Eugenia Charles (Prime Minister), Dominica, a Taiwanese ally in the Americas, did not maintain diplomatic ties with the PRCH.

1984 President Ronald Reagan arrived in China for an official visit at the invitation of Premier Zhao Ziyang...

1985 In the last days of his government, Hernan Siles Zuazo, Bolivia's President, recognized the People's Republic of China. For many decades, Bolivia, a South American nation, was an ally of Taipei.

1985 Li Xiannian (President of China) visited Washington to strengthen friendship between the two states.

1986 The Chinese Olympic Committee sent athletes to the Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea.

1989 President George H.W.Bush traveled the People's Republic of China.

1989-2003 Beijing terminated diplomatic ties with Liberia.

1990 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich nation in the Middle East, established diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China.

1990 The Chinese government severed relations with the Kingdom of Lesotho and Guinea-Bissau.

1990 Under the democratic government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic ties with the PRCH.

1992 Bejing established full diplomatic ties with South Korea against the opposition of North Korea. Relations between South Korea and China had been strained during the Cold War. Seoul recognized Beijing as the only legal government of China.

1994 Burkina Faso broke off diplomatic relations with the PRCH.

1997 The Chinese government maintained very close ties both Saint Lucia and the Commonwealth of Bahamas (Caribbean nations).

1997 Jian Zemin , China's president, arrived in Washington to confer with Bill Clinton.

1997 South Africa did not recognize Taipei as the Republic of China. During the last decades, South Africa was a Taiwanese ally.

1998 President Bill Clinton visited China for nine days.

2002 The PRCH was the first state to recognize Timor-Leste."The Chinese government thinks that as good partners, good neighbors and good friends of Timor-Leste, we are obliged to give a helping hand", said Su Jian (Chinese ambassador).

2004 Dominica, an English-speaking Island on the Caribbean Sea, suspended relations with Taipei and recognized Beijing.

2007 China's President Hu Jintao arrived in Cameroon. He and Paul Biya, Cameroon's President, signed a joint communiqué for bilateral cooperation. Hu also visited Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Seychelles.

2008 President Bush traveled to Beijing, where he attended the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games.

2009 China's leader Hu Jintao embarked on a tour of Africa- Mali, Senegal - a former ally of Taipei-, Tanzania, and Mauritius, one of the best democracies in the Third World.

2008 Malawi recognized the Chinese government as the only official government of China. This African nation has become the 170th state to have diplomatic ties with Beijing.

 

References

 

Chae-Jin Lee China and Korea: Dynamic relations, Hoover Institution Press, 1996

 

Guevara Onofre, Alejandro. Enciclopedia Mundototal, 1999

 

Hakjoon Kim "The Establishment of South Korean-Chinese Diplomatic Relations: A South Korean Perspective", Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 1994

 

Joshua Goldstein and John R. Freeman. "US-Soviet-Chinese Relations: Routine, Reciprocity, or National Expectations", American Political Science Review, March 1991

 

Mann, James. About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China: From Nixon to Clinton, Alfredo A. Knopf, 1999

 

Mora, Frank. "The People's Republic of China and Latin America: From Indifference to Engagement", Asian affairs: An American Review, 1997

 

Ross, Robert S. Negotiating Cooperation: the United States and China, 1969-1989, Hoover Institution Press, 1995

Alejandro Guevara Onofre: He is a freelance writer. Alejandro is of Italian, African and Peruvian ancestry. He has published more than seventy-five research paper in English, and more than twenty in Spanish, concerning the world issues, olympic sports, countries, and tourism. His next essay is called "The Dictator and Alicia Alonso". He is an expert on foreign affairs. Alejandro is the first author who has published a world-book encyclopedia in Latin America.

He admires Frida Kahlo (Mexican painter), Jose Gamarra (former president of the Bolivian Olympic Committee ,1970- 1982), Hillary Clinton (ex-First Lady of the USA), and Jimmy Carter (former President of the USA). Alejandro said: "The person who I admire the most is Jose Gamarra . He devoted his professional and personal life to sport. Jose played an important role in the promotion of Olympism in Bolivia -it is one of the Third World`s poorest countries- and Latin America. His biography is interesting". The sportspeople he most admire is Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman. "This African-American sportswoman is my idol... "

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Traditional Chinese Vs Simplified Chinese Writing - What is the Difference and Where Are They Used?

There are two different forms of written Chinese: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. So are these two forms really that different? Why is there a difference? And where is each form used?

The history

Traditional Chinese script has evolved over many centuries. As characters became more complicated, people informally used shorthand forms to write certain characters. In 1958, mainland China's government sanctioned some of the existing shorthands and at the same time simplified other characters that did not have a shorthand yet. This marked the birth of simplified Chinese script. "Only" some 500 characters (out of thousands) were simplified; the rest of the characters are the same in traditional and simplified Chinese script.

Who uses what?

The People's Republic of China (mainland China) uses simplified script and this script was also adopted by Singapore. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan use traditional characters. Internationally, traditional script has long been more frequently used by overseas Chinese.

Language lessons outside of China used to teach almost only traditional script until the 1980′s. Until 1979, China was closed, so most Chinese teachers originated from Taiwan. With China's emergence, simplified Chinese has become much more common.

Why not just one writing method?

My guess is that this has a lot to do with heritage, pride and national identity. As simplified Chinese was introduced by the communist party of China, it would be unlikely that Taiwan would adopt this script. Taiwanese will point out that the traditional characters are 'ideographs' which are like stylized pictures and easier to remember. A mainland Chinese might counter that it's really easier not to have to remember so many strokes. Both have a valid point.

Is it possible read and write traditional Chinese characters if you learnt simplified, and vice versa?

I am personally learning Mandarin based on the simplified script, and must say that it is not all that difficult to get the gist of a traditional text if you can read simplified Chinese characters. You need to learn a number of extra characters, and that's about it. Most Chinese, be them in Hong Kong, China, or Taiwan, will be able to handle texts in the other script to some extent without formal teaching, though they will be more familiar with the script that they were taught in school and may not be able to write the other script. Since a lot of characters have remained the same between the two scripts, it becomes a matter of filling in the blanks.

While most simplified characters have a direct traditional equivalent, it is not exactly a one-to-one translation, i.e. there are exceptions, for example where several traditional characters are represented by one simplified character. So while there are computer programs that convert between traditional and simplified texts, they would need to be checked by a human afterwards.

A Dutchman currently living in Singapore, Guus has so far studied 7 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Latin and Mandarin). He is passionate about travel, culture, languages and learning.

He founded Yago Singapore, a company that brings together the best offerings of several Singapore language schools on one website.

Guus regularly shares his insights about language learning on his blog: http://blog.yago.sg

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If You Could Eavesdrop on the Entire Earth, You Would Hear Chinese - Would You Understand Anything?

Contrary to common belief, the most widely spoken language in the world is not English, but Mandarin Chinese. Research conducted in the last years points out that Mandarin is spoken by about 1 billion people in the world, being followed by Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic. Surprisingly, in the 16th edition of Ethnologue, French and Italian are not even included in the top 10 most spoken languages, although they are of international use. Pretty amazing findings, isn't it? In other words, if someone would be able to perceive sounds from outside Earth, the loudest ones would be in Chinese.

On one hand, if we think from a demographic perspective, the supremacy of the Chinese should not come as a surprise. Chinese are after all the most numerous nation on the planet. But one the other hand, people speaking Chinese are pooled together in one side of the world, which makes it not a very popular language, in spite of its supremacy in terms of number of speakers. English, for instance, although is spoken by less then a half people, has the advantage of being spread in all corners of the world, which leads to the impression that it is the most spoken language.

Many people know very little about Chinese, not to mention that most of the non-native-speakers can't say a single word in this language. So let's see what are the most interesting facts about the most spoken language on Earth:

· Mandarin Chinese is the official language in China, Taiwan, one of the fourth official languages in Singapore and one of the six in the United States.

· Mandarin became the official language in China starting with 1644 when Manchu overthrew the Ming dynasty.

· Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, which means that one word can describe different concepts, according to the used tone. Mandarin features four tones: flat, rising, falling then rising and falling.

· Mandarin words have one grammatical form. This means that there are no variations for singular/plural, no verbal tenses, voices, genders, or persons. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it is not simple at all, because, in exchange, Mandarin has a very complicated system of suffixes, which does not resemble to any of the ones used in the European languages.

· The written Mandarin counts around 50,000 characters, but actually only 5,000 are being taught in the secondary school and about 3,000 are needed to read a newspaper.

And here is a nice one: the word "mandarin" is not Chinese, it is based on a combination of Sanskrit and Portuguese, meaning "commanders". After all, Chinese rules the world languages.

If the facts presented above make you doubt your ability to learn Mandarin Chinese, I will only tell you this: Shijieshang meiyou buneng kefu de kunnan. In other words (English),there is no difficulty in the world that cannot be overcome.

If you want to join the large community of Chinese speakers, make the first step at Fluent Future. Here you can learn a language for free, meeting native speakers of the language you are seeking to learn, or pay rated teachers for individual lessons.

Irina C. Ivan is a web content author with expertise in writing articles on business, society and self-development related topics. Irina's background includes over 6 years of professional experience in Media, PR, Communication, Marketing and Customer Relationship Management fields.

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Chinese Traditional Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine is the feature of our medical science and an initial component of Chinese culture. For a long time, Westerners have been skeptical about the efficiency of China's patent drugs made of medicinal herbs. Over the past few years, traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been subject to rigorous scientific scrutiny worldwide.

To prove and improve the efficiency of traditional Chinese medicine, China's mainland (the mainland of China) has poured huge amount of money into hard research on this field. While Hong Kong has been endeavoring to make itself the world leader in research on traditional Chinese medicine, Taiwan has put forward a plan to transform itself into a traditional Chinese medicine technology center. Research into traditional cures is also booming at university and institutions outside Asia. These efforts to unlock the secrets of traditional remedies could produce benefits for sufferers of diseases that have confounded both Western and Traditional Chinese medicines.

It has made great contribution to the development of the world medical science. Although there are still differences between Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine in theory, some world-known pharmaceutical companies, taking interest in it, have launched small research projects in China. A number of new medicines have already undergone trials across Asia. Now the "modernization" of Chinese It has gained a lot of focus. With the globalization and rapid development in technology and medical science, this Chinese traditional therapy has undergone profound improvement.

Chinese government has implemented a series of policies to enhance the improvement of it and to intensify the education and publicity of traditional medicine. Many medical colleges of many top universities have improved its education ability in this area. Every year, government will launch many seminars for the experts and doctors to make further communication about its development or settle some problems together. We can expect that the Chinese Traditional Medicine will make great progress. In future, it will become an international medical remedy system.

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A Short Look At Learning Chinese Online

In recent years a lot of people are trying to learn the Chinese language. Why not? China is one of the most influential Asian countries in the world, and it is now practical to learn Chinese. China is also one of the top economic producers in the global market. The Chinese language has influenced a lot of Asian countries including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

The languages of these countries contain many Chinese characters, and the structure of these languages is almost similar. The language had also been influential in the Philippines where a major percentage of the population is of Chinese ancestry mainly because of the major trade with China.

Chinese in general consists of varying regional dialects. These dialects include Mandarin, Cantonese, Xiang, Hakka, Gan, and Min. There are also other dialects which are not classified by linguists. Thus, the People's Republic of China uses Mandarin as the standard language. This also holds true with Taiwan. Chinese was originally spoken by the Han people. Mandarin is also known as Hanyu in Chinese.

To learn Chinese online, one must understand and master the Chinese pronunciation. It is critical and a lot of time should be devoted in studying it. Chinese characters are Romanized which means that it can be written with Latin alphabets. Hanyu Pinyin or simply Pinyin is what they call this process of Romanization. Sound clips are offered online containing many combinations of Mandarin pinyin. One must also practice conversing in Chinese. Practice makes perfect. There are basically for tones in Chinese. These tones must be spoken with precise pronunciation because if it is pronounced wrong, another word might be formed and confusion will occur. That is why it is important to put effort in studying these pronunciations.

Common Chinese phrases are introduced so that the student can practice talking using everyday Chinese conversations. Reading Chinese articles is another good way to learn Chinese online. It enhances the student's perception and analysis of Chinese words.

In trying to learn Chinese online, one must also study the art of Chinese writing. The language has its own unique writing system. Little Chinese children are trained to perfect the style of writing since it is also considered as a form of art. Chinese words are often made up of different ideas. These ideas have corresponding syllables which can then be added to other ideas to form another word. Words are formed by linking these ideas. The speaker and the receiver analyze these combinations to understand the whole idea. For example, the Chinese word for computer consists of the words, "electric" and "brain."

Grammar is also critical if you want to learn Chinese online. The basic units of the language are the morpheme, which is a syllable that contains an idea, the word, the compound, and the sentence. Online subjects offer knowledge of the grammar and many drills and exercises which will improve your Chinese. With these many useful information which can be taken from the internet, one who wants to learn Chinese online will find it easier than usual.

By the way, do you want to learn more about the Chinese language?

If so, download my free report on "8 Common Myths of Learning Chinese" here: http://thechineselearner.com

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