China Lessons

A dinner with a Japanese friend taught me a few more lessons about China. Unfortunately most of the lessons was really bad news.

We were having some jasmine tea and he suddenly remarked: "By the way, when you take green tea, make sure that it comes from Japan or at least made by a Japanese company. Don't ever make the mistake of buying tea, green or otherwise, that comes from China".

I was not sure whether he was simply selling Japanese products so I demanded some explanation. And he said, "Japanese, Americans and Europeans are no longer buying China-made green tea because Chinese tea growers are using a lot of pesticides." I did not need any further elaboration.

Then our conversation shifted to the world economic recession. It seems that we didn't really have much to talk about so we shifted to this topic which we both pretended to know.

I asked him, "What do you think is the best business today, considering the global economic mess?"

"A very promising business area these days is grains-dealing, sale of rice, corn, wheat. And the destination is China!" I was rather surprised and I thought he was pulling my leg because the Chinese are considered good at farming and they have all the arable land in the world.

"There are many regions in China which used to be grains-growing areas. But lately these areas have experienced severe draught because of the changing weather patterns so they can no longer produce as much grains. Where will they get all the grain to feed almost two billion people?" Good point, I think.

I suddenly realized that with or without draught, Pinas has been importing rice from everywhere, Thailand, US, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc. Of course, we are barely a hundred million people, if that is any consolation.

My friend's ending: Chinese leaders have a lot to worry about!