Corn Import + Fake Lighter + Repatriation

choi

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(1) Chuin-Wei Yap, China Sees Food Need Rising. Wall Street Journal, Mar 25, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703784004576220291166000526.html

Quote:

"Chen Xiwen, director of the State Council's executive office on rural policy, questioned the policy wisdom of setting increasingly higher targets for grain output as China struggles to wring more yield out of scarce arable resources.

"In recent decades, it has dropped the self-sufficiency goal for some crops, like soybeans, but continues to categorize corn, wheat and rice as key grains, of which it maintains formidable stockpiles.

"He pointed to soybeans, imports of which overtook domestic output around 2004 to meet sharply rising Chinese demand. 'China used to be the world's largest soybean producer, now it's the world's largest soybean importer,' Mr. Chen said. China last year posted a record 54.8 million tons of soybean imports.

My comment:
(a) Just look at the graphic. China has imported more and more of soybean. But its self-sufficiency on grains look more and more tenuous. The more I see it, the less likely China can afford going into a war--even one-on-one with Taiwan.
(b) CHEN Xiwen 中央農村工作領導小組副組長、辦公室主任 陳錫文


(2) Lighter Side of Counterfeiting Puts Zippo in a Fix. Wall Street Journal, Mar 25, 2011 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703362904576218650845017800.html
("Factories in China, the company figures, make 12 million fake Zippos a year. In Bradford, at its only plant, Zippo makes 12 million real ones. Rippos, as Zippo fans actually do call them [fakes], used to be junk. * * * But like a lot of other things in China, rippo workmanship keeps improving. * * * It's getting to the point where Zippo itself has to look twice to tell the difference between counterfeits and its own product")

Note:
(a) Zippo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippo
(a refillable, metal lighter manufactured by Zippo Manufacturing Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania; George G. Blaisdell founded the company in 1932, being inspired by an Austrian cigarette lighter of similar design./ It got its name because Blaisdell liked the sound of the word "zipper" and "zippo" sounded more modern)
(b) cinch (n):
"1: a girth for a pack or saddle
2: a tight grip
3a : a thing done with ease
b : a certainty to happen <it's a cinch he'll break the record>"
www.m-w.com

(c) Briggs & Riley Travelware
http://www.briggs-riley.com/

based in Hauppauge, New York and founded in 1993 by Richard Costa. Wikipedia.
(d) Ray-Ban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray-Ban
(a high end manufacturer of sunglasses, founded in 1937 by Bausch & Lomb)

My comment: The meaning of "Ray-Ban" is just what the words say: ban the rays.
(e) Slinky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slinky
(f) The report says, "Zippo tickles its designs and the fakers tickle theirs/"

tickle (vt): "to touch or stir gently <a pianist tickling the ivories>"


(3) Daisuke Wakabayashi, Toko Sekiguchi and Brian Spegele, Rescue by Bus: China Sends for Its Own. Wall Street Journal, Mar 23, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208731139223352.html
("the fortunate few who survived had been holed up in a cold, cavernous gymnasium and make-shift evacuation hall. Not all of them were Japanese. Huddled under a mountain of blankets in small groups around the center were Chinese laborers. The bus had come for them")

Note:
(a) Onagawa, Miyagi 宮城県 女川町
http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/map/ken.htm
(b)  Choei Suisan 長栄水産 株式会社
www.choei.jp/
(c) Nobutaka AZUMI 安住 宣孝 (町長 Mayor)
(d) Kimura is Japanese surname 木村.
(e) Linqu county 山东省潍坊市 临朐县
(f) Martin Fackler, Severed From the World, Villagers Survive on Tiht Bonds and To-Do Lists.New York Times, Mar 24, 2011.
(Shohei Miura, a 17-year-old high school junior, "said he survived the tsunami itself by climbing to his roof and then leaping from rooftop to rooftop of floating homes before swimming through the wave's currents to a hillside")

There is no need to read the rest of the NYT report.
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