China Daily over fried siopa

(Shanghai Fried Siopao credits to the owner)

It's interesting to read another country's newspaper. It gives you a glimpse of their pressing concerns and overall what's going on that side of the world. While in Binondo, I read the China Daily and these were what I gathered from that 10 minute break I had:

1. They are raising red flag on e-commerce trash. Last year, China delivered around 20 billion parcels, the daily reported. Am guessing this is internal sales, just imagine the sale worldwide! Also it tells you their people’s buying power. Weird that we continue to say Communist China because that alone tells us they no longer operate in the realm of socialism/communism. Going back to the issue, the ecommerce industry left a huge amount of trash--11 billion plastic bags, 9.9 billion cardboard boxes, and 17 billion meters of adhesive tape! Most of the plastic bags weren't biodegradable. Kababawan ko lang..Affected ako sa news na ito because I buy online (thrice last year) and most of the packages came from China. Moving forward, if I tell the seller to ditch the plastic, how would I know it’s brand new? ☹

2. They are penalizing those who will fail to take care of their aged parents. Specifically in Shanghai, those who will fail to visit their parents REGULARLY and ensure they are cared for will be included in a blacklist preventing them from securing jobs and loans. Filipinos in general take care of their parents. Maka magulang tayo, sobra. I know we don’t need laws like these but there are those who need reminding. So I hope our country too would have something similar to China’s Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly or even better. So far, only Senatoriables Neri Colmenares and Walden Bello have something in store for senior citizens.

3. Chinese Cultural Icons are being recruited to tell China stories to the world. Basketball star Yao Ming and even action star Jackie Chan and other Chinese cultural icons are being tapped by their government to be ambassadors of ‘Chinese stories’. What and how they didn’t elaborate. I guess, let’s just check out their social media accounts to know what kind of 'Chinese stories' they will share.

4. China is excited about ASEAN’s plan to link Southeast Asian countries. Imagine boarding from Thailand and getting off in Cambodia or Vietnam. ASEAN wants a railway line that will connect Myanmar and Thailand, then Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, then Vietnam and Laos. The only problem is there is no funding at the regional level. Only China has the financial capability to foot its own bill. Apart from being rich, China is in the business of making bullet trains and railways. In fact, they have inked many deals abroad including the most recent with Argentina. Last year, China also has a deal with Indonesia. They offered to build railway infrastructure with no cash out from the Indonesian Government. Majority of the funding would come from the China Development Bank. Think IMF. So it’s a loan. However, Indonesia decided to work on the railway project on their own because the interest rate China gave them wasn’t ‘friendly’. This is the same route Duterte wants to take if he wins the Presidency. He will shut up, set aside the dispute with China, but he will ask them to build us a railway. Sabi nga, mangarap na lang ang libre. It may sound free but our taxes will shoulder this. I have no qualms paying taxes for this but at what cost? Setting aside the dispute? My problem with that is if we shut up and wait years before we address this issue, China won’t. They will just continue to build facilities in the contested area and harass our fishermen.

All that over fried siopa.  (Orinignally posted on my FB account April 17 this year):P