Bloomington Rotary Club #3430

ROTA-LETTER for Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Bloomington Rotary Club ( www.bloomingtonrotary.org ) –Founded 1918

Rotary 2009-2010 : “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands”

NEXT MEETING : January 26

PLACE : Frangipani Room

SUBJECT : Roy Gardner, Economics & West European Studies: “Ukraine -
Today and Tomorrow”
Location: Frangipani Room

January 19 Meeting
GREETER: Scott O’Bryan

PLEDGE & REFLECTION: Faiz Rahman

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Lance Eberle introduced the following guests :
George Karnes, guest of Bob Gutmann; Marsha McCarty, guest of Leslie Green; Kris Kegley, guest of Jim Bright; Andrew Bratton, guest of Nancy Krueger; Geoff
McKim, guest of Kim Gray; Tony Armstrong, guest of Chris Molloy; and Bob Arnove, guest of Toby Strout.

Glenda Murray conducted the meeting in place of President Susan Bookout, who was out of town, and made the following Announcements:
• We will have an Induction of new members at our meeting on February 2.
• We will once again be taking orders for Valentines Day Roses. The cost will be $ 40 per dozen and Order Sheets will be on the tables for the next few weeks. The Roses will then be distributed on February 13 in the circle outside the Memorial Union.
• ShelterBoxes can be purchased for victims of the Haiti Earthquake. The cost is $ 1,000 per ShelterBox and they contain shelter, bedding, cooking utensils, water purification, dishes, portable stove, drawings and games for children, and other living essentials for up to 10 people. Virgin Atlantic Airways will transport the ShelterBoxes to Haiti at no charge, and 930 already have been sent.
• Various Rotary Clubs have challenged all other Clubs to see who can donate the most ShelterBoxes. Jeffersonville has donated one and Greensburg & Rising Sun have donated one together. On-line and mail in donations may be made through this link https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/ShelterBoxUSAInc/OnlineGiving.html.
You can also donate to the Rotary Foundation Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, a donor-advised Fund.
• Bloomington North Club has invited us to their February 4 meeting to hear Todd Rokita, Indiana Secretary of State. Please RSVP to Joe Morris, their Program Chair, at j.d.morris@comcast.net, if you plan to come.

PROGRAM:

David Albright introduced our speaker, Scott Kennedy, Associate Professor in the Political Science and East Asian Languages Department, who discussed China’s Domestic and International Response to the Global Economic Crisis.

Scott has been studying China for 20 years, lived there for 6 years, and concentrates his study on Non-Governmental Organizations, similar to Rotary Clubs.

China now has the third largest economy in the world, having just passed Germany
(the U.S. has the largest economy, followed by Japan), and has the equivalent of Four Trillion Dollars in reserve. There are now 17 million people living in Beijing and, interestingly, Beijing now has over 100 golf courses.

Google has recently been in the news, since they have accused the Chinese Government of censoring their web service, favoring domestic companies over Google and making cyber-attacks on their system. Google has announced they will discontinue their business in China. However, China only represents 1% of their global profits. Therefore, it may not be a big loss to Google and may actually help them in other markets, since others may respect their position. Also, this could ultimately help them in China and they now may be able to negotiate better terms with the Government.

There has been a large increase in “dumping” complaints about China to the World Trade Organization by various countries. The U.S. has filed 8 complaints with the WTO and 5 have been settled in our favor. A recent action by the Obama Administration has been to propose a Tariff on Chinese Tire imports to the U.S. and our first Petition to the WTO regarding this Tariff has been approved.

However, U.S. companies, in general, are doing well in China and their profits are actually higher than comparable Chinese companies. Initially, U.S. companies used Chinese manufacture mainly for exports from China, but now most of their business is from the Chinese market.

Also, Chinese manufacturers now serve mainly the domestic market. Exports are no longer the biggest source of income. The Government is pouring large investments into infrastructure.

It is unlikely that China will sell their large cache of Dollars. This would depress the Dollar and decrease the value of the remaining Chinese holdings.

Scott made two personal comments on U.S.-China relations. In his view:
• Obama should meet with the Dalai Lama. Dialogue would be better than no dialogue.
• The U.S. should proceed with additional missile sales to Taiwan. Both we and China want to peacefully settle the disputes between the two countries, but we must also maintain the current balance of power.

FUTURE MEETINGS :

February 2 - Randy White, Cardinal Stage Company. Location: Frangipani Room
February 9 - Elinor ”Lin” Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics

Today’s Reporter : Lee Caulfield