[PeterParker]

I was just watching the Nightly Business Report on PBS, and there was a segment on the rapidly expanding Chinese Aviation field. Due to the volume of pilots that they need to train in order to keep up with the aggressive air industry expansion, they are looking to partner with institutions (starting in Australia, they are sending 200 students to a university that has its own airstrip) that can help them train the pilot recruits. The program cited that China plans to buy upwards of $200 Billion worth of planes from the likes of Air Bus and Boeing, but that they cannot train enough pilots fast enough to keep up with the roll out of the expansion.

Not sure if the Chinese government would send students all the way to the US, nor if they would send the students to a faith-based university, but its at least advantageous to be aware of those developments. Oh, and upon doing some more analysis, perhaps picking up a few shares in Boeing might look good if China makes good on those contracts....

US Boeing aircraft occupies 2/3 of China's aviation market
Li Jiaxiang, president of China National Aviation Holding Company, said the development of China's aviation industry has brought great benefit to American aircraft manufacturers. China started to buy Boeing 707 in 1972. By November 2005, 544 out of 800 airplanes operating in Chinese market are from Boeing company, in addition to those in operation in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. China has spent $40 billion to buy Boeing aircraft. And the Boeing company predicts that China will buy 2,600 new planes worth $213 billion in the following 20 years.

[TIMSCAR20]

I wonder if they are training for commercial or fighting? That is a real serious question due to China's population and the fact that there is a great deal of unrest with all this talk of nuclear arms control and development by Iran and Korea.

[whmatthews]

A good bit of advice: Don't trust communists.

[Sly Fox]

These Commuinists are also capitalists who are showering American businesses with loads of cash.

[whmatthews]

More good advice: Don't trust Communists who appear to be Capitalists who happen to be Chinese.

[mrmacphisto]

Communism is really just an extreme form of Capitalism.

But yeah, the Chinese are not to be trusted. We should have ceased trade with them years ago.

[PeterParker]

I should have clarified in my post, these are commercial pilots they are training to meet the demand for commercial airports--to facilitate business and tourism.

China is in an interesting state of flux: the old vanguard is still entrenched in the communist ideals (plus they lived under the rule for so long) but the youth are embracing many western values and ideals. So there is a sort of hodge podge of communo-capitalist push pull of ideas going on there--it will be interesting to see what comes out of the morphing of those two ideals. If a Chinese middle class can flourish that will help swing the tide closer to capitalism than communism...however, how the military philosophy adapts is another question altogether.

Interestingly, the burgeoning middle class in India is also shattering old customs in the nation, creating a similar push-pull of ideas between the younger rising middle class and the freedom it allows. The alarming thing to think about is that both of these nations within close proximity to each other total 2 Billion people compared with the United States at 300 Million this year. So, even though the US has obvious qualms about the Chinese situation, the current and potential clout that they will have financially, politically & militaristically in the future is why America's hand is somewhat forced to accomodate China in its current political ideology.

The only thing that provides some drag on the situation is the fact that the majority of the population is poor and undereducated due to the communist ideology which can be a huge drain on the resources trying to turn that around; however, it appears that the powers that be understand that element and are taking actions to correct that. Add in the fact that a ton of Chinese Students in American universities are returning home after graduation and taking the capitalist ideas home with them and you have one unique situation in Chinese history.


Nonetheless, if there are christians in China who also wish to land a good paying pilots job, perhaps people in that LU aviation department should find out from people in the Religion department who may have connections to the Chinese churches in order to offer flight training to interested individuals. Just a thought.

[Purple Haize]

Communism is really just an extreme form of Capitalism.

But yeah, the Chinese are not to be trusted. We should have ceased trade with them years ago.

I wonder what book THAT came from.??