My Story

As you might know, I lived and worked in California most of my adult life (33 years).  Our church, Bethel Baptist Church, which we planted in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1987, and I became a publisher, Pillar and Ground Publishing, to publish biblical and theological works.  It is now a work for South Decatur Baptist Church.  When we got ready to publish our book, A Pure Church, I looked into different ways to print the book.  I used print-on-demand in the United States for our first book and then a United States printer for the second one.

Since the church was on the West Coast, it was easier to get connections with Asia.  I did not believe that I would use China to print our book, but I wanted to see if I could do it.  You can find Chinese printers online, inviting business from the United States, so I contacted a few of them.  They all wanted our business, that is, until I told them the content of our book.  It was illegal for a Chinese printer to do our book because of its biblical, Christian subject matter.

In other words, I could want to save money in China, but China would not do business with a church with a biblical presentation to make.  None of the printers I contacted would print our book.  Two of them, I believe forgetting what we were printing, contacted me again about our interest for using them.  Again, I was 90 plus percent sure that I would not use a Chinese printer, but China wouldn’t do it for me anyway.

Doing Business in China

In recent days, the media reports the potential destruction of a lady’s business, who has her baby bibs manufactured in China.  The Trump tariffs won’t allow her to make a profit.  She has all her own money and even a sizeable loan involved in this business, and she will lose everything apparently.  This is a risk she took in doing business with a foreign, Communist country like China.

How do people get cheaper prices dealing with China?  Do you know?  Some call it slave labor.  The Chinese standard of living is very low compared to the United States.  A huge part of this is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its redistribution of wealth.  Since a large percentage of business in China is state owned, United States business in China helps support the CCP.  Because most of the Chinese people live in poverty, someone from the United States can do their job cheaper.

It is more expensive to do business in the Untied States, because of competition not found in a Communist government and country.  People have freedom and choices, so for companies operating in the United States to get the better people, they have to pay them more.  The United States might pride itself in the fairness of its workplaces, but one dirty little secret is that the United State has its main workforces in third world countries.

Don’t get me wrong.  United States business helps the poor people in third world countries, who make stuff for Americans.  They would be worse without the business they get from the United States.  However, that model of business sends manufacturing (making things) over seas.  What does China then do with this?

Intellectual Theft and More

The common report for China is that China operates according to its rules in trade and business.  Chinese companies will steal the intellectual property of successful business in the United States and then sell it in the United States through Walmart, Amazon, and other outlets.  A company starts and builds a venture through research and development, and when it reaches a certain threshold in sales, something like five million dollars, China does its own knock-off product and sells it a very reduced price with its poverty level workforce.  It stole an idea without spending anything on research and development.

When China undercuts American business, either the company or its product line go out of business.  It can’t compete with the price set by the Chinese company that is also subsidized in the Chinese economy.  The Chinese take that business away from a United States company.  A woman may lose her baby bib business because of tariffs, but once she succeeds to something like a five million dollar threshold, she can lose her business from the Chinese knock-off strategy.  They steal her bib idea and sell it for cheap.

The United States has no authority in the courts of China to prosecute theft of intellectual property.  When China steals things and American companies go under, this unfair practice does not equate to free trade.  The Chinese can function in American courts to get their way here, but an American businessman doesn’t have the same recourse in China.

Conclusion

When I began to write this post, I asked the internet, which now is essentially an algorithm in artificial intelligence, about the Chinese Communist Party.  I wanted to know how much of a cut the CCP made from its businesses.  How big a cut did it take?  Artificial intelligence almost always gives an answer, especially to that kind of question.  I asked it in a number of different ways and it would not give me an answer.  What do you think is happening?  How free are we?

I want to go back to my original point.  American printers are free to print biblical content.  Chinese ones are not.  China can censor religious material in violation of religious freedom.  The United States has a first amendment, but when it does business with China like it does, it in fact undercuts and breaches its own Constitutional rights.  It is a way of evading or bypassing human rights.  People can talk a good talk about these issues, but skirt or sidestep in order to make a buck in China.