By Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Let’s quit being polite and call this maneuver by corporate governments exactly what it is – treason. Nothing more, nothing less. Selling off pieces of America to a foreign government so that government can plant a sovereign city inside our country that is not subject to our laws amounts to treason.

Thanks to the trillions of dollars that the Chinese have made flooding our shores with cheap products, China is now in a position of tremendous economic power. So what is China going to do with all of that money? One thing that they have decided to do is to buy up pieces of the United States and set up “special economic zones” inside our country from which they can continue to extend their economic domination. One of these “special economic zones” would be just south of Boise, Idaho and the Idaho government is eager to give it to them. China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach for short) plans to construct a “technology zone” south of Boise Airport which would ultimately be up to 50 square miles in size. The Chinese Communist Party is the majority owner of Sinomach, so the 10,000 to 30,000 acre “self-sustaining city” that is being planned would essentially belong to the Chinese government. The planned “self-sustaining city” in Idaho would include manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail centers and large numbers of homes for Chinese workers. Basically it would be a slice of communist China dropped right into the middle of the United States. (End of America)

What Does Special Economic Zone – SEZ Mean?

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country’s typical or national laws. “Nationwide” laws may be suspended inside a special economic zone…

In the People’s Republic of China, Special Economic Zones were founded by the central government under Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. The most successful Special Economic Zone in China, Shenzhen, has developed from a small village into a city with a population over 10 million within 20 years. India has also played a significant role in the founding and establishment of Special Economic Zones. It has the largest outsourcing industry in Asia. (Wikipedia)

So, if China gets its way in Idaho, we will have sections of America belonging to a communist foreign government whose residents and the corporations that employ them do not have to abide by our national laws. The term “sovereign immunity” comes to mind. 

Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a type of immunity that in common law jurisdictions traces its origins from early English law. Generally speaking it is the doctrine that the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution… (Wikipedia)

Not only will people living in this country be exempt from our laws, but the land will be designated a “free trade zone.”

…a region where a group of countries has agreed to reduce or eliminate trade barriers.[2] Free trade zones can be defined as labor intensive manufacturing centers that involve the import of raw materials or components and the export of factory products. The world’s first Free Trade Zone was established in Shannon, Co. Clare, Ireland Shannon Free Zone.[3] (Wikipedia)

And just whom do you think this special economic zone, or “labor intensive manufacturing center,” will be employing? Those who live in its jurisdiction, and those who follow its laws. Not our laws, but China’s. Do you think that anyone other than a Chinese national will live in this zone? If you do, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you. Do you think that the pay for jobs in the zone will be equivalent to America’s pay scale? Is China’s? No. And China’s standard will exist in the zone.

This is not a boom to Idaho, but a death knell for those who are rapidly losing jobs to overseas outsourcing, only this will be so much more convenient for the mega-corporations. Just import China to America, make this little piece of China exempt from our national laws, and get away with what you got away with in China, sans the travel time. If this isn’t an end-run around national laws that benefit we the people, I don’t know what is. Change from the inside out. If Mohammed can’t go to the mountain, just bring the mountain to Mohammed and declare it sovereign territory.

Corporations setting up in a zone may be given tax breaks as an incentive. Usually, these zones are set up in underdeveloped parts of the host country; the rationale is that the zones will attract employers and thus reduce poverty and unemployment, and stimulate the area’s economy. These zones are often used by multinational corporations to set up factories to produce goods (such as clothing or shoes). (Wikipedia)

Reduce poverty and unemployment? Let’s take a look at what really goes on inside the zone:

Labour Abuse

In addition to real estate speculation, zones also produced other problems. Ironically for an avowedly communist regime,abuse of labour is rampant in Chinese SEZs [ICFTU 2003]. Seven million people out of Shenzhen’s total population of 12 million are migrant workers, with almost no legal or social protection [French 2006].

1992 data for the Guangdong province, home of Shenzhen, shows very high death rates among industrial workers and more than 500,000 child labourers – a phenomenon which had been greatly reduced in post-revolutionary China [Weil 1996]. In 2003, at least half the firms in Shenzhen owed their employees wage arrears [ICFTU 2003], and at least one-third of Chinese zone workers received less than minimum wage [Jayanthakumaran 2003]. The labour turnover rate is more than 10 per cent [French 2006]. Indeed, Shenzhen workers are so desperate that despite the lack of any independent unions, more than 10,000 wildcat strikes took place in 2006 alone [ibid].

This labour abuse is accompanied, unsurprisingly, by crime. Shenzhen now has a crime rate that is nine times higher than that of Shanghai, and is notorious for the trafficking of women and sex trade [Goswami 1997]. Relaxed customs have also led to large-scale smuggling; two of the original zones, Shantou and Xiamen, were hit by massive tax and smuggling frauds in 2000 and 1999 respectively [Business China 2006].

Could you live on Chinese wages?

As different parts of China have very different standards of living, China does not set one minimum wage for the entire nation. Instead, the task of setting minimum wages is delegated to the local governments. Each province, municipality, or region sets its own minimum wage in accordance with its own local conditions.

The table below lists the minimum monthly wages for some of the provinces or regions in China. The US$ column is based on the 20th April 2011 conversion rate of US$1 = RMB¥6.52. The table is correct as of 20th April 2011. (Wikipedia)

But what goes on in the zone stays in the zone. Or does it? Well, sort of. Companies can move workers to and from any free trade zone in the country, and according to Marti Oakley of the PPJ Gazette,

Inside these free trade zones they are required to hire only a maximum of 10 US citizens. They bring these people in on EB-5 visas that avoid customs and immigration. After two years if they haven’t been in any trouble they are given citizenship and may move anywhere in the country.

Just what type of economic boom is this sell-off of American soil to a foreign government supposed to be to the people of Idaho? And do you actually think that the people living in these zones will be buying anything outside of the zone? At these wages, could you? Live in the zone, work in the zone, play in the zone, and do what China SEZ.

So the question is: What will you do when you are surrounded by Chinese zones that are not subject to our national laws right outside your front door if/when China decides that America is no longer its “friend?”

© 2011 Barbara H. Peterson