Homestead mailing list

[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

As it did for the U.S. when it was the manufacturing center of the 
world, the manufacturig sector provides the income to China to become 
the current world leader in the research activities that enhance and 
sustain long-term military and economic power in all other sectors of 
the economy, which are now being feverishly Sovietized by the U.S. 
Brezhnev/Kruschev aka Bush.. 

The most grievous mistake the United States ever made was to throw away 
it's manufacturing sector---the engine that produced a well-paid middle 
class, the economic ladder for the poor to move up.

It occurred with lightning speed from 1990 to 2004.  Two Presidents were 
directly responsible, Clinton with sufficent intellect to realize what 
he was doing, but without the will to stop it, and Bush with 
insufficient intellect to realize the enormity of the damage he was 
inflicting on the United States, but with a will perversely and 
deliberately accellerating U.S. decline to reward his superbribers who 
temporarily put and keep him in power.  Once started and fueled by two 
idiot Presidents, the process is irreversible.


   Go East, young biotech

You might call it a new Silk Road. Just like Marco Polo back in the 13th 
century, intrepid explorers from the West are once again beating a path 
to the Far East in search of China's great riches. Only this time, the 
profits won't come from jade or exotic spices; they're in the sciences.

For basic scientists in Europe and the United States, China has long 
represented an enormous opportunity for collaboration. But a flurry of 
recent news from agencies pushing stronger links with China, plus new 
support from China's government, suggests interest is picking up pace. 
For the biotech industry, this is good news.

In late July, for example, Germany's Helmholtz Association of National 
Research Centres opened a Chinese officeonly its second overseas office 
after Brusselswith the aim of boosting collaboration between researchers 
at its 15 centers and their Chinese counterparts.

"Given the euphoric mood and the dynamism amongst the scientific 
community in China, it seems only natural to open our first non-European 
office in this country," says Helmholtz president Walter Kröll. Chinese 
investigators already make up the third largest national group among 
Helmholtz guest scientists.

Hong He, head of the Helmholtz Beijing office, explains what the Germans 
hope to get from the deal; their ambitions are emblematic of those 
seeking links with the Asian giant. "Joint ventures must always offer 
identifiable benefits for both sides," he says. "On this basis, our 
scientists at the Helmholtz Centres are researching highly complex 
systems, together with their Chinese partners using large-scale 
facilities and scientific infrastructures. Together they can achieve 
their goals more swiftly and more efficiently."

Meanwhile, over in France, the Pasteur Institute in Paris is working 
with the Chinese government on a project to open a research foundation 
that will focus on public health needs and viral diseases. "The Chinese 
have made it very clear that they hope this institute will have a 
Diaspora effect," Michéle Boccoz, director of the international office 
at the Pasteur Institute, told /The Scientist Daily News/ back in April.

And speaking of attracting a scientific Diaspora back to China, during 
the 10th Annual Symposium of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in 
America (SCBA), held in Beijing in late July, scientists spoke of the 
very bright future that biotechnology could have in the Chinese market 
in the next few years. The Beijing meeting and another held in Shanghai 
were the first meetings SCBA has ever held within China, says the 
group's president, Mien-Chie Hung, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

The visits left him smiling. "I am very impressed with the recent 
progress of biological sciences in China," he says. "They are moving up 
quickly. If you see the economic development in Shanghai, I think you 
will agree that biotech development in China is advancing swiftly."

Venture capital, intellectual property, and entrepreneurship in life 
sciences and biotechnology are booming, adds SCBA executive director 
Joseph Li of Utah State University. Bioventure funding is readily 
available, and the Chinese government is quite supportive, he says.

"Biotechnology development within China is going at an accelerating 
pace," Li says. "The international biotech industry and companies are 
eager to come to China to establish joint ventures." Those Silk Road 
traders might have understood why.

*--Stephen Pincock *