1. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the cold war between the US and Russia. The balance of power tipped toward nations advocating democracy, consensual and free market governance. You need capitalism to create innovation. India socialism had taken them to a point where they only had $1 billion in foreign reserve. Today, because of trade liberalization and free market capitalism, India has $118 billion in foreign reserve. Freedom flattens across all societies: more children, more literacy, more employment opportunities, more growth. The fall of communism opened the way for the formation of the European Union and the expansion of the euro, as the common currency. Information was more free and less of a monopoly. Personal computers, faxes machines, windows, and dial-up modems connected to a global network came together to form a platform for a global information revolution, says Craig J. Mundie. With a platform in place, applications drove the diffusion far and wide, into corporate computing. Millions of developers wrote applications for Windows to improve productivity. An interoperable way needed to be developed to communicate between different networks and operating systems. A standard for sharing needed to be established, the World Wide Web.
2. Netscape became the first commercial browser. The browser worked on IBM PC, apple Macintosh, and Unix machines. Netscape made the Internet interoperable allowing companies to share email and files. Open protocols like ftp, http, ssl, smtp, pop, and tcp/ip became the standard for transparent data transmission. http moved HTML documents between a server and a client. Initially, Apache was the free http serve than served the internet. Today, 45% of the US web servers used for hosting websites is Apache and 2/3 of the web server's world wide is Apache. Apache found that collaborating in the open source forum was the best way to bring intelligent people together. People gained a reputation in the community and players contributed to the code base. Apache was free for education and licensed for business. IBM adopted Apache for its Websphere server. Other Open source and community projects are Wikipedia and Firefox.
3. Fiber optics reduced the cost to transmit data over greater distances and opened up opportunities to capitalize on a cheaper labor. The Telecommunications act of 1996 launched the fiber optic bubble. Fiber optics caused long distance rates to fall from $2 a minute to 10 cents. The global fiber optic network flattened the developed world.
4. Craig Mundie of Microsoft believes that web services and work flow provide a global platform for a global workforce. TCP/IP, SOAP, and XML make web services accessible within the global network allowing software to control the flow of work. Standards were helping companies focus on more innovation. Tasks are taken apart and send it to whom can do it best; the assembly line for the service sector. Work flow software seamlessly connects application to application.
5. The Indian Institute of Technology graduated thousands of smart Indians. The dysfunctional, socialistic politics of Nehru guaranteed in the mid-1990s that India could not provide good jobs for the most talent engineers. The second buyer of India's brainpower was America. Since 1953, twenty five thousand top graduates of India have settled in America enriching the labor pool. Companies like GE and Texas Instrument helped IIT get off the ground by bringing work for Medical systems and chip design and software requiring skilled talent potential. India started helping America fix its Y2K bug and the relationship of trust started. India engineers were trusted to work with complex software developed in the US.
6. In 2001, China joins the World Trade Organization. By China joining the WTO, China assures foreign companies they are protected by international law and standard business practices. Foreign companies could sell anywhere in China. Beijing agreed to treat all WTO members equally: same tariff and same regulations. China has more than 160 cities with over one million people. Kenichi Ohmae says, decide what part of the company you want to sale to China and want you want to buy from China. Between 1995 and 2000, China lost 15 million manufacturing jobs and the US lost 2 million manufacturing jobs. However, China is gaining the jobs in service and they are on a race to the top against the US and UK.
7. According to Heritage Foundation, America companies that produce for the US market and China market generated more than 21 percent of US economic output, produced 51 percent of US exports, and employed three-fifths of all manufacturing employees, 9 million.
8. In 2004, Wal-Mart purchased $260 billion worth of merchandise and ran it through its supply chain of 108 distribution centers routed to 3,000 stores in America. Wal-Mart buys directly from manufacturers. Information about what customers are buying is feed directly into the manufacturer supply chain system. Low price is derived from efficiencies. Just-In-Time reduced inventories, replace items on demand, and connect suppliers with retail through global software communication.
9. UPS helped small companies become global by providing service for fullfilling supply chain logistics. UPS integrated with the warehouse, provided the packaging, and delivery of supplies. The factory produces and UPS delivers the products to the customer. UPS makes 2 million phone calls a day on the wireless network. Advanced scheduling software routes the package to its bin location in the truck and gps and navigation software provide route information for the drive to deliver the package. Millions of people a day go online to see the status of their packages.
10. The US produces the most ideas in the world. In 2004, 4000 out of 7600 institutes of higher learning were in the US. Yet on 400,000 out of 2.2 million first time BA were US students. The lion share of the graduates being from Asia. Over 500,000 out of 800,000 publish articles were from the US. The US still has the brainpower for new ideas and After 9/11 restrictions on Visas adversely affecting the number of students studying in America.
11. Japan outbid China in the battle to determine the route of the pipeline that Russia intends to build to the Far East. China began competing with the US for Oil from Canada and Venezuela. The top five countries that the US imports oil from are Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria. 32% of China’s oil is imported. China is or has acquired oil interests in Kazakhstan, Russia; Venezuela; Sundan, West Africa; Iran; Saudi Arabia; and Canada. China has oil deals with Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador
12. Countries hostile to the US, providing China oil, will bear heavily on US – China relationships. The US will demand sanctions on these countries and China will not support sanctions.
13. China loaned Brazils Petrobras, $10 billion for a guaranteed oil supply over the next decade. 200,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 10 years. China is Brazils number one trade partner. Brazil supplies 45 percent of all China’s soybean imports and is a source of agricultural products. Brazil possesses nuclear industry and uranium resource important for China’s nuclear industry. In 2009, Brazilian exports to China increase 67 percent. China is helping to develop deepwater oil drilling in Campos and Santos basins. Brazil is collaborating with China on satellite and space research. (http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-05-20-voa10-68643457.html)
14. China is interested in Argentia’s mining and oil sectors. In 2003, China acquired a stake in the Argentina oil and gas firm Pluspetrol which operates fields in northern Argentina and Peru. In 2010, China National Offshore Oil Corporation purchased a 50 percent stake in Argentina’s Bridas Holding for $3.1 billion. (http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1883)
15. In 2007 nearly 40% of Chiles exports went to Asia-Pacific region mostly to China. 85.2 percent of Perus export to China are cooper, fish flour, and iron ore. China is investing in Peru in the oil and gas sector.
16. China is interested in Boliva’s natural gas reserves. Liquefaction of the gas is being developed for transport to China. In 2005, China Shengli International Development Co sign a pact with Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolovianos to invest $1.5 billion over 40 years in Boliva’s onshore oil and gas sector.
17. China has invested in Ecuadors oil fields, port operations, and pipeline assets. In 2005, China buys Canada-based Encana’s oil and pipeline asset in Ecuador for $1.42 billion. In 2009, a $1 billion loan for oil deal was created.
18. China signs a $16 billion deal with Venezuela to produce several hundred thousand barrels of oil per day for import.
19. China will consume 14 million barrels a day by 2012. China receives 7 percent of its oil from Sudan and 13 percent of its oil from Iran ($120 billion in oil deal and growing). China has invested $8 billion in Sudan to develop oil infrastructure, including a 900 mile pipeline to the Red Sea. China secretly has been providing military aid to Sudanese government. (http://www.iags.org/china.htm)
20. China is transition away from bicycles to mass transit and private automobiles. In Beijing over 1,000 vehicles a day are added to the roads. Automobile growth in China is estimated to be 19% a year.
21. China is developing localized Shale oil and natural gas too meet their energy needs. China should be allowed to grow and find its way into the future.