I beg to differ about the reasons, cited by many Americans, that the US is one of the most prosperous nations in the world. During countless business dinners, visiting businessmen from the "Chosen Country" have been trying to brainwash me into convincing me that the superior political, legal, educational, moral and business climate in the US are the reasons for its alleged prosperity.

Indeed, I beg to differ.

I attribute the relative prosperity of Federal America to the large arable land mass which is well populated by nearly 300 million souls and, ipso facto, a very large internal market; the absence of internal customs borders and a common currency.

I do not consider the American pre-university educational system worthy of copying elsewhere. Many US high school students cause their teachers mental breakdowns or they simply shoot disliked teachers; many US students also graduate without being able to read, interpret or write proper (American) English, the painful result of which I have to suffer almost daily: I have yet to receive an e-mail from an American that was not riddled with style and spelling mistakes.

President George Bush is a living example of this.

Conversely, many American friends seem to be rather uninformed about China. Sadly, my prophecy about China being blamed for America's unemployment problems (Shanghai Star, September 18, 2003) has materialized and, in this election year, enormous import duties are to be slapped on Chinese products such as television sets, bathroom furniture and, would you believe it, ladies' brassieres (much of the material used in the bras is actually imported from the US).

There is no doubt that soon, everyone else will also jump on the bandwagon. From US manufacturers of toothpicks to toilet seat covers to tiddly-winks. A US inspection team is currently in China to verify true production costs and, most importantly, that there are no hidden government subsidies in place, which there are not.

A rider was placed on the missions' aims and objectives stating that: "The commission will not necessarily accept the inspection team's findings."

This is an election year, you see. Therefore, the American way of doing things is to slap enormous punitive import duties on whatever goods are politically important, following which the painfully slow World Trade Organization wheels slowly grind into motion. When the results come out, after a year or more, the US presidential election will be history. Voters in affected areas have been duly swung over. The WTO will rule that the duties were not justified or even illegal, the US will back down as with the stupid steel dispute and the whole world will wait with bated breath for the next Presidential election when the same silly show will repeat itself.

Will all those illegally collected import duties be repaid? It may not be a bad idea for all affected countries in the world to band together and obtain not only refunds but also interest at investment rates and to claim for any business losses caused by these frivolous actions. There are half a million lawyers in the US. WTO reps should be able to find an effective one.

And China, as a respected member of the WTO should move to have the rules changed. If there is any allegation of unfair trading practices and the allegation appears to be justified and is not frivolous, a small team of WTO auditors should make an immediate on-site investigation. This could be wrapped up and well documented in a few weeks with assistance from affected and therefore co-operative companies.

The ruling should be binding.

Should the relevant (US?) party disagree, then they must come up with their own certified and verified numbers before further appeals can be considered.

But the practice of flippant US pressure groups blaming China for many of the US' woes and blocking Chinese exports is disruptive, unfair and plain childish. Will they ever grow up?

It would also be helpful for US educators to come to China and learn a thing or two on how to motivate students to excel at school. Informed and well educated US citizens will, in the future, not be so easily be goaded into believing politically inspired propaganda.

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