Running for public office? First thing you have to do is talk about how awesome America is. A quick and easy way to do that, these days, is to invoke the magic word: China. Specifically, use language pitting Americans agains "the Chinese." Case in point, recent comments by GOP presidential contender Carly Fiorina, who says the Chinese are unimaginative and unable to innovate. "That's why they're stealing our intellectual property."
Carly Fiorina: The Chinese "Can't Innovate, Not Terribly Imaginative, Not Entrepreneurial"
In a video filmed by Iowa political blog Caffeinated Thoughts back in January before Fiorina announced her candidacy, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO explains her opposition to Common Core educational standards, arguing that there is no need for federal benchmarks over concerns that American students are lagging behind Chinese students in science and math.
Why? Because Chinese people lack creativity. "Innovation and entrepreneurship are not their strong suits."
'I have been doing business in China for decades, and I will tell you that yeah, the Chinese can take a test, but what they can't do is innovate,' she said. 'They are not terribly imaginative. They're not entrepreneurial, they don't innovate, that is why they are stealing our intellectual property.'
The video was uncovered by BuzzFeed, which also shared an excerpt about from Fiorina's book Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey, in which she makes similar comments about the Chinese:
Proponents of Common Core argue that we must compete with the Chinese in subjects like math and science. I agree that we must compete, but we will not win by becoming more centralized and standardized in our education methods. Although the Chinese are a gifted people, innovation and entrepreneurship are not their strong suits. Their society, as well as their educational system, is too homogenized and controlled to encourage imagination and risk taking. Americans excel at such things , and we must continue to encourage them. A centralized bureaucracy in Washington shouldn't be telling teachers how to teach or students how to learn. Our states have been described as “laboratories of democracy.” They are also laboratories of innovation.
Fiorina also argues that entrepreneurship, innovation, risk taking and imagination are distinctly American traits. Pretty clever how Fiorina is saying that Americans need to stop comparing ourselves to the Chinese, while she is indeed doing just that with this whole line of bullshit about innovation.
So... who would like to start a list of all the f**cking things that the Chinese have invented?
Like I said, it wouldn't be a proper political campaign without some good ol' fashioned China-bashing. I'm sure Carly Fiorina, with her decades of business experience in China, is just getting started.
More here: Carly Fiorina Calls The Chinese Unimaginative Idea Thieves