Did the Chinese Discover America?

By Michael Zennie

A copy of a 600-year-old map found in a second-hand book shop is the key to proving that the Chinese, not Christopher Columbus, were the first to discover the New World, a controversial British historian claims.?

The document is purportedly an 18th century copy of a 1418 map charted by Chinese Admiral Zheng He, which appears to show the New World in some detail.

This purported evidence that a Chinese sailor mapped the Western Hemisphere more than seven decades before Columbus is just one of?Earth-shattering claims that author Gavin Menzies makes in his new book?'Who Discovered America?'?- out today, just in time for the Columbus Day holiday.?

'The traditional story of Columbus discovering the New World is absolute fantasy, it's fairy tales,' Mr Menzies told MailOnline.

Among Menzies other claims are that the first inhabitants of the Western hemisphere didn't come over land from the Bering Strait, but instead were Chinese sailors who first crossed the Pacific Ocean 40,000 years ago.

He also writes that DNA markers prove American Indians and other natives are the descendants of several waves of Asian settlers.

Furthermore, he says a majestic fleet of Chinese ships, commanded by Zheng He, sailed around the continent of South America ? 100 years before Ferdinand Megellan supposedly became the first the undertake the task.

Columbus features heavily in the book ? insofar as Menzies has devoted the last 20 years to finding and laying out evidence that Columbus not only didn't discover America ? he was 40 millenia late.

Mr Menzies believes that Columbus actually had a map of the world that was plotted by the Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who created the map when he sailed to the New World in 1421, more than seven decades before Columbus.

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Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt

By Matthew Robertson, Epoch Times Staff

China?s economy has a reputation for being strong and prosperous, but according to a well-known Chinese television personality the country?s Gross Domestic Product is going in reverse.

Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn?t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis?on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.

The restrictions Lang placed on the Oct. 22 speech in Shenyang City, in northern China?s Liaoning Province, included no audio or video recording, and no media. He can be heard saying that people should not to post his speech online, or ?everyone will look bad,? in the audio that is now on Youtube.

In the unusual, closed-door lecture, Lang gave a frank analysis of the Chinese economy and the censorship that is placed on intellectuals and public figures. ?What I?m about to say is all true. But under this system, we are not allowed to speak the truth,? he said.

Despite Lang?s polished appearance on his high-profile TV shows, he said: ?Don?t think that we are living in a peaceful time now. Actually the media cannot report anything at all. Those of us who do TV shows are so miserable and frustrated, because we cannot do any programs. As long as something is related to the government, we cannot report about it.?

He said that the regime doesn?t listen to experts, and that Party officials are insufferably arrogant. ?If you don?t agree with him, he thinks you are against him,? he said.

Lang?s assessment that the regime is bankrupt was based on five conjectures.

Firstly, that the regime?s debt sits at about 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion). This calculation is arrived at by adding up Chinese local government debt (between 16 trillion and 19.5 trillion yuan, or US$2.5 trillion and US$3 trillion), and the debt owed by state-owned enterprises (another 16 trillion, he said). But with interest of two trillion per year, he thinks things will unravel quickly.

Secondly, that the regime?s officially published inflation rate of 6.2 percent is fabricated. The real inflation rate is 16 percent, according to Lang.

Thirdly, that there is serious excess capacity in the economy, and that private consumption is only 30 percent of economic activity. Lang said that beginning this July, the Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of the manufacturing industry, plunged to a new low of 50.7. This is an indication, in his view, that China?s economy is in recession.

Fourthly, that the regime?s officially published GDP of 9 percent is also fabricated. According to Lang?s data, China?s GDP has decreased 10 percent. He said that the bloated figures come from the dramatic increase in real estate development each year (accounting for up to 70 percent of GDP in 2010).

Fifthly, that taxes are too high. Last year, the taxes on Chinese businesses (including direct and indirect taxes) were at 70 percent of earnings. The individual tax rate sits at 81.6 percent, Lang said.

Once the ?economic tsunami? starts, the regime will lose credibility and China will become the poorest country in the world, Lang said.

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