T-Faz
RETIRED MOD
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2010
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Shanghai glitters. The high-rises sparkle in the morning sun, then morph into a fairytale playground in the night. Sitting here in my hotel room, I can hear the buzz of the busy city reach the 18th floor.
I monitor developments in the rest of the world -- Conservative leader David Cameron is the new British prime minister, the resignation of Gordon Brown, Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s fence-mending visit to Washington and the daily power cuts in Pakistan -- but the truth is when you’re in China, nothing else really counts.
The country engulfs and overwhelms you. You cannot but compare China’s amazing growth with the slow, plodding development of its neighbors in South Asia. Even India, with its global ambitions, is dwarfed by rapidly rising China -- the proverbial fast-moving tiger compared to the slow Indian elephant.
Shanghai, with its unashamed in-your-face opulence, takes your breath away -- and not just because of the gigantic Shanghai Expo which dominates the landscape. The city is shiny clean, spruced up and at its best behavior. Everyone tries to speak English -- a policeman helps me hail a taxi and as I wander around the city, people help me with directions, eager to help foreigners find their way in this bewildering city.
At the Expo itself, countries compete with each other to showcase their culture, industrial prowess and, of course, their exports to eager Chinese consumers. I notice the Pakistan pavilion but there is no time to visit; the queues are too long.
Chinese tourists line up to admire the massive foreign exhibitions but above all they are here to celebrate -- yet again, after the Olympics in 2008 -- their country’s ascent: China is one of the world’s strongest economies, a country that has lifted millions out of poverty, the nation that everyone wants to court. Invited to take part in a panel discussion organized at the Expo by the European Union on the poverty-bashing Millennium Development Goals, I marvel at China’s rise along with my European, Asian and African colleagues.
We’re all aware of the downside of one-party rule… But the buzz in Shanghai proves that -- at least for the moment -- the majority of Chinese are happy to make a historical trade off: living with political constraints in exchange for ever-expanding economic prosperity.
First the Asians. There’s no doubt that like Japan in the 1980s, China is laboring hard to build a neighborhood that is prosperous and stable. Chinese investments in the rest of Asia are on the rise as is trade with the region and aid to poorer Asian countries.
Visit any member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and it soon becomes clear that ‘old talk’ of seeking to contain China has been abandoned in favor of stronger engagement with the region’s rising star. The free-trade agreement between China and ASEAN came into force on January 1, 2010, spotlighting even stronger economic links between the two sides. “We see China as a good neighbor,” an ASEAN diplomat tells me, adding: “It’s like Japan and the flying geese -- now it’s China in the lead, and we are happy to be following the trail.”
At the China European Business School in Shanghai, young Indian students tell me they find living in China both fascinating and challenging. One of them is seeking to set up an Indian-Chinese renewable energy cooperation venture but is also full of questions on relations between India and Pakistan. Could China, India and Pakistan ever work seriously together like the European Union, he asks me. All I can say is: “I wish -- but we need visionary leadership.”
The conversation with my African colleagues is simpler: China is the development model for a continent that many describe as a ‘lost case’. A former African ambassador to Beijing is clear: “China provides Africa with the funds we need to develop and grow, without the colonial hangover of Europeans,” he tells me.
While Europeans go on endlessly about human rights, China makes sure that roads and bridges are built and that there is investment in Africa’s natural resources. “Look,” says my friend, “What we need is growth, not lectures.” Another African colleague agrees: “China works in the way we wish Africa could,” he tells me as we walk on the newly restored Shanghai Bund.
China pledged last year to give Africa $10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years and it is plowing money into developing infrastructure in many nations on the world’s poorest continent. Rising labor costs in China also mean that the Asian giant will want to start relocating some manufacturing industries to countries where wage bills may not be as high.
Some western nations may say that China is interested only in extracting Africa’s natural resources to feed its fast-growing economy, cares little for African development and supports governments with dubious human rights records but my African friends say such concern is ‘neocolonial’.
“We can take care of ourselves,” he insists. “China treats us with respect.” While they may criticize China’s policy in Africa, its exchange rate and human rights record, Europeans too are lining up for favors in Beijing. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in the country recently as was Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.
The EU and China recently celebrated 35 years of often fraught diplomatic relations but a well-known Chinese journalist tells me the country is curious about the EU and anxious to learn from it. The message is repeated by students at the business school who are engaged in an interesting ‘model EU’ experiment to replicate the bloc’s institutions and complicated decision-making procedure. It’s a sophisticated example of European soft power -- teaching young people in China the importance of consultation, compromise and transparency in government.
But there’s still a long way before even the most pro-European Chinese will understand the value of EU-style democracy. “Please tell me,” an earnest young Chinese woman asks me: “Can the EU ever take real decisions?”
tehran times : China?s amazing growth
