Category Archives: China

John Wight: China’s Role in Managing America’s Decline

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China, USA

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Chinese President Hu Jintao’s summit with President Obama in the US this week has come at a critical time in relations between both countries. The rise in Sinophobia within the US establishment marks a worrying trend whereby China is being blamed for America’s economic woes due to its refusal in the eyes of US politicians, economists and political commentators, to raise the value of its currency in order to stem the flow of exports to the US which continue to cripple US manufacturing. As a result the whiff of protectionism is in the air.

The essential point to be made, however, is that despite the rise in hostility being directed towards China from within the United States, and the West in general, the relationship between both countries remains interdependent, with the fortunes of each inextricably linked to that of the other.

China’s economic growth over the past decade has been simply staggering, averaging 10-12 percent annually. In 2010, in the midst of a global recession, China’s growth succeeded in confounding economic experts, registering over ten percent when most predicted it would plateau at around 6-8 percent. The latter would still have been impressive compared to other industrialised economies. Consider for example that US growth in 2010 was just 2.8 percent.

But what most commentators in the West fail to understand is that China’s accelerated rate of economic growth is essential in order to meet the rapid transformation taking place within China itself. As millions continue to migrate from the countryside into the city each year, in a process that shows no hint of slowing down, China’s priority is ensuring its economy is able to meet the increased demand for jobs within its urban centres. Huge capital investment projects have been undertaken over the past few years to offset the drop in demand for exports, with the Chinese taking advantage of its unique position in the world of being deposit rich as a consequence of an economic model which has placed a priority on saving over consumption. The lack of social protection provided by the state is largely responsible for this high level of saving within the Chinese economy, a situation which the Chinese government is currently in the process of alleviating, especially in light of the global recession and the fear it could precipitate a spike in unemployment. Without a viable system of social protection in place large scale unemployment could be the catalyst for widespread social unrest.

Added to the rapid increase in urban population and new jobs to meet the demand incurred, increased social protection is having the effect of slowly but steadily increasing domestic consumption. This is the main reason why China has been able to protect itself from the global downturn to the extent it has, offsetting the reduction in global demand for its exports. Regardless, the global share of Chinese global exports in 2010 came to £1.5 trillion. This means that China continues to export more than any other single major economy, with only the European Union in is entirety exporting more. Germany comes second on the list of the world’s major exporters with $1.3 trillion, while the US is third with $1.2 trillion worth of exports in 2010.

The non convertible status of the renminbi has lent further stability to China’s economy, giving it protection from the sudden and often sharp fluctuations suffered by convertible currencies. That said, there are both positives and negatives when it comes to maintaining the renminbi’s non-convertibility status. Allowing its currency to float would enhance China’s role in the world by making it easier for Chinese companies to invest abroad. More significantly, it could see the renminbi rival the dollar and the euro as an international reserve currency, especially throughout the developing world where China’s economic activity has seen it begin to weaken US domination.

The downside of course would be the possibility of opening the currency up to the kind of speculation which so afflicted its neighbours during the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, precipitating a mass exit on the part of investors and savers as they seek a better return on their investments.

For the US – a declining economic power relative to China, though still some way ahead in terms of overall GDP – the danger is that China’s economic growth will inevitably progress to it growing as a military power in order to protect its accumulating global interests and economic alliances. This is particularly the case when it comes to East Asia, though is increasingly also a factor throughout the developing world. This strategic threat, as perceived within the US, is reflected in a staggering US defence budget of over $600 billion in 2010 under an Obama administration which came to power in 2008 perceived as progressive relative to the preceding Republican one. Compare this to China’s 2010 defence budget of $77.9 billion (though this does constitute a 7.5 percent increase). To put this disparity in even greater context, the US defence budget constitutes 46.5 percent of the entire world’s military budget, whilst China’s constitutes around 7 percent.

China’s role as the world’s major creditor to the US, currently to the tune of $908 billion, in effect funding US domestic consumption, is one half of the reason why the relationship between both countries will remain a mutually dependent at least in the short term. For China, its main priority lies in continuing to ensure the viability of US domestic consumption in order to maintain the US as its largest export market.

China’s role in the developing world has also come under much scrutiny in recent years. This is especially the case when it comes to Africa, where China’s influence has grown rapidly. This should come as no surprise. Africa is a continent richly endowed with natural resources, while China by comparison suffers from a lack of natural resources. With its economy expanding at the phenomenal rate it is, China’s need for oil, gas, iron ore, timber etc., has therefore forced it to look abroad. The result has been a doubling of trade between Africa and China between 2005 and 2010. Chinese aid to the continent has steadily increased over the same period. A development fund in the region of $5 billion has been established to encourage Chinese companies to invest in the continent; a zero tariff has been placed on more than 440 export items from the least developed African countries; and additional billions in preferential loans and trade credits have been granted.

Unlike the impact of the West throughout the African continent, first during the colonial period and latterly under as a consequence of neoliberalism under the auspices of the IMF and World Bank, China’s impact in Africa has thus far been positive. It has trained over 15,000 African professionals, sent over 100 agricultural experts to the continent, and built 30 hospitals and 100 schools in rural areas. In addition, China by 2009 had increased the number of annual academic scholarships to African students to 4,000.

Currently China imports 23 percent of its oil from Africa compared to 38 percent from the Middle East, while overall Chinese imports of primary commodities have grown more rapidly from Africa than anywhere else in the world, making China now the continent’s third largest trading partner after the US and France with the gap rapidly closing.

Cultural differences are evident in China’s approach to Africa when compared to the West also. Whereas the West insists on political influence to go along with economic assistance and investment, China does not. Respect for national sovereignty runs deep in the Chinese psyche as a direct result of its own colonial history at the hands of the western powers. Further, Chinese assistance typically comes in the form of a package, consisting of road, rail and building projects along with the provision of technical expertise.

Taken together, the alternative provided by China’s arrival as a competitor of the West has undoubtedly been beneficial to the African continent in lessening its prior dependency on the western powers along with the harsh terms and conditions traditionally attached to that dependency.

Over the past week of his visit to the US, President Hu Jintao’s priority will have been to try and head off the possibility of a damaging fracture in US-China relations. He and the rest of the Chinese government are aware that with the US economy in decline, US foreign policy shifts are likely to become increasingly sharp under pressure from within. The US establishment has grown increasingly vocal in its demands for China to allow the value of its currency to appreciate by removing state control over currency transactions. However, mindful and fearful of the huge shocks which bedevilled the so-called Asian tiger economies in the 1990s, and still at the stage of developing its economy to meet the growing needs of 1.3 billion people, the Chinese are not likely to succumb to US pressure to do so anytime soon.

China’s emergence and growing influence means that as things stand the days of US cultural, economic, and political hegemony around the world are numbered. The danger comes however in how this process unfolds. America’s fixation on the deployment of hard power since 9/11 presages the dangerous prospect of future military conflict with China. Meanwhile, US support for Taiwan is considered a provocation by the Chinese, while US encouragement of an increasingly belligerent South Korean stance towards North Korea is considered reckless.

Yet more evidence of the extent to which China’s growth is perceived as a threat in Washington comes in the shape of increasingly vociferous attacks on China’s human rights record, lack of democracy, and so on. The arrogance and hypocrisy involved in such criticisms being mounted by an imperialist behemoth like the US is apposite.

Regardless of increased US hostility towards China, it seems clear that Beijing’s overriding priority over the coming decade will be managing America’s decline in a way which ensures stability and lessens the possibility of military conflict in the years ahead.

The consequences involved in failing to do so are too grave to contemplate.

Don’t Take Wikileaks at Face Value

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China, Korea, USA

bkoreay Mark Seddon, from Left Futures

There is a very real danger that some analysts, diplomats, commentators and politicians are taking all that is revealed by Wikileaks at face value, without questioning the veracity of some of the information gleaned from third sources and some of the information transmitted back by US diplomats, believing as they did that they were doing so under the cloak of anonymity.

Take for instance the views of US diplomats who had met with their South Korean counterparts and who had apparently discussed China’s attitude to North Korea with Chinese officials. We learn from Wikileaks that the more sophisticated Chinese foreign policy officials (and there I was thinking that all Chinese foreign policy officials are sophisticated – it goes with the terrain) believed that North Korea was increasingly behaving “like a spoilt child”. Furthermore, the Chinese had apparently told the South Koreans that their patience was “wearing thin”, that North Korea was behaving in a “belligerent manner” and that actually China would prefer to see the two Koreas united under the aegis of Seoul. Click to continue reading →

An Unlikely Advocate of Physical Fitness?

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China, Philosophy Football

Philosophy Football have often gone with the quirky; producing T-shirts emblazoned with comments from famous philosophers and thinkers about the noble past-time of association football. They have now uncovered a 1917 article by Mao Zedong on the need to encourage physical fitness .

It is actually an interesting article, where Mao criticises the prevailing Chinese student culture of anaemic academicism; and stresses the need for physcal education as well as mental health, not only for personal development; but also in order to recover a martial capability for the Chinese nation to throw off the yoke of foreign domination.

It is impossible to overstress the degree to which the Chinese Communist Party’s victory over the forces of imperialism, colonialism and warlordism, and to reunite the nation was a progressive achievement. It was the precondition for all the social and economic progress which has subsequently been made.

Political critics often assume that liberal parliamentary democracy was a viable alternative to the form of government established by the Chinese Communist Party. This is not true: parliamentary democracy requires a culture of respect for the rule of law, and economic and social stablity. These were not the conditions in China, emerging out of a nightmare of grinding poverty, illiteracy, and disease; the dismemberment of the nation by colonialism and warlordism; and they faced alternative military and political force of the Goumindang, with its powerful foreign support. Click to continue reading →

Britain’s Sordid Poppy Wars

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Afghanistan, China

 Cameron wears the Poppy to meet President Hu, oblivious of the Opium Wars, an historical crime by the British against China on a similar level to the monstrosity of the slave trade.

As I wrote before, it is a terrible irony that the symbol of remembrance is the Poppy, while British soldiers are now actually fighting in the land where the poppy is grown as a crop; and the harvest is the heroin sold on our city streets, robbing the hope and future from our children.

Young men are being killed in Afghanistan to prop up the rule of corrupt war lords, misogynists and gangsters, and to prevent another identical set of corrupt war lords, misogynists and gangsters taking power. The Taliban may be feared by many villagers, but they fear the corrupt and venal Afghan police force that the British are training just as much.

Millions of people will be wearing a poppy today, in sombre remembrance of fallen soldiers. The original symbolism of the poppy was from the killing fields of Flanders, where the artillery churned the mud, and this caused poppies to grow like a red carpet, and the transient nature of the poppy flower seemed all too poignant for the young men ground through the mincer of trench warfare.

The military is deeply embedded in working class culture in Britain. Almost all of us have friends or relatives serving, or who have served. Indeed, dogged resilience and discipline in a crisis are national characteristics that the British are proud to self-identify with, and this has a natural connection with service life. Our militaristic history has reinforced this trait, but the ideology of the modern British nation has been recast, as the Second World War is seen not as a war for Empire, but a war for democracy and against fascism.

But the Poppy is also unintentionally symbolic of another part of Britain’s venal imperial past. The Chinese this week asked the British trade delegation to remove their Poppies before the David Cameron’s official welcome at Beijing’s Great Hall. This is because the Opium wars, where Britain twice invaded China to force the narcotic derived from Poppies onto the Chinese, is still remembered as a national catastrophe in China.

Shamefully, Cameron, several officials and four other Cabinet ministers — George Osborne, Michael Gove, Chris Huhne and Vince Cable were discourteous and refused to acknowledge the shame of Britain’s past in China, and wore the Poppy symbols regardless of the insult to their hosts.

As the Daily Telegraph reports:

The First Opium War (1839) was condemned in the House of Commons by a newly elected young member of Parliament, William Ewart Gladstone, who wondered if there had ever been “a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace”. When Anglo-French forces sacked and looted Peking, burning the the beautiful and ancient imperial Summer Palace, the Second Opium War (1860) concluded and China’s demotion to drug-addled subservience was complete.

Thus in 1842, China’s population was 416,118,200, of whom 2 million were drug addicts. But by some estimates, in 1881, of a population of 369,183,000, 120 million were addicts.

Hopefully Prresident Hu found time to have a chat with David Cameron about Britain’s terrible human rights record of invading and enslaving other nations. President Hu might also have mentioned the British soldiers who may face trial for torture in Iraq; and the collusion of the British government in rendition flights, and CIA torture. Fortunately for Britain, the Chinese are not too fussy, and will not let Britain’s recent appalling record of invading Afghanistan and Iraq prevent them from trading with us.

China’s Poverty Reductions

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China

The left cannot ignore China’s poverty reduction achievements

By Reihana Mohideen, from SocialistaFeminista

China’s achievements in reducing poverty have been outstanding. From 1978 – when the restructuring of the Chinese economy began — to 2007 the incidence of rural poverty dropped from 30.7 percent in 1978 to 1.6 percent in 2007. The biggest drop took place between 1978 and 1984 when the number of rural poor almost halved, from 250 million in 1978 to 125 million in 1985. During this period the per capita net income of farmers grew at an annual rate 16.5 percent. Urban poverty, measured by an international standard poverty line of US$1 per day, reduced from 31.5% in 1990 to 10.4% in 2005. No other third world country has achieved so much and made such a significant contribution to reducing global poverty, as China has, over this period.

Between 1978 and 2007 per capita income has increased significantly. Inflation adjusted per-capita disposable income of urban residents grew at the average annual rate of 7.2% for urban residents and at 7.1% for rural residents. While the gap between the rural and urban areas still continues (and has even increased across some development indicators), the fact remains that virtually the entire population has been able to greatly increase consumption of food, clothing and shelter. According to the United Nations “China now has largely eliminated absolute poverty and is meeting the food and clothing needs of its 1.3 billion people”.

And despite the significant gaps between rural and urban areas, between richer and poor regions, migrant and other workers and the increasing class divisions, there is a degree of equalisation of income growth which even has many capitalist commentators bewildered. Higher household incomes has allowed for improvements in nutrition, clothing and housing. Examples include a significant reduction in undernourishment: in 1981 some 30% of China’s population was undernourished and this dropped to 12% by 1997; between 1990 and 2005 the prevalence of underweight children fell from 19.1% to 6.9% and stunting in children under the age of five fell from 33.4% to 10.5%. The greatest reduction in child malnutrition took place in rural China. The country’s under-five child mortality rates dropped steadily from 40 per 1000 live births in 2000 to 18.1 in 2007 – far lower than third world averages. Maternal mortality (that directly impacts on child mortality) dropped from 53 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 36.6 in 2007 – well below third world averages of 440 per 100,000 live births. China’s average life expectancy was 71.4 years in 2000, higher than averages for third world countries.

These are significant gains for third world countries today and especially so given the sheer numbers of women and children that it involves given the size of China’s population. This is partly related to a massive increase in healthcare spending – total per capita spending on healthcare from all sources – government, private households social — increased by 1300 per cent from 1978 to 2006. While the effective privatization of healthcare resulted in a massive shift in the responsibility of healthcare spending on to private households, nevertheless, even government spending increased by nearly 700%, to 7.9 times the 1978 levels, an average annual increase of 7.7%.

There are major inequalities that continue to widen in China as a result of the restructuring of the economy along capitalist lines. The state which was previously responsible for almost 100% of health expenditure now only contributes around 18% of total expenditure (compared to over 70% in Western Europe) and large sections of the population especially in rural areas could not afford healthcare. In an attempt to address these inequalities in 2009 the government announced major healthcare reforms, including the provision of basic health insurance cover for 90% of the population.

Class differences are widening along with income gaps. In 2006 the per capita disposable income of the richest 10 percent of families was 9 times more than the poorest 10%. The urban-rural income gap continues to widen – 2.8 to 1 in 2000 to 3.3 to 1 in 2007. The per capital GDP in Shanghai was 65,347 Yuan in 2007 compared to Guizhou at 6,835 Yuan in the west. While Shanghai and Beijing have attained levels of development closer to the industrialized countries such as Portugal, poorer provinces like Guizhou are comparable to Botswana and Namibia. Gender gaps are widening in sex ratio at birth, with the number of new born male children and numbers of female children widening over time, with no sign of declining (these trends will be analysed in future articles). Nevertheless, the fact remains that the country has made major strides in reducing poverty, on a human scale that no other third world country has achieved, and which is perhaps historically unprecedented.

Despite the restructuring of the education sector which resulted in individuals taking primary responsibility for education costs, China has made remarkable progress in its education indicators, partly due to subsequent measures to partially reverse the earlier restructuring policy. Between 1994 and 2001 less than 2% of resources came from national government, with town and township governments responsible for nearly four fifth of China’s compulsory education costs. Because local government revenues barely covered staff salaries the financial burden fell on the people who had to start paying fees, resulting in increasing drop-out rates of poor students, especially in the rural areas and poorer provinces. In a partial policy reversal the central government exempted rural students in western China (where dropout rates were high) from tuition and miscellaneous fees, and by 2007 the government had decided to waive fees for rural compulsory education throughout the country, and provide free text books and boarding expenses. In 2008 fees were waived for urban compulsory education as well. In 2005 the annual education budget was 2.5% of a vastly expanded GDP – a 60 fold increase from 7.5 billion Yuan in 1978 (around 2% of the GDP) to 453 billion Yuan in 2005.

Enrollment rates have increased – 99% at primary school level and 95% at junior middle-school – and adult literacy rates rose to over 90% in 2006, higher than the global average of 78%. The average number of years of schooling received by people 15 years and over rose from 5.3 years in 1982 to 8.5 years in 2005.

The socialist movement, especially in the Asia region, must study and attempt to understand these developments. Simply placing China in the ‘going capitalist’ basket and ignoring developments in the country is a big mistake. Undoubtedly the gains of the great Chinese revolution of 1949 has laid the basis for these developments, including land reform that broke the back of landlordism and semi-feudal relations in the countryside (unlike in the Philippines or even India today) and which laid the basis for major strides in human development, so that when capitalist restructuring was introduced the levels of health, education and life expectancy, for example, were better than for a majority of third world countries at the time. And even today there are several third world countries who are yet to achieve the levels of development achieved by China in 1980.

Worker activist sentenced to three years in jail – scholars demand release

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China

From China Labour Bulletin

A well-know labour activist was sentenced on 20 October to three years in jail for “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order” (聚众扰乱社会秩序罪), according to media reports (see Associated Press article below).

Zhao Dongmin was arrested on 19 August last year after organizing more than 380 workers from about 20 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to form a labour rights group tasked with overseeing and monitoring SOE restructuring, and reporting corruption and abuses of power.

The Shaanxi Union Rights Defence Representative Congress was formally banned by the municipal government of Xi’an on 27 July, after which Zhao wrote an open letter protesting the action to the State Council, the municipal, provincial and central committees of the Chinese Communist Party. He was arrested 18 days later.

Since his arrest, Zhao’s case has been taken up by an increasingly vocal group of supporters, many of whom share his leftist political views. Zhao was the head of the Shaanxi Mao Zedong Thought Study Group, one of several Maoist groups in China that seek the restoration of a more egalitarian, fair and just society.

More than 50 scholars signed a petition this month stating that Zhao was not only innocent but had performed meritorious service (无罪有功) and that his arrest mocked the rule of law and insulted trade union organizers.

Zhao’s three year sentence is on the upper-end of the scale for labour activists. Unlike a decade ago when five or ten year sentences were not uncommon, the authorities nowadays tend to use threats, harassment and short-term detention rather than criminal trials and prison terms to suppress labour groups and activists. It is perhaps Zhao’s Maoist allegiances therefore that led to his relatively heavy sentence on this occasion.

Chinese labour activist sentenced to 3 years for organizing workers’ rights group
By The Associated Press (CP) – Oct 21, 2010

BEIJING, China — A Chinese labour activist who followed the teachings of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong has been sentenced to three years in prison, his lawyer said Friday.
A court in northern Shaanxi province found Zhao Dongmin guilty of disrupting public order for trying to set up a corruption watchdog group to monitor state-owned enterprises, said attorney Li Jinsong.

Zhao’s background is not that of the typical activist. A Communist Party member who got his degree from a party college, he helped found a ‘Mao Zedong Study Group.’ His case has been closely followed by leftist groups and academics, who supported his advocacy on behalf of workers.

“Zhao told me he fully supports the Chinese Communist Party, and what he has been doing is to represent and protect the interest of ordinary workers,” said Li. “He told me that if he’s sentenced, it would only prove that those who framed him and charged him are guilty.”

Calling Zhao “a tough man,” Li said his client intends to appeal the sentence, which was issued last Sunday by the Xincheng district court.

Zhao had been involved in helping nearly 400 Chinese workers from Xi’an organize a workers’ rights group that would monitor the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The workers had tried to petition for legal status from the local government and trade union.
Court documents from the case posted online accused Zhao of organizing hundreds of workers to rally at the trade union’s offices, “severely disrupting their work for seven hours.” It said the workers were “making noises, shouting slogans, and humiliating staff.”
Zhao was detained by police in August 2009, and has been kept completely out of sight. His wife, who died this past August, was never allowed to meet him, Li said.

“They even didn’t allow him to see his wife for the last time,” said Li.

China outlaws unauthorized labour organizing, limiting such activities to the government-affiliated All China Federation of Trade Unions and to company branches of the ruling Communist Party.

China’s Role in Africa

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Africa, China

Very interesting interview by Ning Er of the Southern Metropolis Daily, with Li Anshan, international-relations professor at Beijing University, about China’s role in Africa. First part here, second part here.

Well worth reading the whole thing, but in this extract Li deals with the accusations of colonialism:

NE: But there has been criticism from the international community about China’s linking of “aid” and “investment” in Africa. The claim is that bundling aid and commercial activity together is a new form of colonialism.

LA: In February 2006, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary [Jack Straw] said during a trip Nigeria that what China is now doing in Africa is the same as what the British did 150 years ago, and this sparked a discussion about China’s “new colonialism”.

But it’s a ridiculous comparison. Colonialism is an application of force, and China is in Africa on a foundation of equality and mutual benefit. In December 2007, I met with Nigeria’s consul-general to Hong Kong during a lunch meeting at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. He said that they wanted to do business with China – why? Because we can sit down as equals, to discuss and negotiate, and they don’t have that status when dealing with the west.

Or again, due to the unrest in Sudan, other nations pulled out and Sudan came to invite the Chinese in. In 2003, Canadian firm Talisman Energy withdrew from Sudan and CNPC wanted to take over Talisman’s interests [in an oil pipeline and production project] – but for the sake of diversity the Sudanese government opted to sell to an Indian firm, which was offering a higher price. But this didn’t affect CNPC’s partnership with Sudan. If China was colonialist, Sudan wouldn’t have been able to do this.

During my trip to Mali in April, we visited a sugar company in Ségou, the country’s second largest city. The plant was built with Chinese aid, but after completion and handover it failed to make a profit and became a joint venture. The president is a Chinese woman, but the vice-president is Malinese, as are many of the senior officials. Once the company was profitable, it was able to make significant improvements to its local area, which is now a small town with a residential area and a school – it was really moving to see that. One European academic on the trip was dubious, saying aid is aid, business is business, why mix them up? But in fact, whatever you do, as long as the area benefits it’s a good thing.

The west’s traditional aid model in Africa is in trouble, it’s moribund. Meanwhile China has been combining aid and investment since the 1990s, and that has provided huge stimulus to the projects involved. Zambian academic Dambissa Moyo wrote a book last year called Dead Aid, which was controversial in the west. She laid into western aid-giving, saying that the trillion dollars of aid poured into Africa over the last half-century had failed to have any positive outcome – and had, in fact, been damaging. I think the western model is unsustainable, and China should look to its own experience.

The Rise of China in the Indian Ocean

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China, USA

While I wouldn’t agree with everything in this article, it is nevertheless well worth reading. INTERVIEW OF MOHAMED HASSAN BY GREGOIRE LALIEU & MICHEL COLLON

It contains an interesting account of how US power in Asia and Africa is being supplanted by China. The following extract is worth highlighting:

In fact, there are those who claim that China has itself become an imperialist power, exporting its capital to the four corners of the globe and prospecting throughout the South for the purpose of securing supplies of raw materials.

Confusion exists, even within the left-wing movement, over Lenin’s definition of imperialism (Lenin being the person who has undoubtedly best studied this phenomenon). Some people only hold on to one aspect of this definition, i.e., the export of capital to foreign countries. Of course, this is an essential factor. And of course, it is thanks to the export of capital that capitalist powers are able to enrich themselves faster and end up dominating the economy of less developed countries. But in the context of imperialism, this economic domination is inseparable from a political domination that transforms the country into a semi colony.

In other words, if you are an imperialist, you must, in the countries to which you export your capital, create a puppet for yourself : a government which serves your interests. You can also train your semi colony’s army to organise military putsches if the puppet was to disobey. This is what happened recently in Honduras where President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by an army whose officers were trained in US military academies. You can at the same time infiltrate the political system through organisations such as the CIA in order to create quislings. In short, we can say that imperialism rests on a two-fold domination, economic and political. You can’t have one without the other.

This is where the major difference lies with China. China does not interfere in the politics of the countries with which it trades. And its export of capital does not to seek to suffocate or dominate the economies of partner countries. Thus, China is not only not an imperialist power, but on the contrary assists countries that are the victims of imperialism to free themselves by overturning the relations of domination established by the West.

Will the US still be able to stop their Chinese competitor ? True, the Pentagon is firmly established in the region, but a direct military confrontation with China seems improbable. Washington seems still to be mired in the Middle East and, according to numerous experts, would be in no position to enter into direct conflict with Beijing.

It’s true that bombing and invading China is not a viable option. The US has therefore developed other strategies. The first is to rely on its vassal states in Africa in order to control that continent and block China’s access to raw materials. This strategy is not new, but was applied after the Second World War to contain Japan’s development.

And which are nowadays these vassal states ?

In North Africa you have Egypt. In East Africa, it’s Ethiopia. In West Africa, it’s Nigeria. In the South and centre of the continent, Washington was relying on South Africa. But this strategy has failed. As we have seen, the US has not been able to prevent African states from trading with China and it has lost a lot of influence in that continent. Witness to this is the snub suffered by the Pentagon when looking for a country in which to establish the headquarters of its regional Africom command. Every country in the continent refused to host this base. The South African Defence Minister explained that this refusal was a « collective African decision » and Zambia even replied to the US Secretary of State : « Would you care to have an elephant in your living room ? » Currently the headquarters of this regional command for Africa is based in … Stuttgart ! This is an embarrassment for Washington.

Another US strategy for controlling the Indian Ocean would be to use India against China by exacerbating the tensions between these two countries. This technique has already been used in the case of Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. The US armed both sides at the same time, and Henry Kissinger declared « Let them kill each other » ! Applying this theory to India and China would enable them to kill two birds with one stone by weakening the two emerging great powers in Asia. Moreover, during the 1960s, the US had already used India in a conflict against China. But India was beaten and I don’t think that today its leaders would make the mistake of going to war against their neighbour for the benefit of a foreign power. There are definitely contradictions between Beijing and New Delhi, but they are not major ones. These two third world emerging nations must not get involved in this kind of typically imperialist conflict.

No way out then for the US in India or Africa. But in the Far East it has numerous allies. Can’t it count on them for the containment of China ?

There too Washington has failed because of its greed. South-east Asia underwent a terrible economic crisis in 1997, caused by a serious ‘error’ on the part of the US. It all started with a devaluation of the Thai currency which had come under attack from speculators. At a stroke, the Stock Exchanges went mad and many enterprises became bankrupt. Thailand hoped to get support from the US, whose faithful ally it was. But the White House didn’t move. It rejected even the idea of creating an Asian monetary Fund to come to the assistance of the countries worst affected. In fact, US multinationals took advantage of this Asian crisis to wipe out their Asian competitors whose rise had been worrying them.

In the end it was China which saved the region from catastrophe by its decision not to devalue its currency. A weak currency helps exports, and if the yuan had fallen, the increase of Chinese exports would have completely decimated the economies of neighbouring countries which were already in a bad state. Therefore, by maintaining the value of its currency, China allowed the countries of the region to rebuild their exports and to lift themselves up. While many Asian governments were angry with Washington because of its role during this crisis, the Malaysian prime minister declared « China’s collaboration and its high sense of responsibility saved the region from a much more catastrophic scenario ».

Since that time, economic relations between China and its neighbours have not ceased widening. In 2007 China even became Japan’s largest trading partner, despite the fact that Japan is one of the US’s most strategic allies in Asia.

Moreover, China has no pretensions towards hegemony in the region. The US thought that the countries of the Indian Ocean would be frightened by Chinese power and would seek to be protected. But China has established relations based on the principle of equality with its neighbours. From this point of view, the US has therefore also lost the battle in the Far East.

Has the US therefore no means of preventing China from competing against it ?

It would seem not. In order to develop, China desperately needs energy resources. The US is therefore seeking to control these resources to prevent them reaching China. This was a major objective of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but these have turned into a fiasco. The US destroyed these countries in order to set up governments there which would be docile, but they have failed. The icing on the cake is that the new Iraqi and Afghan government trade with China ! Beijing has therefore not needed to spend billions of dollars on an illegal war in order to get its hands on Iraq’s black gold : Chinese companies simply bought up oil concessions at auction totally within the rules.

One can see that the USA’s imperialist strategy has failed all along the line. There is nevertheless one option still open to the US : maintaining chaos in order to prevent these countries from attaining stability for the benefit of China. This means continuing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and extending it to countries such as Iran, Yemen or Somalia.

This short term strategy could turn out to be catastrophic as it brings ever more people into the anti-American, anti-Nato and anti-western front. Those who want to continue to pursue military means would do better to study the history of the US over the last 60 years. Washington has not won any war except against the tiny island of Grenada in 1983.

How did this decline of the « American empire » come about ?

After the Second World War, the US took the jackpot. It had intervened very late in the conflict, after having for a long time financed (very lucratively) both sides : the Allies and the Nazis. Finally, Washington decided to come to the assistance of the Allies. When the conflict ended, Great Britain was undermined by debt, German power had been destroyed and the USSR had paid a heavy price (more than 20 million dead) to defeat the Nazi army. By contrast, the US having made hardly any sacrifice, came out as the major victors : they had a vast territory, an industry that was in full swing, major agricultural capacity and their principal European competitors were on their knees. This is how the US became a world superpower.

But they then spent all the jackpot won during the Second World War to fight against communism. The US economy was militarised and the wars followed one after the other, from Korea to Iraq, via Vietnam to name but a few. Today, for every dollar of the US government budget, 60 cents goes to the army. It’s a disaster ! The country’s other major industries have been destroyed, and the public schools and hospitals are in a deplorable state.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the inhabitants of New Orleans are still living in camps. One can compare this situation with that of Lebanon : those who lost their homes as a result of the 2006 Israeli bombings are now once more housed thanks to Hezbollah. This has caused one mullah living in the US to say that it was better to be a Lebanese than to live in the US because in the land of the cedar one at least has a roof over one’s head.

This militarisation process has plunged the US into debt. But today their main creditor is none other than … China ! Strangely, the destiny of these two great competitors seems to be intimately interlinked.

Yes, the economy is something crazy ! In effect, China exports a lot of products to the US, which bring in a lot of profits in dollars. The accumulation of these profits enables China to maintain a stable rate of exchange between the yuan and the greenback, which favours its exports. But the accumulation of these US dollars leads to Beijing buying US Treasury bonds that finance US debt. Thus in financing US debt, China in fact finances the war on terror ! Yet the Pentagon is waging this war in order to better control the energy resources of the world in an attempt to contain the emergence of China. You can see that the situation is paradoxical ! But this campaign on the part of the US has failed and its economy is on the edge of bankruptcy.

There is only one option left : to reduce its military expenditure and to utilise its budget to kickstart the economy. But imperialist logic is dominated by immediate profit and unbounded competition. As a result, it keeps going unto the death. The historian Paul Kennedy has studied the history of great empires : each time that the economy of a great power finds itself slowing down, while its military expenditure increases, that great power is destined to disappear.

Peace Prize Used As Weapon Against China

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China

Liu Xiaobo shouldn’t be in prison, and the government of the People’s Republic needs to relax and be a little less paranoid.

However, his being awarded the Nobel peace prize is nothing to do with peace between nations at all; it is instead an opportunity for Western states to have a pop at China. There is a certain hypocrisy of Western concerns about human rights in China, when the USA and its allies simply export their own human rights violations through illegal wars and occupations.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said: “Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who violated Chinese law. It’s a complete violation of the principles of the prize and an insult to the peace prize itself for the Nobel committee to award the prize to such a person.”

Ma has a point. even though I disapprove of Liu’s imprisonment, that is an internal matter for the China; and interfering with China’s sovereignty, a very sensitive issue for Beijing, is hardly demonstrating peaceful intent. Alfred Nobel established the Peace Prize for those people who made war less likely; not for internal dissidents trying to undermine governments; and certainly not to increase international tension. (Interestingly though, despite some tough talk from Beijing before the prize was awarded, the response afterwards has been mooted, and unless I am very much mistaken the early article on Xinhua critical of the decision has now been removed)

Liu Xiaobo may have many admirable qualities, but he is not a peace maker, and the policies he advocates are not in the best interest of the Chinese people.

If you look at people who have actually made a significant step towards resolving a long term international conflict and making war less likely then President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan and President Hu Wintao of China this year made a huge break through with the the long-awaited Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement sealing peace between the two states.

Perhaps they should have been given the Peace Prize?

Jackie Chan and the Chinese Revolution

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China, movies

With Danny Glover’s Venezuelan funded film of Toussaint L’Ouveture’s Haitian slave rebellion due to gain cinema release next year, it is good to see another Hollywood star following the same path.

Jackie Chan, director of the film, “The Xinhai Revolution” met with the media this week together with actors and actress of the film. The Xinhai Revolution, also known as the 1911 Revolution, overthrew the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and ended more than 2,000 years of feudal rule. The film will be shown in 2011 to mark the 100th anniversary.

China: Manned Moon Landing by 2025

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China, civil liberties

 The concept of “soft power” or ruen quanli  has been enthusiastically taken up in China, particularly associated with retired rear admiral Yang Yi.

Soft power is not about projecting economic power as an adjunct to military power; but rather using moral and cultural influence so that people want to identify with you.

The moral force of America’s postion as the only nation that has had the capability to put Astronauts on the moon is a strong one. Significantly, the USA would struggle to repeat that acheivement now, for financial reasons. So China’s pledge to run a manned mission to the moon within fifteen years is designed to send a powerful message that the Chinese economy is set to overtake the USA.

Given that there is still enormous rural poverty, and growing inequality in the People’s Republic, the vanity of walking on the moon may seem a Quixotic waste of resources. However, perhaps the government hope that such a demonstration of power will allow it to appear a more attractive ally and business partner, and thus consolidate the system of alliances and interdependences which guarantee its national security. This would certainly seem a more benign rivalry than the increaslingly bellicose stand off with Japan, which has now led the PRC to break off diplomatic relations altogether.

In a visit to the country’s space base in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Saturday, Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to voyage beyond the planet’s atmosphere in 2003, revealed plans to launch the country’s first unmanned space laboratory, Tiangong-1, next year, which is expected to accomplish the country’s first unmanned docking with Shenzhen-8, a crucial step toward building a space station.

Both the manned spacecraft Shenzhou-9 and the unmanned Shenzhou-10 will be launched in 2012 to dock with the Tiangong space laboratory, and by around 2020 China will launch its first orbital space station, Yang said.

Meanwhile, at an aerospace engineering forum Thursday, Ye Peijian, Commander in Chief of the Chang’e Program and an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said China’s lunar-probe program, the country’s first step toward deep-space exploration, is expected to orbit the moon, land and return to Earth by 2020.

Ye proposed that China launch its first manned moon landing in 2025, a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015.

Sex in China

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China, sex, women

The last few decades has seen an accelerating change in social attitudes towards sexual and gender issues in China. Li Yinhe, a sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Science, has become a prominent figure in Chinese life, both for her research and advocacy, but also as a politician who has proposed same-sex marriage legislation at the annual “Two Sessions” of the National People’s Congress.

Li Yinhe’s research shows that between 60% and 70% of Chinese now have pre-marital sex, compared to just 15% in 1989. Chinese people are also losing their virginity earlier:

The most recently reported average age is around 22, though the figure could be actually lower given the high potential for reactivity, the sociological term for inaccurate self-reporting, among respondents due to Chinese cultural taboos. The worldwide average is 17. Furthermore, state media reported a few years ago that during a one-week school holiday high school girls accounted for 80 percent of the patients at a Shanghai abortion clinic.

This is a remarkable shift, China has a centuries old tradition of treating sex as taboo. As Xinran , author of “The Good Women of China” explains:

Sex was forbidden in Chinese culture after the beginning of the Song dynasty in the 10th century. We had had many books on the subject but they were treated as health handbooks for the rulers, and ordinary people were never allowed to read them.

Most Chinese still believe that thinking and talking about sex is “dirty and bad”, even between married couples. For a thousand years, family, school and society have taught us to think like this. Therefore many Chinese have grown up in total ignorance. Click to continue reading →

Lgbt China

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China, LGBT

Perhaps the most remarkable area where attitudes are changing in China is towards the LGBT communities. Chinese themselves have adopted the terms tongzhi to refer to gays, lala for lesbians, and ku’er for LGBT – an umbrella term for those who do not identify as heterosexual with regard to sexuality, sexual anatomy or gender identity. (tongzhi, also means “comrade”, which I can see causing some confusion in Chinese communist circles!)

2009 was a landmark year for China’s ku’er communities. Beijing and numerous cities across China experienced the successful completion of 12 anniversaries and public events that exposed LGBT culture and related issues like never before.

As one of the organizers of China’s first gay pride events and editor for shanghaiist.com, Kenneth Tan, puts it: “Gay people, young and old, are now coming out en masse. These people are all what I call ‘first generation queers’.”

Policies, too, have been slowly changing. At a national level, 1997 saw the removal of sodomy from the country’s list of crimes; homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders in 2001; and since 2003 prominent sexologist and activist, Li Yinhe, has been proposing same-sex marriage legislation at the annual Two Sessions.
In China, where LGBT-themed films .. gay-themed exhibitions, novels and magazines are taboo, the success of many of these events have been years in the making. Organizers have gotten creative: they arrange other activities; they hold their film festivals and art exhibitions just outside major cities; they keep publicity to a minimum.

The 1996 film, East Palace, West Palace (Dong gong xi gong), was the first mainland Chinese film to deal with gay life there, and was directed by Zhang Yuan, who was a student of Cui Zi’en, one of the first gays in China to publicly come out, which he did on a Hunan TV chat show. Cui was recently featured in the documentary screened in Beijing in August called “Cream of the Queer Crop” made by the group “Queer comrades”, highlighting the biographies of ten gay men prominent in Chinese society.

Director of “Cream of the Queer Crop”, Wei Xiaogang, said he wanted to give the activists a chance to talk about their work, exploring their wishes for the gay movement and how to lead gay people into the future.

China now has a host of prominent LGBT organisations, like Beijing Tongyu, which produces leaflets and pamphlets, and websites like Aibai.com, which offer information advice to LGBT Chinese on news, culture, education and laws.

Gay couples say 'I do' in symbolic marriagesAibai.com was founded by Jiang Hui which got its start 11 years ago as a personal website about one gay couple’s loving relationship. Over time it attracted more visitors, added some question and answer forums, and then evolved into its present form.

There has recently been a campaign, Tongzhi Nihao, which literally means, “Hello, gay people,” organised by Hou Haiyang, a 23-year-old graduate from Northeast Normal University.

“I wanted to collect 1,000 smiles from heterosexuals for homosexual people, especially for those in need,” says Hou, born and raised in Changchun, capital of Jilin province. “I hope society could be more tolerant towards lesbians and gays and that they could bravely face their sexual orientation, life and society.”

Hou drew inspiration from the annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), celebrated in more than 50 countries each year on May 17. IDAHO fights homophobia as a shameful phenomenon.

On the night of May 19, Hou updated his status on renren.com, a well-known social networking site (SNS) among college students in China, inviting Netizens to join Smile For Gay, urging heterosexuals to come out in support of over 50 million LGBT people in China.

To his surprise, around 50 young people responded to his call the same night. Greatly encouraged by this, he posted the message on other popular sites, such as douban.com, sina.com, kaixin001.com and Sina Microblog, the next day.

“There were so many Netizens supporting Smile for Gay that I could not handle this on my own,” he recalls.

A total of 698 volunteers joined the effort.

However, things are not all plain sailing. Last July saw China’s first ever pride event in Shanghai, but Beijing Pride which was due to take place in January 2010, was cancelled just hours before it was to begin, despite having gained official permission, and all the relevant permits. As David Bartram reported at the time

“there is a strong enough reactionary presence within the party to clamp down on what it sees as politically sensitive. The cancellation will serve as a warning that while homosexuality is now tolerated, the government continues to have the final say on what is and what isn’t allowed to be publicly promoted. For the time being China’s gay community will remain in the shadows”

I am not sure David is right here. In truth, the Communist Party is itself an area where ideas are contested, and the government does not speak with a single voice. There are strong supporters of LGBT rights, for example  Li Yinhe proposed same-sex marriage legislation at the 2003, 2005 and 2007 annual “Two Sessions” of the National People’s Congress. Li has also declared her intention to reintroduce a gay marriage bill during 2010.

The cancellation of Beijing Pride was significant, but no more significant than the decision of the English language “China Daily” running a front page article on a “symbolic marriage” of a gay couple in Tiananmen Square. It is the nature of Chinese governmental culture that respect for the decisions and guidence of the central state is often disregarded, which is sometimes good, but often bad, leading to arbitrary abuse, and providing opportunities for corruption. It is therefore impossible to infer the intentions of the government directly from a cancellation by Beijing police.

 It is important to understand the space that exists for political campaigns to prosper in China regardless of official approval, for example, on May 17th 2009, Rainbow in Motion, was organized by Aibai and Tongyu, as the first public campaign in China on the International Day Against Homophobia. Finding universities to host the event was not easy, however: “Some [universities] supported it and some didn’t give their approval for it to happen, but students did it anyway,” organiser, Jiang said.

China is not a monolithic society, and the breadth and depth of activity by LGBT groups matches the interest of the government in promoting better education and information about sexual health. Although there will be bumps in the road, progress is being made.

Eid in China

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China, Islam

Good pictures of the Eid al-Fitr festival in China today. China has 20 million practising Muslims, half of whom are of the Hui ethnic minority.


In Xinjiang, people can have a day off for Eid al-Fitr, and in Ningxia, the local government has decided to lengthen the public holiday from one day to two from this year, to enable Muslims to have more time to attend religious rituals and visit relatives. At a Muslim cemetery in Artux City, in west Xinjiang’s Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu, hundreds of people stood in silent tribute to their deceased relatives, recited the Koran and sprinkled rice before tombstones, in accordance with ritual. In Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, local authorities had launched a drive to encourage family visits by citizens of different ethnic groups.

Amid efforts to cement ethnic relations that were impaired by a deadly riot last year, citizens of different ethnic groups are also encouraged to eat each other’s traditional foods during their family visits. The Han ethnic group has been prodded to enjoy “sanza,” a fried dough twist, and the Muslim groups moon cakes.

“I like eating sanza, but I didn’t know how to make it in the past. Today, I have the chance of learning how to make it from my Uygur neighbors,” said Yao Xilu, a Han citizen, while visiting the family of Aisan Molawut in the Heijiashanqianjie community in Urumqi’s Tianshan District.

“The exchanges between residents of different ethnic groups have increased since the drive was launched. They have a deeper understanding of each other, and many residents can even speak the languages of other ethnic groups,” said Yunus Taykule, a community official in Heijiashanqianjie.

Xinjiang has a population of more than 21 million. More than half of the population are Muslims from 10 ethnic groups, including Uygur, Kirgiz, Kazak and Uzbek.

Happy Teachers’ Day

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China, education

Across China today, students honour their teachers by bringing them small gifts, as the valued contribution of educators to society is recognised.

The second photograph shows 92 year old Xue Yunji (seated) in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who is still running adult education classes. His student, Zhong Zhaoxin, is also no spring chicken, and is a veteran of the Korean war.

The disrespect shown to teachers in Britain is regretable, and there should be more recognition of their crucial value to society. China’s example is a good one on this issue.