Recently I was in Kunming, China attending a meeting of an association of university presidents of which I am a member. Returning to the hotel in the evening, I turned on the TV to catch the news. It was a memorable moment as I watched representatives of 48 African nations walk across the stage to be greeted by China’s President in the Great Hall of the People. The occasion was the Africa-China Summit. Together these leaders signed $1.9 billion U.S. worth of business development and trade agreements. China also announced they would offer $5 billion in loans and credit and double their aid to Africa by 2009.
With an historic meeting and the stroke of a pen, the dynamics of the relationship between Africa and the West has been dramatically changed as China and the developing countries of Africa begin forging strong relationships.
China is boldly and dynamically building friendly relations with African counties with a keen eye to the future and the potential for the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources, particularly oil. It is a coup of significant proportions potentially causing a major shift in international positioning. For the moment at least, the West has been outflanked. It would be ironic if this led to the West beginning to break down its agricultural subsidies in order to enable success at the WTO Doha Round of Negotiations. These negotiations stalled essentially because the West would not end its agricultural subsidies which have kept prices high, and as such, inaccessible to most African nations.
I should note that Kunming, once the isolated provincial capital of Yunnan province, is today a bustling urban centre of more than 5 million people. The broad clean streets bear witness to the community’s slogan, “city of eternal spring” - even at this time in November there is an abundance of flowers, green trees and pleasantly warm weather. The building boom seems relentless with new construction wherever you look. Modern, well-stocked department stores with all of the latest designer goods, fashions and trends vie with traditional markets and hawkers for the attention of locals and an increasingly large number of international visitors. The major billboard in the centre of the city features the latest handsome young singing sensation, a guy with attitude called “Jay”. A student guide informed me that the slogan beneath his picture translates as “Don’t take the usual path”. I couldn’t help but feel that the new youth of China are an incredible force for the future. I have no doubt that they will indeed break new ground.
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China’s recent economic success has definitely had some surprising and unexpected consequences. One of these consequences was discussed in Dr. Stangway’s posting and will hopefully begin to focus the world on Africa. Unfortunately, it’s too bad that the genocides, famines and Aids pandemic haven’t been enough to turn heads toward that forgotten continent. Let’s hope that China’s interest will force the United States and other countries to match China’s ambition of delivering more aid.
However, I am very pessimistic about the emergence of China on the world stage. It’s exciting to see places such as Shanghai, Yinchuan and Kunming rush to be the next urban center. However in rushing to become the next economic Superpower, what environmental and cultural legacies will be lost? We are already beginning to feel the environmental effects of China’s economic boom as the long range transport of industrial pollutants is being felt as far away as the West Coast of North America. Internally, the environmental effects are much worse. Just today, the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/world/asia/19yellowriver.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2) featured an article about the crisis that the Yellow River is facing both at its headwaters from global warming and also along its 3400 mile path from pollution. Air pollution kills more than 1000 Chinese a day and some estimates put the annual number of premature deaths from air pollution at 358,000 (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1558890,00.html). China does have the right to raise the standard of living for each of its citizens to the same standards that the developed nations around the world enjoy. However, if this was to happen, it will approximately double the entire world’s human resource use and environmental impact (Collapse, Jared Diamond). This is scary stuff and who knows how it will play out. However, China like no other country in the world has been able to successfully carry out large scale operations. Remember the Third Line which was vaster than all the public works of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal? Or the one child law which helped to limit China’s population growth? The optimistic side of me wants to believe that this ability to harness the energy of its people will be put to good use and China will be able to set an example for the rest of the world how to develop in an environmentally sustainable manner. It already has over 1700 nature reserves and their cars boast a higher fuel efficiency than cars produced in the United States. China phased out leaded gasoline in little over a year, something that took years in the US. It is also constructing a $6 billion green belt around Beijing to help reduce air pollution. These are positive signs and something to hold on to as we continue to pray that China once again finds the Middle Way that has allowed it to become one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations.
Brent Loken-Taipei, Taiwan
brentloken.edublogs.org
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