Mr. Hu, I presume: China’s president in Africa amidst concerns

Chinese president Hu Jintao yesterday began an eight-country tour of Africa following a November summit of African leaders in the Chinese capital. The People’s Daily is describing Hu’s visit as “a journey of friendship and cooperation” but others both in Africa and in the West are more skeptical about China’s intentions and wary of increased Chinese influence in Africa.

In today’s Times, Jonathan Clayton writes:

The burgeoning relationship between China and Africa has passed largely unchallenged, with African leaders keen to take advantage of investment and aid that is delivered with few strings attached at a time when Western trade partners are imposing onerous conditions of accountability and the environment.

Now the relationship is being questioned, in Africa and beyond. Domestically, there is alarm at the adverse impact on local companies of a flood of cheap Chinese manufactured goods. In elections in Zambia in December the opposition attacked China’s “exploitation of workers” and low safety standards in copper mines that it took over, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Internationally, there is unease about Beijing’s support for dictatorial regimes such as Zimbabwe and the DRC, and of China’s willingness to overlook human rights abuses. The

January 30th, 2007

The Taiwan textbook controversy

There seems like nothing in the history field can rile up the masses like a good old fashioned textbook controversy. This time on Taiwan where recent editions of the standard high school history text for Taiwanese students has had some changes made, most notably the terms, “mainland” (dalu 大陆）and “our country” (我国 woguo) have been changed to “China,” implying that Taiwan is a separate entity. Other changes include the relabeling of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising from a 起义 (qiyi or “righteous uprising”) to a 起事 (qishi or a simple “revolt”). Needless to say Xinhua and the China Daily weighed in with their usual invective towards all things independent on the island.

From a larger perspective however, it is easy to see why textbooks matter. Few people read the revisions and new analyses that appear in monographs and journals year after year but many do remember what Mrs. Kelly in 5th grade social studies told them about George Washington (or Huang Laoshi told them about Lei Feng.) And yet very rarely do the arguments over textbooks deal with research or data but rather they instead feature pointed ideological confrontations over what history is supposed “to do” and “to say.” It

January 30th, 2007

Chinese buying patterns, history, and nationalism

Diligence China has a quality post on the landmarks of emerging markets–certain things to look out for as China makes the transition from “from self-loathing acolyte to over-confident preacher.” Two of these landmarks I thought deserved further comment. A two stage process. Stage one – All of China’s historical problems were all either imported or the result of forgetting our own traditions. Stage two – Mining history for archetypes of new leaders. Look for Ghengis Kahn to be recast as the proto-Chinese leader. The Cultural Revolution was, somehow, a new management paradigm. Look for obscure writers to take on cult status — particularly when they demonstrate the superiority of Chinese organizational models.

We’ve seen some evidence of stage two recently, particularly the rehabilitation and subsequent Sinicization of Genghis . (Perhaps this is part of another of Diligence China’s landmarks: “claiming international brands as their own.”) The question of the source of China’s problems has a long and thorny past. There is the orthodox school in the PRC that claims that China possessed the ‘sprouts of capitalism’ only to have those sprouts choked to death by the weeds of feudalism and then eaten by the pestilence of imperialism. Now we see

January 30th, 2007

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