Now this is new to me. Had always figured, thanks to popular opinion, that China would be able to ride any wave of global economic calamity thanks to its hugely undeveloped domestic markets.
Assistant Professor Yu Maojie at the China Center for Economic Research at the highly esteemed Peking University has different ideas...
Quotable quote - "The export-oriented growth model is an unavoidable choice for China based on two key features of the economy: its low age dependency ratio and low level of urbanization."
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Domestic markets can't sustain China's growth
By Yu Miaojie
Source - Global Times, 25 August 2009
With the global financial crisis and the precipitous drop in external demand, there are many voices urging China to upgrade its industrial structure and put domestic consumption as the new engine of China's economy.
However, China's current economy means that it cannot give up the export-oriented growth model.
One of my recent studies along with Yang Yao, Professor of Economics at Peking University, found that the export-oriented growth model is an unavoidable choice for China based on two key features of the economy: its low age dependency ratio and low level of urbanization.
China's age dependency ratio, the ratio of population below age 16 and above 64 relative to those with ages in between, was only 40 percent in 2007, which is one of the lowest levels in the world. In addition, only 45.68 percent of China's population is urbanized, which also lags behind its income level when compared with other countries.
Both low age dependency ratio and low urbanization rate jointly determine a large supply of labor and a slow growth of labor income, which in turn leads to fast accumulation of capital and the manufacturing sector.
The two factors also determine a relatively small domestic market, and the only way to clear the market is to export. Our estimation suggests that China's export-oriented model will continue till 2025.
However, today exports are much more difficult for China given growing global protectionism. To some extent, export-oriented growth model seems like an audacious hope. The key point is: How to guarantee huge exports for China?
In my opinion, Chinese manufacturing firms should try to upgrade the quality of exporting goods, which is more important than the quantity. The idea is intuitive. Goods with higher quality have higher market prices and generate higher revenue with fixed or even slightly declined quantity of goods sold. From a macro perspective, a country with high-quality exports would become a favorable exporter. Goods labelled “Made in China” should not be treated as cheap-labor and low-quality.
In addition to the quality, credit constraints are another important factor that affect company's export. To export, firms need to set up their distribution network abroad. However, with severe liquidity constraints, firms are unable to cover their export entry fixed cost.
According to the 2007 Investment Climate Assessment, China is among the group of countries that have the worst financing obstacles. Research found that, all else equal, firms find it easier to export if they have easier access to external finance from financial intermediates.
How then to produce high-quality goods and alleviate the credit constraints for firms? The answer is simple. Firms should improve their productivity. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, once said that productivity is not everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. Many other economists also find evidence that good firms lead to more exports. Recently Marc Melitz, a Princeton professor in Economics, has theoretically shown that firms with high productivity have the intrinsic capability to export and even invest abroad.
Indeed, the most efficient firms export and earn extra profits abroad. The less efficient firms can only serve the domestic market since the entry to the foreign market would generate profits loss due to fixed entry cost. In contrast, the least efficient firms die and exit from the market.
The last question remained is how to improve firms' productivity.
The first way is to reduce firms' various variable costs.
Another strategy is to have the Chinese government impose more favorable production policies or trade policies to support exporting firms within WTO rules.
But the crucial thing is better enforcement of the laws and stronger protection of property rights, which help create, both domestically and internationally, a fair and competitive market for firms.
There are many useful ways to foster China's exports if Chinese firms and the Chinese government can take appropriate actions or adopt the right policies.
The author is an assistant professor in the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University
Showing posts with label global times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global times. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Chinese diplomacy can't rest on its laurels
A highly useful perspective that cuts through the fog about Chinese diplomacy.
Quoteable Quote - "Sometimes China is shouldering responsibilities that surpasses its strength. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. In a way, it gives you soft power. Of course you have to pay for that. Soft power often needs a solid economic base." Gao Zhikai
---
Chinese diplomacy can't rest on its laurels
Source - Global Times, 4 September 2009
Editor's Note:
China's diplomacy has chartered a twisting road in the past 60 years. As the country is poised to be a major power in the world, what lessons it has learned from the past six decades, and what's the future direction of its diplomacy? The following is an interview conducted by the Global Times (GT) with Hao Yufan (Hao), Professor of Political Science at the University of Macau, and Gao Zhikai (Gao), current affairs commentator.
GT: How do you see the gains and losses of Chinese diplomacy over the past 60 years in retrospect, especially the long-time issues that haven't been solved?
Hao: As for the shortcomings, in the first 30 years, that is from 1949 to 1979, China was relatively independent from the international system.
We emphasized being independent, partly due to the political environment back then, and sometimes we stood against two superpowers simultaneously. But that was dangerous in a way and we were isolated.
The 30 years of reform and opening-up has been a learning process for China. And we learned well during our interaction with the rest of the world. The downside is that we are still passive in our involvement in international affairs and international discourse. We are still learning.
For China and the rest of the world, China has transformed from a revolutionary, "outlaw" type of country into a responsible one, willing to maintain the status quo. That's the biggest achievement of the past 60 years.
But even today we don't have an overall strategy for our diplomacy. In the past we were on the defensive, busy handling situations, and didn't have a long term, systematic strategy that ensures the consistency of our foreign policies.
A country's diplomatic strategy should serve its ultimate goals. On certain level, we should consider: What are China's ultimate goals in the next 20 years?
Gao: China today is a major force for peace and stability in the world, and its diplomatic independence has positioned the country well to play a crucially important role in many regional and international issues in the world.
Furthermore, as its economy is already the third largest in the world, and its growth rate is much higher than the rest of the world, China is destined to have more important roles to play in the years to come.
On the other hand, China is also confronted with many daunting challenges in its diplomacy.
For example,how to make the rest of the world, especially the Western countries, understand China's growth better? How to prevent major divides between China and the West? How to make sure that China's relations with its neighboring countries are peaceful and mutually beneficial? How to make sure that many territorial disputes and controversies are well dealt with without flaring up into any armed conflicts? How to identify and play an increasingly more important role in the world that is commensurate to China's growing economic might? How to maintain China's domestic stability and development on the one hand and promote international harmony and peace on the other hand?
All these are major tasks that China needs to grapple with in its diplomatic theory and practice.
GT: How do you see the current diplomatic challenges China faces now?
Gao: There are many people and forces in the West who, for one reason or another, want to put China as an enemy or potential enemy of the world.
This is not only a major diplomatic challenge China needs to address, but is also intricately related to many important issues at home, including Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
China needs to be more effective and eloquent in communicating with the Western countries that we stand for peace, stability, harmony and development.
China needs to constantly improve its diplomatic theory and practice in line with the rapid development of its economy and the growing weight it carries in global trade and international finance.
If one is lagging behind the other, then China's diplomacy may either become less effective, or its potentials for world peace and stability and development may not be fully utilized.
We need wisdom and a sense of urgency in dealing with many tough issues we are confronted with.
Another weakness in China's diplomacy is that we stay on the defensive too much and for too long.
Any expectation that we may be able to sit through an issue, and many problems may solve by their own momentum may be false.
On major issues like Tibet, China needs to come up with greater initiative and greater wisdom in achieving a lasting solution for issues.
Throughout Chinese history, as soon as a dynasty prospered it started to lose the sense of urgency, and many people simply began to indulge in the good life.
Therefore, we need to make sure that the great economic miracles and the peace and prosperity we enjoy now at home do not blind us to the harsh realities at home and abroad, and do not deplete our dynamism, innovation and momentum for even greater achievements.
Hao: Europe, the US and Japan are taken aback by China's rapid development. Though they are adjusting their attitude toward China, in fact they don't want to see China grow too fast, but couldn't find a reason to persuade China to slow down.
What can they do? As far as they know, the only thing they can do is finding faults with China's political system.
Take the July 5 riots in Xinjiang for example. Some overseas scholars told me that such things happen in some so-called democratic countries in Asia quite often. But the Western elites will not point fingers at them because they find it inevitable that economic inequality causes racial or ethnic conflicts in many developing countries. But when it comes to China, they criticize China's political system or communism.
Meanwhile there's a certain degree of jealousy and prejudice, as they overemphasize the difference in political systems. I don't think they actually see China as an opponent, but are adjusting to China's rising status. Therefore it is not a fundamental conflict, and we need to think of a solution.
Gao: One thing we need to think about carefully is whether the US would ever allow China to peacefully rise to such an extent that its economy eventually surpasses the US economy? Is this something inevitable or irreversible? Or will some forces be deployed to make sure that it will not happen, at least not in a peaceful way?
How to make sure that the US and China will never have a major conflict with each other? How can we make sure that the US will not feel (or think it feels) threatened by the rapid peaceful rise of China? Can both China and the US come up with enough wisdom and vision so that we will not fall into the historical curse of conflict and come up instead with a new model of long-term cooperation rather than eventual conflict?
GT: For a long time we have abided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Today China is asked to take more international responsibilities. Is it a contradiction?
Hao: China's rapid development has led to higher demands from the international community, and in turn, China needs to respond to the expectations and requirements of being one of the world's greatest countries.
China is the world's biggest developing country. That statement stayed unchallenged until recent years. The West doesn't want to give China a free ride.
What we have here is a gap between conception and reality. Perhaps China is not as powerful as the great powers in the world, but when the people, leaders and media worldwide see you as a superpower, they will hold you to that standard.
Sometimes China is shouldering responsibilities that surpasses its strength. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. In a way, it gives you soft power. Of course you have to pay for that. Soft power often needs a solid economic base.
Gao: I think we need to look at it from two sides. There's nothing wrong with peaceful coexistence or harmony. But it takes two to tango.
What if you want to seek harmony and peaceful coexistence, but your opponent wants to seek your destruction and derailment?
We also need to decide on which matters we need to be tough and principled, but on which other matters can we soften up as much as we can, and demonstrate all the flexibility that we can?
We also need to move from a moralistic foundation of diplomacy to a legalistic foundation of diplomacy. What does that mean?
For example, rather than jumping out of our seat in condemnation each time a senior Japanese government official visits the Yasukuni Shrine, which memorializes some war criminals, we could promulgate a law or regulation denying such officials visas to visit China.
In a sense, harmony should be based on the rule of law, both at home and in the international arena.
Quoteable Quote - "Sometimes China is shouldering responsibilities that surpasses its strength. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. In a way, it gives you soft power. Of course you have to pay for that. Soft power often needs a solid economic base." Gao Zhikai
---
Chinese diplomacy can't rest on its laurels
Source - Global Times, 4 September 2009
Editor's Note:
China's diplomacy has chartered a twisting road in the past 60 years. As the country is poised to be a major power in the world, what lessons it has learned from the past six decades, and what's the future direction of its diplomacy? The following is an interview conducted by the Global Times (GT) with Hao Yufan (Hao), Professor of Political Science at the University of Macau, and Gao Zhikai (Gao), current affairs commentator.
GT: How do you see the gains and losses of Chinese diplomacy over the past 60 years in retrospect, especially the long-time issues that haven't been solved?
Hao: As for the shortcomings, in the first 30 years, that is from 1949 to 1979, China was relatively independent from the international system.
We emphasized being independent, partly due to the political environment back then, and sometimes we stood against two superpowers simultaneously. But that was dangerous in a way and we were isolated.
The 30 years of reform and opening-up has been a learning process for China. And we learned well during our interaction with the rest of the world. The downside is that we are still passive in our involvement in international affairs and international discourse. We are still learning.
For China and the rest of the world, China has transformed from a revolutionary, "outlaw" type of country into a responsible one, willing to maintain the status quo. That's the biggest achievement of the past 60 years.
But even today we don't have an overall strategy for our diplomacy. In the past we were on the defensive, busy handling situations, and didn't have a long term, systematic strategy that ensures the consistency of our foreign policies.
A country's diplomatic strategy should serve its ultimate goals. On certain level, we should consider: What are China's ultimate goals in the next 20 years?
Gao: China today is a major force for peace and stability in the world, and its diplomatic independence has positioned the country well to play a crucially important role in many regional and international issues in the world.
Furthermore, as its economy is already the third largest in the world, and its growth rate is much higher than the rest of the world, China is destined to have more important roles to play in the years to come.
On the other hand, China is also confronted with many daunting challenges in its diplomacy.
For example,how to make the rest of the world, especially the Western countries, understand China's growth better? How to prevent major divides between China and the West? How to make sure that China's relations with its neighboring countries are peaceful and mutually beneficial? How to make sure that many territorial disputes and controversies are well dealt with without flaring up into any armed conflicts? How to identify and play an increasingly more important role in the world that is commensurate to China's growing economic might? How to maintain China's domestic stability and development on the one hand and promote international harmony and peace on the other hand?
All these are major tasks that China needs to grapple with in its diplomatic theory and practice.
GT: How do you see the current diplomatic challenges China faces now?
Gao: There are many people and forces in the West who, for one reason or another, want to put China as an enemy or potential enemy of the world.
This is not only a major diplomatic challenge China needs to address, but is also intricately related to many important issues at home, including Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
China needs to be more effective and eloquent in communicating with the Western countries that we stand for peace, stability, harmony and development.
China needs to constantly improve its diplomatic theory and practice in line with the rapid development of its economy and the growing weight it carries in global trade and international finance.
If one is lagging behind the other, then China's diplomacy may either become less effective, or its potentials for world peace and stability and development may not be fully utilized.
We need wisdom and a sense of urgency in dealing with many tough issues we are confronted with.
Another weakness in China's diplomacy is that we stay on the defensive too much and for too long.
Any expectation that we may be able to sit through an issue, and many problems may solve by their own momentum may be false.
On major issues like Tibet, China needs to come up with greater initiative and greater wisdom in achieving a lasting solution for issues.
Throughout Chinese history, as soon as a dynasty prospered it started to lose the sense of urgency, and many people simply began to indulge in the good life.
Therefore, we need to make sure that the great economic miracles and the peace and prosperity we enjoy now at home do not blind us to the harsh realities at home and abroad, and do not deplete our dynamism, innovation and momentum for even greater achievements.
Hao: Europe, the US and Japan are taken aback by China's rapid development. Though they are adjusting their attitude toward China, in fact they don't want to see China grow too fast, but couldn't find a reason to persuade China to slow down.
What can they do? As far as they know, the only thing they can do is finding faults with China's political system.
Take the July 5 riots in Xinjiang for example. Some overseas scholars told me that such things happen in some so-called democratic countries in Asia quite often. But the Western elites will not point fingers at them because they find it inevitable that economic inequality causes racial or ethnic conflicts in many developing countries. But when it comes to China, they criticize China's political system or communism.
Meanwhile there's a certain degree of jealousy and prejudice, as they overemphasize the difference in political systems. I don't think they actually see China as an opponent, but are adjusting to China's rising status. Therefore it is not a fundamental conflict, and we need to think of a solution.
Gao: One thing we need to think about carefully is whether the US would ever allow China to peacefully rise to such an extent that its economy eventually surpasses the US economy? Is this something inevitable or irreversible? Or will some forces be deployed to make sure that it will not happen, at least not in a peaceful way?
How to make sure that the US and China will never have a major conflict with each other? How can we make sure that the US will not feel (or think it feels) threatened by the rapid peaceful rise of China? Can both China and the US come up with enough wisdom and vision so that we will not fall into the historical curse of conflict and come up instead with a new model of long-term cooperation rather than eventual conflict?
GT: For a long time we have abided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Today China is asked to take more international responsibilities. Is it a contradiction?
Hao: China's rapid development has led to higher demands from the international community, and in turn, China needs to respond to the expectations and requirements of being one of the world's greatest countries.
China is the world's biggest developing country. That statement stayed unchallenged until recent years. The West doesn't want to give China a free ride.
What we have here is a gap between conception and reality. Perhaps China is not as powerful as the great powers in the world, but when the people, leaders and media worldwide see you as a superpower, they will hold you to that standard.
Sometimes China is shouldering responsibilities that surpasses its strength. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. In a way, it gives you soft power. Of course you have to pay for that. Soft power often needs a solid economic base.
Gao: I think we need to look at it from two sides. There's nothing wrong with peaceful coexistence or harmony. But it takes two to tango.
What if you want to seek harmony and peaceful coexistence, but your opponent wants to seek your destruction and derailment?
We also need to decide on which matters we need to be tough and principled, but on which other matters can we soften up as much as we can, and demonstrate all the flexibility that we can?
We also need to move from a moralistic foundation of diplomacy to a legalistic foundation of diplomacy. What does that mean?
For example, rather than jumping out of our seat in condemnation each time a senior Japanese government official visits the Yasukuni Shrine, which memorializes some war criminals, we could promulgate a law or regulation denying such officials visas to visit China.
In a sense, harmony should be based on the rule of law, both at home and in the international arena.
Chinese are world champions at sleeping
In a sense, so are Singaporean males who've made it through compulsory military service. Much of our time in military training was spent in transit, either sleeping in moving trucks, in trenches dug into the ground, or just standing still during a parade. I guess for the Chinese it applies to both males and females, and for drastically different motivations.
Quotable Quote - "If sleeping were to become an Olympic sport, China would win gold, silver, and bronze. In fact all other nations probably wouldn't bother turning up, defeated from the start by the unequivocal Champions of Sleep."
---
Chinese are world champions at sleeping
By Marcus McAdam
Foreign View
Source - Global Times, 3 September 2009
I am fortunate to have a job that has led me all over the world, witnessing the diversity of countless cultures, and being fascinated by their contrasts.
The most obvious differences are the way we eat or spend leisure time, but we are taught to do these, so such differences are hardly surprising. But some more instinctual or natural activities vary little throughout the world.
For example, a person laughing in Russia looks the same as a person laughing in Argentina, Greece, or Uganda. Sleep is another natural activity that we all do on a daily basis, yet somehow no one can do this more effortlessly than the Chinese.
The infinite number of environments in which a Chinese person can sleep is nothing short of incredible. They can do it lying, sitting, or sometimes standing. They can do it in a quiet, noisy, or even hectic place. They can do it at any time of day, and seemingly without any hint of self-consciousness.
I was once on the furniture floor of a large department store in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, where all the beds, chairs, and sofas had people sleeping in them. Confused as to what was going on, I asked a local friend to find out what all these people were doing.
A quick look at my watch confirmed it was 3:15 pm, and while my friend went off to enquire, I counted 43 people asleep on the furniture. I thought maybe they were customers trying out the items before they committed to a purchase, but this seemed rather extreme. I then thought that maybe they were real life mannequins – cheaper to employ actual people than buy plastic ones?
I particularly admired the woman who had chosen a massage chair to fall asleep in. With her mouth wide open, and head rolling franticly from side to side, she seemed totally oblivious to the violent shaking she was receiving from the electric chair.
My friend returned with the news that all these people were actually the store's cleaning staff who worked overnight. Most of them lived too far away from downtown Nanjing to go home during the day, so instead they just got into the beds on the furniture floor.
I thought this was genius, but saw a flaw in the plan. I asked what would happen if I wanted to buy an item of furniture in which someone was sleeping. Would it be delivered discreetly to my home, so as not to wake the occupant? And what would I tell them when they eventually woke up in my bedroom?
Another environment where Chinese people can sleep without any effort is on a train. I remember being on an overnight service from Shanghai to Changsha, Hunan Province, and found myself sharing a soft-bed cabin with three other Chinese men.
Within seconds of turning off the light, all of them were snoring so loudly that I thought they must be joking with me. However, 20 minutes later, I started to realize the depressing truth that this was in fact real. One guy sounded like a hippopotamus with a breathing disorder. He was sleeping directly below me, and every time he exhaled, the vibration reverberated through my bed.
Along with the other two accomplices, the volume of this snoring trio was such that it actually drowned out the noise from a goods train passing by on the adjacent track at 200 kilometers per hour.
Needless to say, I got no sleep before arriving in Changsha, yet these three awoke with the freshness of spring rabbits, and had obviously slept like babies.
I have also experienced the Chinese office sleep, which to any foreigner is nothing but a mystery. All of a sudden, every person in the office will simultaneously stop working, lay down on a hard floor or on their desk, before being completely unconscious in less than 20 seconds. No amount of phones ringing or doors banging seems to be able to disrupt the office workers from their deep sleep, yet after sufficient rest time has passed, everyone suddenly wakes up and continues the day as though it never paused.
The same thing happens on buses, in city parks, and in Internet cafes. Seldom can you visit any of these places without finding someone asleep, unaware of the world around them. I once saw a man asleep while having his hair cut.
It seems there is no limit to the possibilities of places and environments in which Chinese can sleep.
If sleeping were to become an Olympic sport, China would win gold, silver, and bronze. In fact all other nations probably wouldn't bother turning up, defeated from the start by the unequivocal Champions of Sleep.
The author is a UK-based freelance writer and photographer
Illustration by Liu Rui - Global Times
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/foreign-view/2009-09/463162.html
Date of Access - 7 September 2009
Quotable Quote - "If sleeping were to become an Olympic sport, China would win gold, silver, and bronze. In fact all other nations probably wouldn't bother turning up, defeated from the start by the unequivocal Champions of Sleep."
---
Chinese are world champions at sleeping
By Marcus McAdam
Foreign View
Source - Global Times, 3 September 2009
I am fortunate to have a job that has led me all over the world, witnessing the diversity of countless cultures, and being fascinated by their contrasts.
For example, a person laughing in Russia looks the same as a person laughing in Argentina, Greece, or Uganda. Sleep is another natural activity that we all do on a daily basis, yet somehow no one can do this more effortlessly than the Chinese.
The infinite number of environments in which a Chinese person can sleep is nothing short of incredible. They can do it lying, sitting, or sometimes standing. They can do it in a quiet, noisy, or even hectic place. They can do it at any time of day, and seemingly without any hint of self-consciousness.
I was once on the furniture floor of a large department store in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, where all the beds, chairs, and sofas had people sleeping in them. Confused as to what was going on, I asked a local friend to find out what all these people were doing.
A quick look at my watch confirmed it was 3:15 pm, and while my friend went off to enquire, I counted 43 people asleep on the furniture. I thought maybe they were customers trying out the items before they committed to a purchase, but this seemed rather extreme. I then thought that maybe they were real life mannequins – cheaper to employ actual people than buy plastic ones?
I particularly admired the woman who had chosen a massage chair to fall asleep in. With her mouth wide open, and head rolling franticly from side to side, she seemed totally oblivious to the violent shaking she was receiving from the electric chair.
My friend returned with the news that all these people were actually the store's cleaning staff who worked overnight. Most of them lived too far away from downtown Nanjing to go home during the day, so instead they just got into the beds on the furniture floor.
I thought this was genius, but saw a flaw in the plan. I asked what would happen if I wanted to buy an item of furniture in which someone was sleeping. Would it be delivered discreetly to my home, so as not to wake the occupant? And what would I tell them when they eventually woke up in my bedroom?
Another environment where Chinese people can sleep without any effort is on a train. I remember being on an overnight service from Shanghai to Changsha, Hunan Province, and found myself sharing a soft-bed cabin with three other Chinese men.
Within seconds of turning off the light, all of them were snoring so loudly that I thought they must be joking with me. However, 20 minutes later, I started to realize the depressing truth that this was in fact real. One guy sounded like a hippopotamus with a breathing disorder. He was sleeping directly below me, and every time he exhaled, the vibration reverberated through my bed.
Along with the other two accomplices, the volume of this snoring trio was such that it actually drowned out the noise from a goods train passing by on the adjacent track at 200 kilometers per hour.
Needless to say, I got no sleep before arriving in Changsha, yet these three awoke with the freshness of spring rabbits, and had obviously slept like babies.
I have also experienced the Chinese office sleep, which to any foreigner is nothing but a mystery. All of a sudden, every person in the office will simultaneously stop working, lay down on a hard floor or on their desk, before being completely unconscious in less than 20 seconds. No amount of phones ringing or doors banging seems to be able to disrupt the office workers from their deep sleep, yet after sufficient rest time has passed, everyone suddenly wakes up and continues the day as though it never paused.
The same thing happens on buses, in city parks, and in Internet cafes. Seldom can you visit any of these places without finding someone asleep, unaware of the world around them. I once saw a man asleep while having his hair cut.
It seems there is no limit to the possibilities of places and environments in which Chinese can sleep.
If sleeping were to become an Olympic sport, China would win gold, silver, and bronze. In fact all other nations probably wouldn't bother turning up, defeated from the start by the unequivocal Champions of Sleep.
The author is a UK-based freelance writer and photographer
Illustration by Liu Rui - Global Times
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/foreign-view/2009-09/463162.html
Date of Access - 7 September 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Australia is a partner we can't live without
A good, middle-pathed commentary found in the Global Times by a People's Daily senior reporter.
---
Australia is a partner we can't live without
by Ding Gang
Source - Global Times 3 September 2009
On Tuesday, the Global Times ran a story "China is a partner Australia can't live without." I think this is only one side of the story.We should also recognize that Australia is a partner China can't live without. Both are equally important, especially in terms of economy and trade.
Recently there's been a comeback of the so-called China threat in Australia. For issues concerning China's fundamental interest, we shouldn't flinch, but handle them in accordance with the law and refute opposing arguments with reason. Yet it should be noted that the frictions are the results of closer economic and trade ties between China and Australia.
Some Chinese netizens think lightly of Australia. They believe that Australia relies so heavily on China for its economy and trade that China could easily "crush" Australia.
This isn't completely groundless. Australia's official statistics last year show that China was its second largest trade partner. Exports to China accounted for 14.6 percent of Australia's total, and imports from China, at 15.6 percent, were the largest of any nation. Moreover, a large number of Chinese students went to study in Australia, pouring money into the economy. On the other hand, Australia doesn't rank that high on China's foreign trade list.
For historic reasons, we like the economic approach when judging a country's influence. Therefore, some people emphasize the economic and trade ties with Australia, as if others will change their opinion about us when we become heavily relied upon. This perception shows an
excessive worship of power.
In fact, economic and trade relations are about mixed interests. Australia provides China with some indispensible goods. Recently CNPC signed a contract with Australia to buy $41 billion natural gas. China goes global, and increases economic connections with other countries. Meanwhile, China builds codependent relationships and her interests are interwoven with the rest of the world. China's position has changed, so has its relations with the world.
The relationship of interest is about mutual development and benefit, not about fearing and being feared.
Take Chinese overseas students, for example. They benefit Australia's economy and receive better education. Some of them will come back and contribute to China's development.
Our relations have changed from no connections to codependency. It's no longer a one way street. And as China gets stronger, it's unlikely that we'd build unbalanced foreign relations. Nor should we make the assumption that they can't live without us.
Even if someday China becomes so powerful that it could lead the world single-handedly, other countries will not necessarily be crushed without China. Besides, the confrontations of ideologies and system, or people's prejudices, cannot be resolved through economic and trade measures or raw power.
Usually there're boundaries in the game of interest between two codependent countries. Within the boundaries, the two parties can negotiate; going past them, both could get hurt. That's why when we say "China is a partner Australia can't live without," we should
ask ourselves, "Can China live without Australia?"
After all, our economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial. It's a win-win situation. China has gained a lot from its relations with Australia, and Australia hasn't gone so far as to treat China as an enemy.
If we can view China's relations with Australia and other Western countries from this perspective, we'll understand our own power much more clearly.
And when the people can look at our own country more objectively, we will have more flexibility in foreign affairs.
The author is a senior reporter with People's Daily
---
Australia is a partner we can't live without
by Ding Gang
Source - Global Times 3 September 2009
On Tuesday, the Global Times ran a story "China is a partner Australia can't live without." I think this is only one side of the story.We should also recognize that Australia is a partner China can't live without. Both are equally important, especially in terms of economy and trade.
Recently there's been a comeback of the so-called China threat in Australia. For issues concerning China's fundamental interest, we shouldn't flinch, but handle them in accordance with the law and refute opposing arguments with reason. Yet it should be noted that the frictions are the results of closer economic and trade ties between China and Australia.
Some Chinese netizens think lightly of Australia. They believe that Australia relies so heavily on China for its economy and trade that China could easily "crush" Australia.
This isn't completely groundless. Australia's official statistics last year show that China was its second largest trade partner. Exports to China accounted for 14.6 percent of Australia's total, and imports from China, at 15.6 percent, were the largest of any nation. Moreover, a large number of Chinese students went to study in Australia, pouring money into the economy. On the other hand, Australia doesn't rank that high on China's foreign trade list.
For historic reasons, we like the economic approach when judging a country's influence. Therefore, some people emphasize the economic and trade ties with Australia, as if others will change their opinion about us when we become heavily relied upon. This perception shows an
excessive worship of power.
In fact, economic and trade relations are about mixed interests. Australia provides China with some indispensible goods. Recently CNPC signed a contract with Australia to buy $41 billion natural gas. China goes global, and increases economic connections with other countries. Meanwhile, China builds codependent relationships and her interests are interwoven with the rest of the world. China's position has changed, so has its relations with the world.
The relationship of interest is about mutual development and benefit, not about fearing and being feared.
Take Chinese overseas students, for example. They benefit Australia's economy and receive better education. Some of them will come back and contribute to China's development.
Our relations have changed from no connections to codependency. It's no longer a one way street. And as China gets stronger, it's unlikely that we'd build unbalanced foreign relations. Nor should we make the assumption that they can't live without us.
Even if someday China becomes so powerful that it could lead the world single-handedly, other countries will not necessarily be crushed without China. Besides, the confrontations of ideologies and system, or people's prejudices, cannot be resolved through economic and trade measures or raw power.
Usually there're boundaries in the game of interest between two codependent countries. Within the boundaries, the two parties can negotiate; going past them, both could get hurt. That's why when we say "China is a partner Australia can't live without," we should
ask ourselves, "Can China live without Australia?"
After all, our economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial. It's a win-win situation. China has gained a lot from its relations with Australia, and Australia hasn't gone so far as to treat China as an enemy.
If we can view China's relations with Australia and other Western countries from this perspective, we'll understand our own power much more clearly.
And when the people can look at our own country more objectively, we will have more flexibility in foreign affairs.
The author is a senior reporter with People's Daily
Monday, August 24, 2009
Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
The media has and always been an instrument for manufacturing consent within the masses. Some (I hope some day soon, all of us will be, it's all a huge fog of war) are perceptive enough to see the forest for the trees, and Zhang Dali, China's 'first' graffiti artist has a good story to tell - how the pictures and reality tunnel he grew up with under the CCP's massive propaganda machine painted a very different reality of what should have been.
This is the story of how one man parted the fog and exposed how history had been re-written by agendas.
---
Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
Source and Photos: Global Times 23 August 2009
By Peng Yining
Zhu De, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai salute the first PLA national sports meet in 1952. The bottom photo was published in Selected Photographs of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The altered version appeared in People's Pictorial of 1977.
Zhang Dali realized he had been living in a distorted world for many years. The world he had believed in collapsed, history all a great big lie.
He began collecting the old news photos in 2004, going to archives to find the original negatives and then comparing them with the published versions: shabby old houses transformed into multi-story buildings where residents were leading the good life, bonus pigs pasted beside a farm to add prosperity, revolutionary heroes moved in front of pine trees and red flags plus of course famous politicians airbrushed out of history.
“I felt so depressed when I found that things I had seen with my own eyes might not be true,” he said.
“Like being manipulated by something or somebody for years and one day, you suddenly feel it in your soul: ‘I live a fake life.'
Zhang first heard about doctored photos in the 1970s. His father showed him a calendar. There used to be four leaders in the photo, his father said: Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.
Liu had gone.
Global Habit
In 1993, Zhang read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and so he knew a bit about propaganda image manipulation, but the Czech writer's book had not prepared him for the discovery of so many wrong Chinese mainland photos.
He picked 130 out of more than 300 he had collected and named his work A Second History.
A portrait of Mao Zedong and the slogans “Follow the Communist Party” and “Listen to Chairman Mao” replace a shabby wall and door in the new photo of Chengzhuang Agriculture Labor School published by People's Pictorial in February 1969.
“There are different versions of history,” Zhang said. “The first is objective, but usually we only get to read the second: history that was revised.
“I want to find the hidden truth that was revised or deleted.”
Some photo alterations are easily understood, like cutting a tall person out of a group photo from alongside propaganda folk hero Lei Feng.
“The publisher wanted to make Lei Feng look taller, more heroic,” Zhang said. “That's just standard practice in China. It could have been revised by the publisher or art editors. Anyone could revise it.”
But other changes confuse us today.
“It's like ‘Spot the Difference',” said Zhang. “A man's hat has been removed for no obvious reason.
“Maybe he was the only one in the photo who wore a hat and that nonconformity made people uncomfortable back then. But it seems only natural today.”
To obtain the original negatives, Zhang went to almost every archive in China, even managing to get hold of some classified film through some sympathetic connections.
Most of these archives are not open to the public, he said, so collecting the original film was actually the hard part.
“I knew some photos of leaders were sensitive, but I really enjoy finding the truth I never knew,” he said. “The leaders and political issues are just a part of history, an element of the truth.”
A Second History exhibits in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May 2009. Photos: courtesy of Zhang Dali
Mao disappears
The very last photo of A Second History concerns Mao Zedong. The original photo was of Mao and many villagers, but all the villagers were deleted to make the photo focus on the leader. So far as expected.
But what makes the exhibit so surprising is the 2007 version of this photo: Mao has been deleted. The editors just wanted to compare the view with today's view: the place had changed so much they had found it impossible to locate a picture with the old view. Until they saw Mao.
This little story showed in his opinion that everything changes, and the photo just represents a change in people's own sense of worth. Important things might be ignored in another context, Zhang said.
As the process of collecting continued, Zhang became more and more optimistic. He stopped to think about what is real and what is fake and stopped obsessing over all the lies and deceit. He realized the whole process of revisionism reflected the whole country's mindset, not just propaganda and cultural policies but also the lives and habits of every ordinary Chinese person.
“And we can still trace answers for today's China in those photos,” he said. “Why we are so cocky but blush at our own mistakes and poverty?
“Why we are so sensitive and inferior that we refuse to admit there are problems?
“Don't be afraid to face history. This is what we have done and this is our nation. Every rational intellectual has the capacity to uncover our real history. An artist is part intellectual.”
A Second History just finished exhibiting in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May this year.
“They said the artistic expression of A Second History surpassed any individual painting or statue,” said Zhang, who was delighted by the rave reviews.
“It's the best way to display China's cultural policy for a long time.”
Some of his photos admittedly contain some relatively sensitive political issues, Zhang said, but he urged authorities to think carefully about the message his exhibition sent.
“I didn't set out to criticize anything,” Zhang said. “Fake photos exist all over the world. If someone uses my works to attack China, I can't help that. I'm just an artist. I just show what I see.”
Zhang will try to get A Second History exhibited in Beijing this year, but he conceded there was little chance he could succeed and so he is already thinking about other Chinese cities. The display boards are all now leaning against the wall of his study.
“Such a pity,” he said. “My work is for Chinese.”
Did Zhang Dali sell out?
There's a lazy stereotype of artists that they loll about the street all day, growing long hair and then suddenly get hit with a flash of inspiration, Zhang Dali told the Global Times.
“People should ask themselves where this so-called flash of inspiration comes from,” he joked.
Well, perhaps it came from Zhang. Zhang himself had long hair 22 years ago when he graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing and started painting.
“I am not that into Beijing now. People here wandering all the time and calling themselves ‘artists',” said the lesser-known artist in the 1988 documentary film Drifters in Beijing. Zhang was huddled in a cramped rented room, his straight black hair hanging to his shoulders, unclean beard obscuring a small chin.
The Zhang of today sports a crew cut and a clean-shaven face. Only the Harbin drawl remains the same, perhaps a bit softer.
Returning from Italy in 1995, Zhang made his name as the “first graffiti artist of China” for his trademark profile of a bald man on Beijing streets.
But annoying many of his fans, he stopped graffiti in 2007.
“Zhang cleaned up,” Liu Yuansheng, a photographer who spent years documenting Chinese graffiti, wrote in his blog. “He became rich and his life was changed, so he abandoned graffiti.”
Some new graffiti artists agree with Liu.
“He disparaged graffiti after becoming famous from it, but I can understand why Zhang quit,” Seven, a member of a graffiti crew in Beijing told the Global Times. “He's a rich man now.”
“They think like that about me?” Zhang lifted himself out of the sofa and paused for a moment in thought.
“Well, I suppose to some extent, they're right. It's true that today I just don't get that sudden yen to sneak out at midnight and ride a bicycle to spray a blank wall.”
“But their conclusion about me is simplistic,” he shook his head, and fell back into the sofa.
“I am beyond street graffiti now. I seek fulfillment through something more complicated, more magnificent, like A Second History.”
Fast facts: Zhang Dali
1963 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province
1987 Graduates from Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1987 and works as a freelance painter in Beijing
1989 Moves to Bologna, Italy
1992 Paints his trademark profile of a bald man on the street of Bologna, and names it Dialogue.
1995 Back to Beijing as China’s first graffiti artist.
1998 A photo of his graffiti appears on the cover of Newsweek in the United States.
2003-2005 Portrays 100 immigrant workers in life-size resin sculptures of various postures, with a designated number, the artist’s signature and the work’s title Chinese Offspring tattooed onto each of their bodies.
2008 Work about migrant workers Wind Horses Flag exhibits in Beijing.
2009 A Second History exhibits in Walsall, UK.
This is the story of how one man parted the fog and exposed how history had been re-written by agendas.
---
Pictures expose peculiar prejudices of the propagandist
Source and Photos: Global Times 23 August 2009
By Peng Yining
Zhu De, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai salute the first PLA national sports meet in 1952. The bottom photo was published in Selected Photographs of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The altered version appeared in People's Pictorial of 1977.
Zhang Dali realized he had been living in a distorted world for many years. The world he had believed in collapsed, history all a great big lie.
He began collecting the old news photos in 2004, going to archives to find the original negatives and then comparing them with the published versions: shabby old houses transformed into multi-story buildings where residents were leading the good life, bonus pigs pasted beside a farm to add prosperity, revolutionary heroes moved in front of pine trees and red flags plus of course famous politicians airbrushed out of history.
“I felt so depressed when I found that things I had seen with my own eyes might not be true,” he said.
“Like being manipulated by something or somebody for years and one day, you suddenly feel it in your soul: ‘I live a fake life.'
Zhang first heard about doctored photos in the 1970s. His father showed him a calendar. There used to be four leaders in the photo, his father said: Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.
Liu had gone.
Global Habit
In 1993, Zhang read Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and so he knew a bit about propaganda image manipulation, but the Czech writer's book had not prepared him for the discovery of so many wrong Chinese mainland photos.
He picked 130 out of more than 300 he had collected and named his work A Second History.
A portrait of Mao Zedong and the slogans “Follow the Communist Party” and “Listen to Chairman Mao” replace a shabby wall and door in the new photo of Chengzhuang Agriculture Labor School published by People's Pictorial in February 1969.
“There are different versions of history,” Zhang said. “The first is objective, but usually we only get to read the second: history that was revised.
“I want to find the hidden truth that was revised or deleted.”
Some photo alterations are easily understood, like cutting a tall person out of a group photo from alongside propaganda folk hero Lei Feng.
“The publisher wanted to make Lei Feng look taller, more heroic,” Zhang said. “That's just standard practice in China. It could have been revised by the publisher or art editors. Anyone could revise it.”
But other changes confuse us today.
“It's like ‘Spot the Difference',” said Zhang. “A man's hat has been removed for no obvious reason.
“Maybe he was the only one in the photo who wore a hat and that nonconformity made people uncomfortable back then. But it seems only natural today.”
To obtain the original negatives, Zhang went to almost every archive in China, even managing to get hold of some classified film through some sympathetic connections.
Most of these archives are not open to the public, he said, so collecting the original film was actually the hard part.
“I knew some photos of leaders were sensitive, but I really enjoy finding the truth I never knew,” he said. “The leaders and political issues are just a part of history, an element of the truth.”
A Second History exhibits in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May 2009. Photos: courtesy of Zhang Dali
Mao disappears
The very last photo of A Second History concerns Mao Zedong. The original photo was of Mao and many villagers, but all the villagers were deleted to make the photo focus on the leader. So far as expected.
But what makes the exhibit so surprising is the 2007 version of this photo: Mao has been deleted. The editors just wanted to compare the view with today's view: the place had changed so much they had found it impossible to locate a picture with the old view. Until they saw Mao.
This little story showed in his opinion that everything changes, and the photo just represents a change in people's own sense of worth. Important things might be ignored in another context, Zhang said.
As the process of collecting continued, Zhang became more and more optimistic. He stopped to think about what is real and what is fake and stopped obsessing over all the lies and deceit. He realized the whole process of revisionism reflected the whole country's mindset, not just propaganda and cultural policies but also the lives and habits of every ordinary Chinese person.
“And we can still trace answers for today's China in those photos,” he said. “Why we are so cocky but blush at our own mistakes and poverty?
“Why we are so sensitive and inferior that we refuse to admit there are problems?
“Don't be afraid to face history. This is what we have done and this is our nation. Every rational intellectual has the capacity to uncover our real history. An artist is part intellectual.”
A Second History just finished exhibiting in the New Art Gallery of Walsall in the United Kingdom in May this year.
“They said the artistic expression of A Second History surpassed any individual painting or statue,” said Zhang, who was delighted by the rave reviews.
“It's the best way to display China's cultural policy for a long time.”
Some of his photos admittedly contain some relatively sensitive political issues, Zhang said, but he urged authorities to think carefully about the message his exhibition sent.
“I didn't set out to criticize anything,” Zhang said. “Fake photos exist all over the world. If someone uses my works to attack China, I can't help that. I'm just an artist. I just show what I see.”
Zhang will try to get A Second History exhibited in Beijing this year, but he conceded there was little chance he could succeed and so he is already thinking about other Chinese cities. The display boards are all now leaning against the wall of his study.
“Such a pity,” he said. “My work is for Chinese.”
Did Zhang Dali sell out?
There's a lazy stereotype of artists that they loll about the street all day, growing long hair and then suddenly get hit with a flash of inspiration, Zhang Dali told the Global Times.
“People should ask themselves where this so-called flash of inspiration comes from,” he joked.
Well, perhaps it came from Zhang. Zhang himself had long hair 22 years ago when he graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing and started painting.
“I am not that into Beijing now. People here wandering all the time and calling themselves ‘artists',” said the lesser-known artist in the 1988 documentary film Drifters in Beijing. Zhang was huddled in a cramped rented room, his straight black hair hanging to his shoulders, unclean beard obscuring a small chin.
The Zhang of today sports a crew cut and a clean-shaven face. Only the Harbin drawl remains the same, perhaps a bit softer.
Returning from Italy in 1995, Zhang made his name as the “first graffiti artist of China” for his trademark profile of a bald man on Beijing streets.
But annoying many of his fans, he stopped graffiti in 2007.
“Zhang cleaned up,” Liu Yuansheng, a photographer who spent years documenting Chinese graffiti, wrote in his blog. “He became rich and his life was changed, so he abandoned graffiti.”
Some new graffiti artists agree with Liu.
“He disparaged graffiti after becoming famous from it, but I can understand why Zhang quit,” Seven, a member of a graffiti crew in Beijing told the Global Times. “He's a rich man now.”
“They think like that about me?” Zhang lifted himself out of the sofa and paused for a moment in thought.
“Well, I suppose to some extent, they're right. It's true that today I just don't get that sudden yen to sneak out at midnight and ride a bicycle to spray a blank wall.”
“But their conclusion about me is simplistic,” he shook his head, and fell back into the sofa.
“I am beyond street graffiti now. I seek fulfillment through something more complicated, more magnificent, like A Second History.”
Fast facts: Zhang Dali
1963 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province
1987 Graduates from Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1987 and works as a freelance painter in Beijing
1989 Moves to Bologna, Italy
1992 Paints his trademark profile of a bald man on the street of Bologna, and names it Dialogue.
1995 Back to Beijing as China’s first graffiti artist.
1998 A photo of his graffiti appears on the cover of Newsweek in the United States.
2003-2005 Portrays 100 immigrant workers in life-size resin sculptures of various postures, with a designated number, the artist’s signature and the work’s title Chinese Offspring tattooed onto each of their bodies.
2008 Work about migrant workers Wind Horses Flag exhibits in Beijing.
2009 A Second History exhibits in Walsall, UK.
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