- Taiwanese voters in 17 cities and counties are heading to the polls in local government elections. Analysts say that the vote will be a crucial mid-term test for President Ma Yingjiu. Allegations have already begun to fly over voteybgef cxz`a-buying in many areas and some reports say that prosecutors have sued 76 people and detained 150 over voting irregularities.
- Another three people have been sentenced to death for their roles in riots in Xinjiang in July. Eight people have now been sentenced to death since Thursday in addition to the nine who have already been executed. Of the three new sentences two were given to ethnic Uighurs and one to a man with a Chinese name. One other person was sentenced to life in jail and three others received prison sentences.
- China's official death toll from the H1N1 virus has risen to 200. 194 of the deaths were recorded in November. The figure jumped recently after the central government warned local governments not to doctor figures in order not to improve their image.
- General Motors has announced that it is planning an new venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. to build cars in India. It also announced that it is reducing its stake in the Chinese company to 49%, thereby giving SAIC a controlling stake. The move comes after Chicago-based GM was was forced to go to a bankruptcy court during the economic crisis. SAIC will be the first major Chinese company to produce cars in India for the Indian market.
- Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, has said that China is interested in exporting some of its manufacturing to Africa. China's focus in Africa has so far been on acquiring natural resources. This has led to accusations that it is merely mirroring the colonialist economic system. However, Mr. Zoellick says that after meetings with Chen Deming, China's Minister of Commerce, he believes there may be opportunities for the World Bank and China to cooperate on developing Africa's industrial base.
Saturday 5 December 2009
Roundup - 05/12/2009
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Interesting roundup. Do you think that the accusation that China is mirroring previous colonialist economic practices of the Western nations in its current behaviour towards China is justified?
ReplyDeleteHow would the exportation of industry to Africa help the Chinese, anyway?
The similarity between the colonial relationship with Africa and China's reationship with Africa is that they share a similar dynamic. They both sell cheaply produced consumer goods and extract vast quantities of natural resources. That the similarity exists in undoubtable, however, it is important to point out that China does not have dreams of empire (colonialism in Africa was never profitable for Western states anyway, only for the individuals who profited directly from the colonies).
ReplyDeleteIt nevertheless still pose problems for Africa. As long as African economies rely on selling natural resource they will never be able to grow as fast as the economies which then add value to those resources by turning them into products.
As to what advantage China would gain from developing industry it is hard to say. I would suspect however, that this would be used as abargining chip to gain further access to resources. I'll try to write an article on the topic soon.