Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

Before I begin this brief review of November’s news, or a few pieces of it that I have found of interest, I must just note that it took me 50 minutes in a taxi yesterday to do a journey that only takes 20 minutes on my bike. Although, I promise that after this brief aside I will avoid the issue of traffic for a few weeks, as it has become a too oft-repeated theme here and I am actually beginning to depress myself, let alone anyone else. But for now, back to yesterday, there didn’t seem to be any extra special road problem, it was just the sheer weight of traffic that was holding us up so long.

So, it was with a deep sigh that I concluded my re-reading of this extract from Karl Gerth’s book As China Goes So Goes The World, a poignant title if ever there was one, and one that China Beat picked up on this month. I had only just finished chatting with a friend of mine about the exceptional growth in private car ownership here in Xi’an, particularly over the last year, when I began reading it.

The article in no way contradicted our discussion or in any way led me to any brighter conclusions than the ones we had just dwelt upon. One of which was the almost inevitable sealing of Xi’an’s roads at some point in the near future, particularly in areas outside of the newly built zones in the west and far south, which do at least have somewhat wider boulevards and road junctions.

We seemed to both be acknowledging that the subway system, at least in the short term, is just not going to hit the spot in terms of a practicable alternative for the vast majority of car users out there. And with the increase in car ownership not doing anything like stabilizing, let alone decreasing, it really doesn’t bode well.

Gerth’s book managed to put this situation in a much graver light, by giving it some historical context and a consequential sense of the inevitability and run away, now out of control, nature of it all. To think an alternative, a non-private car based society and economy was actually being considered, or even expected, up until relatively recently. China really could have given its growth and increased global power some fluttering flags of moral leadership, if that is what it or we really wanted, but it didn’t.

There are numerous reasons for living in China today, but high on any list would be the fact that it is one of the best places to watch a world, our world, going slightly mad. China, of course, just being an expression of similar aspects of our own societies on overdrive, 20 years of development and changes pact into 2 or 3. It could be said, by some, that we are missing any really satisfying logic for our own existence. And it is true that we do seem to have almost given up on ourselves as “decent, wise folks” if we think this is the way to go.

Of course, not all the peoples of the world agree that it is the way to go, but those that are deciding for us, and many of them do come legitimized by us, agree that it is, or they do not at least see any other way. Not that any alternative is going to be easy to come-by now or, more importantly, implement.

Though the Chinese system may still have its ways. The China Media Project brought us this month another side of this political coin of morality. Zhao Qiang, a party hard-liner, emphasised the continued importance of political control over the media in China and accordingly public opinion.

There is no moral lesson to be taken here on the value of freedom of speech, but only one to be measured by the perceived value of state controlled public opinion and motivation. Zhao passionately defends the need for a Marxist view of journalism, noting that: “the principle of the Party spirit [in journalism} (党性原则) is a fundamental principle of socialist news work”.

According to this thesis, any overtly or consistently negative consequences that arise from this epidemic of increased car use will not be allowed to be fully aired in this fair land any time soon. This is certainly true if we consider Zhao’s scathing criticism of Gorbachev’s turn towards democratization and openness of the public debate as a view held within the upper echelons of the Communist party.

In reality, a greater debate does go on in the public domain than this view would like to see represented. However, Zhao, taking Gorbachev’s own words, highlights the direction he does not want to see China going in: “Any matter, whether concerning pains of the moment or suffering stemming from historical tragedies, may become the object of analysis by publications.” No! No! No!

As we have moved closer here towards the political dynamics at the centre of the Communist Party I might as well dwell for a moment on the man Jonathan Fenby, from The Observer, suggested the British Prime Minister David Cameron should seek out on his recent visit to Beijing, the prospective next President Xi Jin Ping.

Though, it is a meeting that should be seen less in the name of David Cameron himself, as he will be long gone when Xi gets into his stride, but as a Cameron offering the extended hand of a Britain holding a cup of requests. The most important request being, given the economic priorities outlined above, that the Chinese buy more of what we produce, at prices that don’t actually suit the Chinese majority but do us. All ‘s fair in love and war after all.

During the middle of last month Xi Jin Ping was selected as vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, a supposedly clear sign that he has been selected as Hu Jintao’s successor and who will lead China into the 2020’s. Xi majored in "Marxist Theory and Ideological Education" and chemical engineering, and he has experience in the private manufacturing area of Zhenjiang, where he was known for his tough tackling of corruption.

He then became head of political responsibility for the Beijing Olympics before becoming the president of the party school, the primary organization for training Communist Party officials. He is known as a conciliator and to be less grave than Hu Jin Tao, smiling more often in public. We will come to know more later I am sure. See also here.

There were a number of other pieces over the month that captured my hard to pin down attention but I have gone on enough. So, I will just quickly re-link a couple of those stories that stood out. Gady Epstein, over at Forbes, interestingly as ever highlighted Baotou as a name you need to know in 2011, being as it is “not only home to more than half of China’s current rare earths production… [but] also holds the largest estimated reserves of rare earth metals on the planet. By far.”  Also, see this article at the China Law Blog.

There was also Timothy Garton-Ash’s view that Europe needs a Foreign Policy or more generally, that the long-term interests of European States are best served by “hanging together”, defending the idea that: “European values must be understood as a proposal for universal values, and that one can arrive at a belief in very similar values from the very different trajectory of Chinese history.”

So Cameron et al don’t all go wandering off to China with their own small cups of requests, which subsequently dilute issues that a united voice could be found on, or at least don’t allow multiple self-serving interests to muddy each particular field or potential joint venture.

But also lets not forget that Standard Chartered Bank.com laid out this month why it thinks the world is in the throws of another “Super Cycle”, led by Asia, and that it will last at least another couple of decades. Which of course makes everything much more rosey. They highlighted that: “The developed economies will do well through the super-cycle, but the emerging markets will do much better.

As a result, the global balance of economic power will shift decisively from the West to the East.” Wake up and get your collective-voice-heads-on I hear Garton-Ash chorusing in the background. Though, the identification of this Asian growth cycle probably also doesn’t do much to assuage the concerns felt by the people paying the highly inflated prices now abounding here on the Chinese mainland. A few examples were given over at the China Hush website this month, one random one being that 100 Yuan now buys you 90 less eggs than it did a year ago.

On a more prosaic note, John Pasden over at Sinosplice highlighted two things that China’s teachers need to get right for us. The first, that tones need to be taught systematically and that their study needs to be maintained over the long term. The second, that Chinese learners need a “public, large-scale corpus of spoken Chinese”. Though Charlie of Chengdu Living brought to the attention of many a tool that could by-pass a large amount of this Chinese learning curve, by reading and translating Chinese characters for us.

And all this having been noted without mentioning North Korea, who weighed heavily into the news at month’s close, here and here. These monthly news reviews are seemingly going to remind me just how much of our world does actually revolve around a China axis, even given my narrow and a little one-sided perspective on all that is out there.

Tags: Baotou, Cars in China, Free Press, Freedom of Speech, Inflation, Karl Gerth, Marxism, Rare Earths, Traffic Jams, Universal Values, Xi Jinping

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 20:24 and is filed under Education China, Environment China, Internet/ Media China, More Directly China News/ Politics Related, The Economy, Transport in China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.