Brazil's huge new port highlights China's drive into South America

Not this about the way that China is pressing an agenda to fashion a multi-polar geopolitics (read: counterweighting the USA).

They seek to fashion a multipolar world in which no single power – read the United States – plays an overwhelmingly dominant role. To this end, they seek to bolster ties with rising regional powers like Brazil and South Africa.

Of course, the USA signs up in theory to human rights (and appears to be selective in applying or promoting them). China, on the other hand, doesn't really sign up to them ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/brazil-port-china-drive

Are we there yet? Chinese Gridlock

I started to realise that this incident could be a kind of emblematic event for technological society.

vehicles bound for Beijing were sitting in a queue of 62 miles, and that some of them had been there, moving around half a mile a day, since mid-August. Stranded drivers were passing the time playing cards, sleeping in their vehicles or on the asphalt, and being preyed on by merciless local opportunists along the route, who saw a captive, hungry audience to whom they could flog water and wildly overpriced bowls of rice.

In fact, it occurred to me, that it is the kind of thing of which interesting plays are made. It could have been done well by Samuel Beckett, I suspect.

China wrecked talks

I think this might be an important perspective which may have a lot of truth in it; I suspect it may turn out to be a significant view in years to come. See it here: How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room | Mark Lynas | Environment | The Guardian
First off, the summary view:

"The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful 'deal' so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame."

I'm reckoning that this may turn out to be the date from which we date China's accession to superpower status, politically.
Certainly, they 'played' their game cannily:

"The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors"."

Clever piece of political theatre.
I think that this was China flexing muscle and as such gives us a glimpse of things to come.

The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".
This does not mean China is not serious about global warming. It is strong in both the wind and solar industries. But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal.

So there you have it folks: China is in the front line of climate change and will be taking it seriously, but ...

The future Superpower rivals: China and India

I'm not sure, now I come to think of it, what defines 'superpower', but by most historical standards I suspect China ought to be so classified and India seems not far behind. Have a look at this opinion piece (admittedly written by an Indian, by the looks of it): Superpower rivalry, Sino-Indian style | Kapil Komireddi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The final paragraph says: "The Sino-Indian conflict will define the 21st century in a more complicated manner than the Soviet-American conflict characterised the second half of the 20th. So far, this clash has received very little attention in the west. In the not-too-distant future, people everywhere are going to have to pick sides. The troubled peace of today is necessarily a prelude to the impending war."
I suspect that there is a great deal of truth in this and we should begin thinking about it sooner rather than later. Not least, what kind of effect does this have on global Christianity and vice-versa? Both countries have not insignificant Christian minorities which are somewhat on the edge in terms of persecution, that is to say, Christians are tolerated officially but often suffer local persecution (think Orissa) or pressure for 'unregistered' activity. Such attitudes are likely to be imitated by 'client' states and perhaps actively promoted by the emerging superpowers. Of special interest might be Chinese interests in Africa which are already having 'destabilising' effects in Sudan and other central African states because China is far less likely than the west to link aid to human rights issues.

Outsourcing Unrest

This is rather similar to thoughts that have been occuring to me for a couple of years now:
Monbiot.com Outsourcing Unrest. Here's the nub of George's idea: "the current political crisis has little to do with the expenses scandal, still less to do with Gordon Brown’s leadership. It arises because our economic system can no longer extract wealth from other nations. For the past 300 years, the revolutions and reforms experienced by almost all other developed countries have been averted in Britain by foreign remittances.
The social unrest which might have transformed our politics was instead outsourced to our colonies and unwilling trading partners. The rebellions in Ireland, India, China, the Caribbean, Egypt, South Africa, Malaya, Kenya, Iran and other places we subjugated were the price of political peace in Britain. Following decolonisation, our plunder of other nations was sustained by the banks. Now, for the first time in three centuries, they can no longer deliver, and we must at last confront our problems."
Of course the argument works within a wider framework of compare and contrast with other nations, historically. And of that there is some interesting evidence particularly regarding India and China.

‘Capi-communism’ – the Chinese version of capitalism that’s plundering Papua New Guinea

I've blogged before about China because basically I take the view that over the next 20 years they will be seen as a major world power and they are already indulging in their own brand of neo-colonialism. If you want to get some insight, this month's New Internationalist is a doozy on the subject. Here's a taster: "The Memorandum of Agreement commits the Chinese to contributing an astonishingly low $731,000 to local infrastructure. While the companies say publicly they will spend $2.93 million2, this is still a pittance considering the 20-year lifespan of the project. How many schools and hospitals can be built with an amount like this? Taxing the Ramu Nickel project could have produced a firm support for infrastructure funding. But in addition to receiving a 10-year income tax holiday, the project is exempt from a range of other taxes – even the excise on fuel has been waived.6 And what will local landowners think when they read that the PNG Government – not Ramu Nickel – has signed up to build the all-important road from Basamuk to Madang? With no taxes from the mine, how will the Government fund the route?" Check it out at Chris Richards meets ‘Capi-communism’ – the Chinese version of capitalism that’s plundering Papua New Guinea. | June 2009 | New Internationalist: this is an issue no concerned world Christian can afford not to be praying and thinking about even now. And this kind of thing is happening in Africa and South America too (China's involvement in Sudan for example has already been the kind of thing that has arguably fuelled and facilitated the whole janjaweed thing).

Pronouncing Chinese

I've got fed up with the BBC and other channels covering the Beijing olympics. They obviously don't brief their readers and anchors like they used to. I'm pretty certain that it used to be the case that they would have guidance or even tuition to pronounce foreign words something like correctly. Judging by what I keep hearing, that hasn't been happening. So, guys, pronouncing Beijing as if the 'j' is French (and don't think I haven't noticed that you tend to make the same mistake with Hindi/Urdu) is not right. Check the table on this page: Language: Introductory Guide to Pronouncing Chinese.
Now I feel better for getting that off my chest.

PS. YOu might like to have a look at this article, on the same topic and the comments are informative too.

Forgive us our Ecological debts?

It's disturbing, though probably not surprising to discover that our ecological 'debt' is growing: "Last year Nef found that global consumption levels pushed the world into 'ecological debt' on 9 October; this year, it says, we are in debt three days earlier. Ecological debt means that our demands exceed the Earth's ability to supply resources and absorb the demands placed upon it."
I find myself mulling over the co-incidence of this terminology with the Lukan version of the Gospel Prayer: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors". Noting that there are ways in which the economy of grace is not easily compared to the ecology of resources. Though it is worth noting that while we can ask God to forgive us, we cannot 'ask' the earth or the rest of the globe to do so indefinitely: people will start (actually have started) dying to service this debt at some point.

While our 'debts' are ones to do with hurt and pride they have similarity to the digital economy. That is, they can be 'copied' potentially infinitely. and similarly they can just as easily (and this is not to say that it is emotionally easy) be forgiven. Of course the reason that they may be hard to forgive is that they can rest on physical events that cannot reverse time's arrow: a loved one cannot be returned from death and (normally) our words cannot be taken back, and so on.

So we may ask God to forgive our debts and others likewise, but we still have to work with the consequences of what those debts rest on. In this case taking more than our share and robbing our children and grandchildren, and in doing so to be changing the global balance of power in ways that, if we survive, may also be storing up further challenges for our descendants.

We can learn from some aspects of older Christian teaching: the idea of penance, I think, was meant to be about showing the fruits of repentance primarily by trying to make righter the things our sinning had marred. And actually, that seems to mirror a right human instinct. The instinct to make right, and to make or restore justice is served in our own persons as we recognise that we are the ones who need to do so. However, to do so is not to 'buy' forgiveness, since forgiveness can only ever be given (clue in the word itself, folks) never earned: the hurt can never be undone, only 'swallowed' and moved on from by various means.

God may forgive us this debt, and perhaps others will too. But the harm will remain for some time and we need to find ways, corporately to show the fruits of repentance by beginning to make decisions to enable us live ecologically-debt-free and to embed such living into the way we live so we don't even decide any more, we just do it. After all we don't, on the whole, decide to live ecologically in debt; we just do because the ways that lead to debt have been built into our lifestyles in a thousand subtle and 'innocent' ways. It'll be messy and it won't be easy to make decisions and embark on ways that are unambiguously good. These are days that will call for wisdom, forebearance and mutual encouragement: pretty much the qualities that make for forgiveness, in fact...

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | UK 'exporting emissions' to China

After the G8

There's no shortage on my newsfeeds of downbeat assessments of progress via the G8. Here's a different tone of voice from Avaaz. "President Bush only conceded global warming might be real in January. But this week his government felt compelled to shift, even if it's trying wrecking tactics too.
That sabotage can't succeed if we the people stand up for the right path, all around the globe. Bush is increasingly isolated even in his own country - the American public and the US Congress are coming behind bold action on climate change.
And he's isolated in the world - he can't rely on other big polluters like China and Brazil, now moving faster than expected toward the climate savers' camp. The 'plus 5' big developing countries said they wanted a stronger statement from the G8. A big international poll just showed 65% of Chinese people and 62% of Indians support requiring their governments to act as well."
And of course, Bush is due to meet Chinese and Indian leaders shortly on climate change issues ...
Avaaz.org - The World in Action:

Children exploited in Olympics goods factories

I suspect that this could become the symbolic heart of campaigning for workers' rights in the 'outsource destinations' of our global economy. "Research inside China found widespread abuse of workers producing licensed goods carrying the logo of the 2008 Beijing games. Mr Barber said: 'Children and adult workers are being grossly exploited so that unscrupulous employers can make more profit. Their actions tarnish the Olympic ideal, and we don't want more of the same when the Olympics come to London. The IOC must add respect for workers' rights to the Olympic charter."
More info as I find it.
Children exploited in Olympics goods factories, says TUC | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis

Just when I get down about China and environmental impact, there comes a ray of hope: "Dongtan's master plan — hundreds of pages of maps, schematics, and data — has almost nothing to say about architectural style. Instead, it outlines the world's first green city, every block engineered in response to China's environmental crisis. It's like the source code for an urban operating system. 'We're not focused on the form,' Gutierrez explains. 'We're focused on the performance of the form.' He and his team imagine a city powered by local, renewable energy, with superefficient buildings clustered in dense, walkable neighborhoods; a recycling scheme that repurposes 90 percent of all waste; a network of high tech organic farms; and a ban on any vehicle that emits CO2."
Wired Magazine: Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis: