China in Africa, Ka-Ching

by Cat Spencer

China’s ties with Africa date back to the 15th Century, so to speak of Sino-African relations as something new would be shortsighted. In fact, China’s involvement in the economies of numerous countries in Africa today is changing the face of the continent.

Through arrangements between the Chinese government and various African countries, China is becoming a new type of global power, increasing its ability to compete in a global economy, and sustaining its economic growth rates and access to natural resources.

China has looked to Africa as the stage upon which it may increase its economic prowess and expand its global presence. Why? China faces little competition with Western nations in Africa, and it is willing to participate in what other nations might deem risky business deals.

Google's Evil: The China Question

Google's corporate mantra suggests such a rare idea these days that it's almost soothing to say, "Don't be evil." So it's with all the more rage that Google-lovers and Google-haters go beserk over the company's entry into the Internet market in China.

Yes, Google compromised their corporate values. That's not a tough one: censorship is pretty illegal, no matter how you slice it. But without making concessions, the Chinese market, and that's a big one, would have been off limits entirely. Google's argument: better to provide some search technology and therefore information to people rather than no information at all.

For instance, search for Tiananmen in China, and you won't see the tank man. Or know anything about the popular democratic uprising and thousands that were slaughtered by the party. What information gets out matters.

What follows are selections from Google's public statement earlier this year when the company announced the venture.

Moneywise: China or US?

It's all about the money, isn't it? Keeping in mind that many, including China’s National Bureau of Statistics itself, have questioned the reliability of Chinese economic statistics, here's how China and the US stack up, right next to each other. All statistics are for 2005 unless otherwise noted.

A Man and a Tank

Perhaps the most iconic political image of all time, the character who has come to be known as the Tank Man. Protests, violence, and madness had filled Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and in plain daylight the tanks began to roll down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. But a man, with his briefcase and white shirt the seeming everyman, jumped in front of the all-powerful line of traffic. To this day, neither his identity, nor his fate, is known.

Was he a student? Was he a party agent? Was he simply a citizen who'd had enough of a tyrannical government?

12 Things I Know About China

by Bryan Joiner

China’s got over 1 billion people, but I’d be hard-pressed to write 1,000 words about the country—and I’ve taken a two-part History of Modern China course.

Most of what I’ve learned about China has gone in one ear and out the other—frankly, I’ve had little use for the information—but I think that’s about to change. The “Central Kingdom” is becoming the other major power on the world stage, filling the role abdicated by the Soviet Union nearly 20 years ago.

So, in the right here and right now, what do I, Bryan Joiner, know about China?

Yao Ming's Corporate Coaxing in China

In Operation Yao Ming (Gotham Books, 2005), former Newsweek bureau chief and Shanghai resident Brook Larmer follows the 7’6” Chinese center from his birth through his 2005 season for the NBA’s Houston Rockets.

Yao’s rise is the result of two decades of American corporate coaxing at every level in the former communist state and China’s pointed national effort to produce a basketball star. Yao’s parents were encouraged by the government to wed, though his mother, Da Fang, was one of Mao’s “little revolutionary generals” who had fallen out of favor with the Communist Party. The backdrop of the story is sports, but this is not a basketball book. It’s about getting business done in the new China under the rules of old China, and the often-maddening reality of this cultural clash.

Larmer mirrors Yao’s story with that of Wang Zhi Zhi, the first Chinese player to play in the NBA. The honor made him a him a national hero in 2001, a year prior to Yao’s arrival. He later enraged party officials, and became persona non grata in China, when he refused to return to his home country after an NBA season, a decision that almost cost Yao—then negotiating a release from the country—his NBA career.

10 Million Blogging in China

syndicated from China Web 2.0 Review

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) recently released a survey report on development of blogosphere in China.

According to the report there are 17.5 million bloggers in China who own 33.8 million blogs in total. That's almost two blogs per user. However, only about 28.2% blogs are still being updated. About 7.7 million active bloggers update their blog at least once a month.

The report estimated active bloggers will break 10 million at the end of this year.

17.5 million bloggers account for approximately 14.2% China’s 123 million internet users, but two month ago, in CNNIC’s regular report on Internet development in China (PDF file in English), it said 23.7% users frequently use blogging service. I don’t know whether “use” means only writing or includes reading as well.

About 75 million Chinese, or 61.4% of Chinese internet users, are reported to read blogs, among them 55 million said to read blogs frequently. But I somewhat doubt that about half of Chinese Internet users read blogs frequently.

Chinese History, Abbreviated

China has a wild and fascinating history, that is to say, hardly able to be distilled into a timeline that fits on the front page of The Inquirer. Regardless, you've gotta start somewhere, so what follows is a (very) abbreviated chronology of the world's most populous nation.

221 BC: Qin Dynasty establishes first unified Chinese state

7th to 14th Centuries AD: China has “Golden Age” under Tang and Song Dynasties. Stimulated by contact with India and the Middle East, the arts flourish

1271: Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, establishes the Mongol Yuan Dynasty

1361: Zhu Yuan Zhang, a peasant, overthrows the Mongols and founds the Ming Dynasty which rules until 1644

1644-1911: The last Dynasty, the Qing, rules China

1839-1842: The British defeat the Chinese in the Opium War and gain control of Hong Kong

1851-1862: After years of peasant unrest, Hong Xiuquan, who believes himself to be the son of God, starts the Taiping Rebellion; at least 20 million people die in the fighting before the rebellion is put down with British and French assistance

1900: The Boxer Rebellion; Emperor Ci Xi helps foreign forces suppress the uprising

1912: Republic of China is established, ending the Qing Dynasty

Late 1920’s: Chiang Kai-shek reunifies fragmented China under nationalist control

1937-1945: Sino-Japanese War

1949: People’s Republic of China established under the Communists; the nationalist government retreats to Taiwan

1959-1961: Mao initiates the “Great Leap Forward” to rapidly develop both industry and agriculture; Though statistics are contested, various sources set the death toll from famine caused by extreme taxation, poor planning, and natural disasters between 20 to 40 million

1989: Tiananmen Square demonstrations are violently put down

1997: The British return Hong Kong to China