China-Africa: How the African Journalist saw China.
Travelogue“Travel and See”: China and the 21st Century
“The 21st Century belongs to China,” one of the officials, who received a group of journalists from Africa visiting China on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics Games, said with pride.
Indeed from all indications China, the Star of the East, has risen and there is no going back.
I was among the 34 African journalists invited to witness how the Chinese have been able to weave a tapestry of thousands of years of history, cultural heritage, social cohesion, economic development, scientific advancement and cutting-edge technology.
“Travel and see”, we are told and indeed I travelled and I saw.
Before leaving Ghana, I had been made to have a certain picture about Beijing and China as a whole.
First Beijing was portrayed as unhealthy because of an ever-present smog; that the Chinese did not respect human rights and that the Chinese were xenophobic.
Apart from the smog, which was evident even before Ethiopian Airline Flight ET 604 from Addis Ababa touched down at the Beijing Airport on August 5, the other two did not have any basis.
The Chinese had been able to adopt measures to reduce drastically the intensity of the smog by closing down some factories before the opening of the Games.
On human rights, the Chinese society is certainly disciplined. It is a society, in which everything is done with the interest of the State in mind.
Chinese society is based on the principle of collective well-being, instead of individual greed.
Unlike in the West where individual freedom is extended sometime to the level of absurdity Chinese society ensures that human beings behave as such and not as animals.
If this is what others see as human right abuse, then definitions do differ. No society has the right to impose its values on another. Every society must have the right to organise the social order the way it deems fit.
During interactions with the ordinary people, it came out clearly that the Chinese society is a contented one. Each has a specific task to accomplish which they go about doing with diligence.
The guides who were attached to us performed their duties with such a high level of diligence that should be the envy of other countries.
They were punctual and always had to wait for members of the group to assemble before beginning the day’s programme. They were very courteous but firm.
They would not bend the rules but they did it in such a way not to hurt any feelings.
From the interactions with the ordinary people, it came out clearly that virtually none of the 1.3 billion Chinese ever went to bed hungry. The State catered for the basic needs of its citizens.
At the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the ordinary Chinese, who have been portrayed as being xenophobic, asked us to allow them to take pictures with them.
At the Silk Market, sellers would approach customers, who came from all over the world, with persuasive words.
Some went to the extent of putting their hands on the shoulders of customers reminding me of traders back home at Makola Market in Accra and Kejetia in Kumasi.
At the Forbidden City, the palace of ancient Chinese emperors, the over 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation comes to life..
Needless to say the Great Wall of China showed what a determined people can do. It is a wonder that without modern construction technology, a civilisation could erect such an edifice on precipitous edges of mountains.
Of modern architecture, Beijing is arguably one of the most beautiful cities on earth. A member of our group, who had been staying in New York, summed it all up when he said, “Beijing is the modern side of New York”.
The towering glass and steel skyscrapers, the manicured flower beds, trimmed hedges and clean streets are a marvel.
A computer simulated tour of Beijing at the City Hall showed how advanced the Chinese are technologically.
One could see three-dimensional objects that gave the feel of reality, even though one knew one was watching a film with special goggles.
Many of the world’s giant supermarkets have opened branches in Beijing – Wal-Mart of USA; Ito-Yokado of Tokyo, Carrefour of France, and others.
Apart from the Central Business District of Beijing, where the streets are at the same level, and therefore, traffic has to be controlled, all other roads are dual carriage and at different levels so there is no question of head-on collision of vehicles.
We visited the Chinese East Free Port of Tianjin where we were told it would exceed throughput of 400 million tons by 2010.
Mr. Ou Yonglin, Vice Director of Publicity Department of the Port, said Tianjin is the largest free port in China, with the most favourable policy that facilitated cargo clearance processes, offered the most convenient transportation and most advantageous location.
Tianjin serves as the port of Beijing and is engaged in handling container and general goods; liquid bulk cargo and dry bulk cargo.
It has specialized docks for containers, iron ore, coal, petrol-chemical products, general cargo; bulk grain, bulk fertilizer; as well as roll-on-roll-off, as well as international passenger service docks.
Tianjin has links with the Tema and Takoradi Ports and handles most of the machinery and equipment shipped to Ghana for numerous ongoing Chinese projects.
Mr. Ou advised African businessmen and women to patronise the port since it offered regular services at competitive prices for the shipment of cargo to and from China.
The Chinese have taken the world by storm and there is no indication that the storm would abate any time soon…
(ACCRA DAILY MAIL)