2012 in Review (2): Nothing Trivial

« original post there

There was nothing trivial in 2012, and it was still OK, except for the driver license test.
On August 20, Baobao got started elementary school, the first step into the learning career.

In early September, we bought a car and spent more than 120,000 on it, which is a big household item.

In mid-November, my husband had an accident on the expressway, but fortunately nothing serious. We spent 12,000 Yuan on the repair costs, and the insurance company refunded the full amount.

The end of the world didn’t come in December, and we continue to live on this planet.

Wimpy Kid’s Space (小屁孩的大空间)
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Related

» 2012 in Review (1): The Imperfect Photograph, Dec 29, 2012
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Japan and Vietnam announce Rare-Earths Research Center

Japan and Vietnam have announced the establishment of a rare-earths research and technology transfer center in Hanoi’s Danfeng County, aimed at reducing dependence on Chinese rare earths, reports the BBC‘s Chinese website. The center will train Vietnamese workers on how to extract rare earths. An agreement to this end had been signed in October last year, between Vietnam’s head of government Nguyen Tan Dung and Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda. Vietnam’s Geology and Minerals Department (ministry) statistics are quoted as saying that Vietnam is one of the countries with the biggest (potential) rare earth resources worldwide.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi gave assurances in October last year that Beijing would remain a “reliable supplier” of the high-tech ores, according to a BBC report back then, possibly under the impression of a WTO ruling of July that year which didn’t apply to the earths in question, but to a similar dispute about other categories of minerals exported (or not exported) by China. But by then, Japanese companies dependent on what seems to constitute a virtual current Chinese monopoly on rare earths had begun to look for suppliers outside China, including Indian suppliers.

Under the (probably correct) impression that China had begun to link bilateral disputes with Japan, and Japan’s dependence on mineral imports from China, the Economist, usually a more mild critic of Beijing, railed against an especially nefarious turn in the Chinese government’s response to Tokyo, as China

apparently suspended its export of rare-earth minerals, which are vital to making electronics components used in everything from handheld gadgets to cars. On September 23rd China emphatically denied that it is blocking exports. And this may be true: there probably isn’t a formal directive. But in a country where informal rules abound, exporters know that it can pay to withhold shipments—in solidarity with a government that is angry at its neighbour.

That was in summer 2010, and Japan had apparently succumbed to Chinese pressure – no charges were brought against a Chinese skipper, Zhan Qixiong, who had originally been accused of  deliberately bashing into two Japanese patrol boats. Apparent Japanese weakness vis-a-vis China was bad, the Economist mused.

China’s worst offense, from the perspective of those who advocate global trust – warranted or unwarrented – in the interest of unlimited international division of labor, had been that it politicized supplier-customer relations in a very sensitive field, i. e. the minerals Japan’s high-tech industries depend on heavily. No wonder that the Economist was angry.

As more ventures like [the Vietnamese-Japanese center] get off the ground, it will be interesting to see if China decides to lower its prices and change its rhetoric, writes The Register. But no such change should keep Japan and other high-tech producing countries from diversifying their supplies further.

“Yiwu Incident”: All India Radio Coverage

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Trade Advisory, Jan. 3

New Delhi has cautioned Indian businessmen and [Indian] traders in Yiwu, a major hub for commodity trading in Zhejiang province in China. A trade advisory posted on the Indian embassy website said yesterday, all people who have businesses with Yiwu are cautioned against doing businesses there, and all people who do not have business with Yiwu are requested to be careful that they do not do business with Yiwu. [...] Indian businessmen to stay away from Yiwu. The advisory has been issued in the backdrop of illegal detention of two Indian businessmen in the locality, and manhandling of an Indian diplomat.

All India Radio (AIR), , January 3, 2012 »

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Safety of Utmost Importance, Jan. 4

The news in detail. India has secured the release of two Indian traders, tortured and taken captive by locals in a trading hub in China. They have safely got to the consulate in Shanghai. External affairs minister S. M. Krishna said after talks with the Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan that they had been assured that Beijing was paying [full] attention to the safety of Indian traders Deepak Raheja and Shyamsunder Agrawal. Mr. Krishna said the incident should not be blown out of proportions. The minister said the two countries agreed that the safety of the two Indians involved in a civil litigation in Yiwu is of utmost importance. Asked about the return of the traders to India, Mr. Krishna said that Indian consular officers have met them and they will perhaps work out the details. Chinese ambassador Zhang said the authorities in Beijing are working hard to resolve the issue. Zhang also met joint-secretary East-Asia, Gautam Bambawale, and informed him about the incident.

All India Radio, , January 4, 2012 »

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Related

» “Tortured like Animals”, Hindustan Times, Jan 5, 2012
» No Way to treat a Diplomat, January 3, 2012

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Yiwu Court Hearing: “no Way to treat a Diplomat”

S. Balachandran (巴拉钱德兰), a 46-year old Indian consular official in Shanghai and a diabetic, was forced to attend a five-hour hearing in support of two Indian traders at China’s Yiwu city (义乌市) near Shanghai, on December 31, reports India Today. The diplomat had reportedly asked to be allowed to attend to his medical condition, but was prevented from leaving the courtroom. According to India Today, Balachandran was “‘manhandled’ by the crowd that tried to snatch two kidnapped Indians who clung to him“ – the two Indian traders, Deepak Raheja and Shyamsunder Agrawal, had been held hostage by [..] local traders for two weeks for non-payment of dues by their company, whose owner had allegedly fled the country, India Today writes in another article. India’s government summoned a Chinese diplomat to the ministry of foreign affairs to convey its displeasure.

The two Indian traders reportedly remain in custody. The court hearing was scheduled to continue on Tuesday.

The Times of India‘s Economic Times basically reports the same story.

Yiwu City

is famous for its small commodity trade and vibrant free markets and is a regional tourist destination. Although administratively Yiwu is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua, it is more well-known than Jinhua nationally and internationally.

While the above press reports appear to suggest that Balachandran’s eventual hospitalization had been a result either of not having attended to his diabetes condition during the hearing, or having been manhandled (or both), the BBC‘s Chinese service quotes an Indian diplomat who spoke anonymously, and who reportedly said that Balachandran’s problems had been a result of his medical condition, not of manhandling.

According to a Reuters report on Monday,

China has agreed to look into a complaint by India’s foreign ministry that a diplomat was prevented from treating his severe diabetes and collapsed while offering consular assistance to two Indian citizens on trial in China’s Yiwu city.

An Indian government source who declined to be named told Reuters that “[w]e have taken it up pretty strongly with the Chinese, that this is no way to treat a diplomat, that he should be allowed access to medication”.

India’s Beijing embassy spokesman Vinayak Chavan is quoted by the India Times (Economic Times) as saying that Balachandran was not badly hurt. “It was not that serious, but there was some manhandling,” Chavan said.

Deutsche Welle‘s (Voice of Germany) Chinese website reports that the Indian foreign office had summoned China’s deputy ambassador,

and protested against an Indian diplomat’s rough [or rude/violent, 粗暴] treatment in a court at Yiwu, an eastern-China coastal city. An Indian foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity that the deputy ambassador had been summoned to express India’s dissatisfaction. Last Saturday, Indian diplomat S. Balachandran was beaten by Chinese traders when attending a court hearing of two Indian traders and was then taken to hospital. Press Trust of India reported that Balachandran attended the hearing to learn about traders’ situation, as they had been detained for alleged amounts due for payment. Indian-Chinese relations have long been affected by border disputes and the Dalai Lama’s exile in India. Despite increasing bilateral trade, competition for resources and for influence abroad, the two countries, both closing catching up with developed countries, are suspicious of each other.

印度外交部周一（1月2日）召见中国驻印度副大使，对一名印度外交官在中国东部沿海城市义乌的法庭上遭粗暴对待提出抗议。印外交部一名不愿透露姓名的官员 称，照见中国副大使是为表达印方的不满。上周六，印度驻华外交官巴拉钱德兰（S. Balachandran）在义乌一家法院出庭一桩印中商人纠纷案庭审时遭到中方商人殴打，后被送往医院。据印度报业托拉斯报道，巴拉钱德兰出庭是为了解 两名印度商人因所谓欠款而被拘押的情况。印中关系因边界争议和流亡藏人宗教领袖达赖喇嘛流亡印度而长期受到影响。虽然双边贸易增加，因争夺资源和在海外的 影响力，印中这两个已接近发达的国家对对方仍满腹狐疑。

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Related

Businessman’s Getaway, July 5, 2010

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Paper: Improving Agricultural Production

Three authors – Hu Xiaoping (胡小平), Zhu Ying (朱 颖), and Ge Dangqiao (葛党桥) -, addressed the problems of low efficiency in agricultural production. .

Not only “surplus labor”, but workforce who would actually be needed in the countryside, too, have left China’s rural areas in the wake of reform and industrial development and urbanization, according to their paper, published by Guangming Daily (光明日报), and republished by China National Radio (CNR). The author found that labor shortage in agriculture and an aging workforce were problems that went hand in hand. That the workforce was becoming of age had also led to a situation where “the workers’ quality” (导致了从事农业生产的劳动者质量的下降) was deteriorating.

After stating the obvious – that it is mostly younger people who move into rural  [correction (20120308): urban] areas, and that the elderly tend to stay at home -, the article adds:

In our country, there are big gaps between the countryside and the cities, in terms of the economy, culture, public services, social welfare, etc.. To enjoy their share in the fruits of modern civilization and to pursue good opportunities of development, even though they won’t achieve the levels of income they hoped for there, the younger will still wish to move towards the cities. Once they are there, they won’t return to the countryside, unless they absolutely have to. In the cities, they are raising the second generation of migrant workers, and while they remain rural population in terms of household registration, these have never worked in agricultural fields, and will feel no desire to return to the countryside.

在我国，农村和城市在经济、文化、公共事业、社会福利等方面存在较大差距。为了分享现代文明成果和追求更好的发展机会，即使在城市中无法获得预期收入，农 村大量青壮年劳动力也会源源不断向城市转移。进城以后，他们除非迫不得已，都不会再回到农村。他们在城市养育起来的“农二代”，虽然在户籍意义上仍属于农 民，却从未从事过农业生产，今后也不愿回到农村。

Urban industries demand high skills, argues the article, and competition had driven many of those who left for the cities since the 1980s back into the countryside – but the next young generation was on its way into the cities again.

But age alone didn’t explain the low efficiency in agriculture, as a look at the situation in developed countries’ agricultural sectors showed. High prices on their produce, combined with state subsidies, agricultural efficiency wasn’t low in Europe, the United States or Japan, despite a rural population which had come of age there, too.

A survey in the U.S. in 2007 found that the average age of a farm owner there was 57.1 years, in Japan, in 2009, 61 per cent of those who worked in the agricultural sector were older than 65. This doesn’t explain why the agricultural sector’s efficiency should be comparatively low. Abroad, an aging population is no threat to agricultural production, because they have sound social services and a comparatively high level of mechanization there, which offsets labor shortages.

2007年，美国农业普查结果显示，美国农场主的平均年龄已上升到57.1岁；在日本，2009年农业从业者中65岁以上的人员所占比例为61%。这都不是农业生产比较效益低能够解释的。国外农业劳动力老龄化之所以没有威胁到农业生产，是因为他们有完善的农业社会化服务体系以及较高的农业机械化水平，弥补了农业劳动力的短缺。

The central government had intensified its efforts since 2004, writes the author, with some positive effects on efficiency in the agricultural sector, but not to a degree which would have avoided labor shortages, or migration of the young into the urban areas.

Rather extensive management of arable land was one reason for the shortcomings. Land had been left barren. The older farmers preferred land close to their homes, and abandoned more distant arable land. And where two harvests per year had been the rule before, the frequency had gone down to only one harvest a year. Frequently, they only grew food for their own needs. The central government had defined a red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land to be kept in use, and the extensive use of arable land was in conflict with that requirement.

Attracting skilled work was another problem. Dual structures of rural and urban environments kept potentially skilled workers in rural urban areas. Modern agriculture required technical and management understanding, mechanical skills, which the existing population with rather low educational levels could hardly provide. The phenomenon that many rural citizens moved to the cities temporarily and kept their land as a lifeline didn’t help to make agricultural use of the land more efficient, either. Each of them kept small fields which left no option to achieve economies of scale.

A third problem – and one people in the cities are only too familiar with, would be rising food prices, given that the supplies were rather inefficient. Even though the share of agricultural products in the consumer price index (CPI) had fallen from 60 per cent in the 1980s, to about 30 per cent in 2011, 60 per cent of this years CPI rise were caused by food prices. Under normal circumstances, one should expect that demand for agricultural products would only rise slowly, and expect little volatility, but the fast price rises suggested that there were serious supply shortages. Rises in pig (or pork) prices would suggest that supply would rise quickly, but older farmers were often neither prepared nor unable to raise pigs.  Here, labor shortage was causing the problem.

The paper (or the Guangming Daily article reflecting it)  makes three proposals:

Firstly, train professional farmers. Focus on attracting highly qualified staff into agricultural production, intensify farmers’ education, and create a beneficial environment for rural talents.
其一，培育职业农民。应着力吸引高素质人才从事农业生产，加大对农民培训的力度，营造留住农村人才的有利环境。

Secondly, improve agricultural mechanization. Encourage and support research and development that leads to mechanical solutions in line with the needs of agricultural production, increase the level of mechanization, and decrease the dependence of agricultural production on human labor. Continue to improve and enhance state subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery.

其二，提高农业机械化程度。鼓励和支持相关科研机构研发符合农业生产需求的机械设备，提高我国农业生产的机械化程度，降低农业生产对人工的依赖程度。继续完善和提高国家的农机具购置补贴。

Thirdly, strengthen the building and investment in rural social services. Build and perfect social services to be provided before, during and after production [apparently kindergartens and pensioner facilities], accelerate agricultural production, the diffusion of agricultural technology, agricultural information systems, agricultural finance and insurance systems, and reduce the difficulties and risks farmers are facing.

其三，加强对农业社会化服务体系的建设和投入。建立和完善对农业生产提供产前、产中、产后的社会化服务体系，加快在农业生产、农业技术推广、农业信息、农业金融和保险等领域的服务体系建设，减轻农民的务农难度，增强农业抵御风险的能力。

Fourthly, change organizational and management methods in agricultural production. Change the traditional decentralized patterns of agricultural production, encourage the formation of professional guilds, cooperatives, specialized organizations and other forms of specialized economic cooperation, and increase the organizational levels in production. Encourage and support conditions which allow the achievement of appropriate economies of scale, based on reliable foundations of contract household responsibility systems.

其四，改变农业生产的组织经营方式。改变传统的分散经营的农业生产模式，鼓励农民建立专业协会、股份合作社、专业合作社等不同形式的专业合作经济组织，提 高农业生产组织化和产业化程度。支持和鼓励条件允许的地区，在稳定家庭联产承包责任制的基础上推进土地流转，进行农业适度规模经营。

The paper touches upon many related issues in economic, social, and ideological fields which are fairly frequently recorded on this blog. It also reflects existing confines of long-term and more recent restrictions on reform. I will try to build some links between these issues and this blogpost during Christmas.

Published without spell-checks or other corrections.

China, Myanmar, WTO: Dependence, Low-End Exports, and Friendly Consultations

The government has suspended work on the controversial Myitsone dam as a result of widespread public protest over its likely environmental and social impact,

reports the Myanmar Times.

Myitsone Dam under Construction, Wikimedia Commons (click on photo for source)

China News Service (中国新闻网) reported on Sunday (October 2, 2011, 00:41 GMT) that

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) told a press conference today that the Myitsone electric plant project is a joint Sino-Chinese project which went through scientific demonstration and strict examination. The matters concerned should be properly handled through friendly consultations between the two sides.

中国外交部发言人洪磊今天回答记者问时说，密松电站是中缅两国的合资项目，经过了双方的科学论证和严格审查。对项目实施过程中的有关事宜，应由双方通过友好协商妥善处理。

Q: According to reports, Myanmar’s parliament announced on September 30 that during president Thein Sein’s tenure, the Sino-Myanmarnese cooperative  Myitsone electric plant  project will remain shelved. What is the Chinese side’s comment on this?

据报道，9月30日，缅甸联邦议会宣布吴登盛总统在其任期内搁置中缅两国密松电站合作项目。中方对此有何评论？

A: The Chinese government has always supported Chinese companies in developing cooperation with companies abroad, based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and demanded that Chinese companies should perform in strict accordance with those countries’ law and regulations, to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations, and urges governments in pertaining countries to guarantee the Chinese companies’ legal legitimate rights and interests. The Myitsone power plant is a project jointly invested by China and Myanmar, and went  through the scientific demonstration and strict examination of both sides. The matters concerned should be properly handled through friendly consultations between the two sides.

中国政府一贯支持中国企业本着相互尊重、平等互利原则同其他国家企业开展合作，并要求中国企业严格按照所在国法律法规履行责任和义务，敦促有关国家政府保障中国企业的合法和正当权益。密松电站是中缅两国的合资项目，经过了双方的科学论证和严格审查。对项目实施过程中的有关事宜，应由双方通过友好协商妥善处理。

Also on Sunday (Saturday, 18:07 GMT), People’s Daily‘s Bangkok correspondent Ji Peiyuan (暨佩娟) quoted Myanmar media:

According to Myanmar media reports, Burmese parliament announced on September 30 that during president Thein Sein’s tenure, the Sino-Myanmarnese cooperative  Myitsone electric plant  project will remain shelved. Thein Sein said: “Myanmar’s government is elected by the people, therefore, we have to pay attention to the will of the people. We are obliged to focus on settling the people’s worries and misgivings.”

Thein Sein said that the Myitsone electric plant  project could harm [or destroy, 破坏] the natural landscape, the livelihoods of the local people, the private capital in the cultivation of rubber plantations and crops, and collapsing dams, caused by climate change, could also damage the livelihoods of the people near the Myitsone plant, and further down the river. He also said that the Myanmar government would consult with the Chinese government to avoid harming Sino-Myanmar bilateral relations and friendship.

Myanmar Myitsone hydropower plant is worth 3.6 billion US dollars, and is about 200 kilometers away from Tengchong County in Yunnan Province. and is a major hydropower by the China Power Investment Corporation, in the region of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River. It’s located in the Kachin mountainous region and to be developed at the 干流河段 section of the Irrawaddy River, with a capacity of six million kilowatts.

The rest of People’s Daily’s report reflects the statement made by Chinese foreign ministry Hong Lei (see this post’s initial paras).

The BBC reported that a letter by president Thein Sein had been read out in parliament, announcing the decision to suspend the project. The project had fuelled fighting between the army and ethnic Kachin rebels. The BBC quotes its South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey as saying that the decision appears to be further evidence of the new leadership’s desire to seek legitimacy by being more open to public opinion.

Both continuing the project in the long run (completion was originally scheduled for 2019), and its abandonment, would pose many problems. Continuation would reportedly have a negative impact on biodiversity, as frequently reflected by organizations like the Burma Rivers Network, it may come with side effects as many other mega dams from the Aswan Dam in Egypt to the Three-Gorges dam in China have, and rebel movements in the region could make the Myitsone project vulnerable to sabotage. Besides the mythological weight the river carries, forced relocations, and the loss of means of livelihood also seem to have driven opposition.

But Mynamar may have good reasons to keep consultations with Beijing as friendly as possible. Even if Yangon (or Naypyidaw) flatly refused to pay damages (if legally obliged to do so), business with its powerful neighbor would suffer. China sees itself a s a victim of trade protectionism, and this case, if it becomes a high-profile bone of contention, would add to that.

On the other hand, the further process may also make it clear to Beijing that mere deals with third-world countries’ regimes may not be sustainable. If China’s rulers understand that is a different question. Protectionism and resource nationalism had been on the rise and hampered Chinese business, official Xinhua news agency reported in September, citing an Ernest & Young report. Obviously, China was a “victim” of trade protectionism (贸易保护主义最大受害者).

There is grumbling among China’s academia, too. On the tenth anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO, People’s University (aka Renmin University) professor Gu Genliang (贾根良) questioned China’s foreign trade approach of importing high-end products and exporting low-end products (进口高端产品并出口低端产品).

By exporting hydropower to China, Myanmar would follow a path similar to the one Gu Genliang deems harmful. China, Gu Genliang (and many other Chinese people, academics or not) feel that they are being exploited, especially by America, of course.

[Update, April 11, 2012: the linked website, Utopia, is currently offline.  Apparently, Wu Genliang's article can also be found here.]

Gu also fears foreign blackmail:

We are mired in heavy dependence on foreign resources and on on our own cheap exports. Large-scale low-end exports consume a lot of energy and natural resources, which led to our country’s dependence on foreign energy and resources which not only made the prices for these sources explode, which transferred the fruits of our people’s hard work into the hands of energy-exporting countries, but also has the potential of making us suffer from foreign countries’ embargos, thus carrying a huge security risk. At the same time, while our country is so reliant on foreign resources, it is ridiculous that we are exporting large quantities of rare earths and minerals coal, etc. at low prices.

第五，深陷对外部资源的严重依赖和本国资源廉价出口的陷阱。低端产品的大量出口是以大量消耗能源和自然资源为基础的，这导致了我国对外能源和资源的高度依赖，这种高度依赖不仅导致了能源和资源的价格暴涨把我国人民辛苦劳动的成果转移到资源出口国手中，而且潜伏着遭遇外国对我国实施资源禁运的巨大经济安全风险。同时，令人感到荒谬的是，在我国深陷对外部资源的严重依赖的同时，我国的大量资源如稀土、煤炭等却被大量地廉价出口。

The WTO ruled in July that Chinese export restrictions on certain raw minerals violated global rules

Gu spells out the conditions under which China’s WTO membership could still be useful – or those under which it should consider leaving the organization.

Myanmar is still a long way from even joining.

But maybe, at least, it will stop exploiting China’s dependence on energy, and pull the plug on the Myitsone project for good.

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Related

» The Government had little Choice, Asia Times, Oct 4, 2011
» Vietnam: Under Threat of Invasion, April 29, 2009

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Updates / Related

» Aung San Suu Kyi Cautious, BBC, Oct 3, 2011

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Foreign Office “Africa Concept”: Universal Values, Competing Interests

German chancellor Angela Merkel‘s focus was on trade, not on aid, during her visits to Kenya, Angola and Nigeria this week, Deutsche Welle reported on Friday. Sales of eight patrol boats to Angola had been a bone of contention in Germany’s federal parliament, and a new “Africa Concept”, published by the foreign office (or foreign ministry) last month, had been put into question by aid organizations for putting trade before aid.

One of the older concepts - school in Wuga, German East Africa, photo between 1906 and 1918 (Wikimedia Commons / Bundesarchiv, click on picture for source)

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Foreign Office “Africa Concept”

The following are keywords or -lines from the German foreign office’s Africa Concept, published a month ago. The page numbers refer to the digital pages (per mouseclick), not to the page numbers on the hardcopy leaflet. The first link (page 3, “Germany’s Africa policy is based…”) applies for all following pages, too. The full text behind the link is in German.

• page 3: “Germany’s Africa policy is based on universal values, and led by interests. It takes into account that people in Africa are responsible for their continent in the first place”, June 15, 2011

• page 5: partnership on equal footing

• page 6: our partners, first and foremost, are those who share these values.

• page 7: good governance.

• page 7: “Reduction of tariffal and non-tariffal trade barriers and measures which distort trade is significant to carry Africa’s development potential into effect. [...] The federal government therefore supports Africa’s efforts for regional economic integration and the WTO negotiations in the Doha-Round framework. [...] Germany supports the further opening of European markets for African products.”

• page 8: German dependence on natural resources: coltan, wolframite, platinum, oil, gas, sources of renewable energy.

• page 10: African Peace and Security Architecture (AU), conflict prevention and conflict resolution.

• page 13: good governance, democracy, separation of powers, open societies.

• page 14: “Learning by Ear”, Deutsche Welle, in cooperation with UNESCO.

• page 15: good foundations for sustainable growth. G 6%, inflation usually one-digit.

• page 16: income disparities.

• page 16: 800 mn Euros in support of sustainable development, private sector as partners for Germany’s exporters, export credit guarantees, and agreements on the protection of investment.

• page 17: microfinance.

• page 19: climate protection, bio-diversity.

• page 21: crude oil imports particularly from Nigeria and Algeria; 18 per cent in Germany’s imports are from Africa.

• page 22: making energy usable within Africa – power plants and grids.

• page 24: Germany as Africa’s third-largest partner for development. Funding for development cooperation to be increased to 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2015.

• page 25: health and water conservancy.

• page 26: elementary education, further education, R&D, university cooperation, vocational training.

• page 29: the 2007 EU strategy.

• pages 27 – 30: United Nations / G8 / G20 framework.

• page 31: measuring achievements and efficiency.

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While Martin Wansleben of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce expressed hope that chancellor Merkel would promote free access to African natural resources – those to which Chinese companies were seeking exclusive access -, VENRO, an NGO alliance, criticized the Africa Concept for putting trade first, rather than overcoming poverty and hunger.

All the same, we welcome the first-time compilation of an inter-departmental concept by the federal government. This provides an opportunity for a concerted, development-promoting policy. We also welcome that the concept sets out from the continent’s potentials, rather than remains stuck with the descriptions of civil wars, corruption, and hunger. Still, [Africa's] reality is at times euphemized.

VENRO’s Ulrich Post also saw potential and existing competing interests within the concept, when it comes to securing energy or natural-resources supplies.

Welthungerhilfe secretary general Wolfgang Jamann pointed out that market protectionism can make sense, during certain stages of trade development. In that light, too, trade was over-emphasized vs development, according to critics.

Neues Deutschland, formerly East Germany’s government mouthpiece, pointed to exploitation of African fishing grounds by EU trawlers, and European agricultural exports which were destroying the livelihoods of African farmers. Sustainable development in Africa would remain impossible under such circumstances, despite the concept’s suggestions to the contrary.

Oil was an obvious factor in chancellor Merkel’s visit to Angola and Nigeria, but in Kenya, too: a port on the Kenyan island of Lamu is likely to be a safer port for Southern Sudanese oil exports than North Sudan’s Port Sudan, given that the two Sudanese states’ relationship isn’t exactly friendly these days, writes Manfred Bleskin, in an editorial for N-TV television.

While both N-TV and the New York Times referred to a Chinese role in the port’s construction, or to Chinese backing, neither suggests that the port will be for exclusive Chinese use. The relevant Chinese companies are now looking into the place’s potential to ship South Sudanese oil – against cultural, societal, or environmental odds.

German importers may wish to make use of Port Lamu, anyway.

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Related
Manmohan Singh: Address to Ethiopian Parliament, Facebook, May 26, 2011
Horst Köhler: Full of Trade, May 27, 2010
Africa, where the Worlds meet, March 8, 2010
Is AGOA Good Enough, August 5, 2009
Kofi Owusu and the German Keyboard, June 20, 2009

Pig Prices drive Inflation, despite Strategic Pork Reserve

Kungfu, Bremen-Hemelingen

On July 12, Wen Jiabao presided over a regular state council meeting which explored, decided and advanced political measures for sustained and healthy development of pork meat production. Wen had previously made inquiries about pork sales in Benxi (本溪), Liaoning province, on July 3; visited farms and supermarkets in Xianyang (咸阳市), Shaanxi province on July 9 for pork production research, and the July 12 state council meeting was therefore the third time within a fortnight that Wen had shown concern for the people’s livelihood in this regard, reports China National Radio (CNR).

According to the Financial Times, pork prices rose by 57 per cent in the past year.

Given the prominent role pork meat plays in the Chinese diet, the Chinese government established a strategic frozen pork reserve after Chinese farmers had to slaughter millions of pigs in 2008, after an outbreak of “blue-ear pig” disease which drove China’s inflation rate to its highest level in a decade, according to an NPR report in April.

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Related
» You name the Problem, the CCP solves it, February 15, 2011

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