This blog accompanies the economics courses taught at University College Utrecht. It provides links to interesting stories, sites and books on the internet that have a relation to economics.
donderdag 24 september 2009
The big C-word
President Hu Jintao of China and President Hifikepunye
Sounds like a textbook example of Chinese business to me. China plays a dominant role in negotiations, provide low-interest loans and in turn get rights over natural resources. The article states: “Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves.” This sounds like the Marshall Plan all over again, in that the American aid after the End of the Second World War also had to spent on American goods.
To give another real-life example: Angola was in the middle of negotiations with the IMF about a $2 billion loan. However, this institution attached a lot of transparency-related conditions to the loan. As such, China saw its opportunity and provided the loan for a low interests. What do we witness now: Angola is exporting large amounts of oil (I believe 40.000 barrels a day) to day. Coincidence? As Ms. Brautigam says: “The Chinese don’t particularly want a big scandal. That doesn’t further their interests. They just want their companies to get business.”
The article mentions China's corruption as a problem. China scores a 3.6 on a 0-10 scale concerning corruption on the international transparency index 2008.
China's so-called non-interventionist foreign policy comes forward in some distinct examples near the end of the article. It seems the Namibian party paid too much for their scanner. The responsible Chinese person turned out to be ‘unknown’. China has a long way to go before it can comply with the moral responsibilities that go with the leading economic position it is aiming for.
Some very valid points, Timon. Just a small question mark to put next to your final remark:
"China has a long way to go before it can comply with the moral responsibilities that go with the leading economic position it is aiming for."
Do the current leading economies do a better job at being morally responsible? US and the EU do not exactly have a clean slate either.
Money inevitable comes with power and usually leads to a dependency relationship from which one party benefits much more than the other, sometimes even at the expense of the other.
Very good remark. The 'established' leaders -assuming we can call them what- are absolutely not morally superior. The US and EU are, for instance, exploiting Africa's resources on a massive scale, without much consideration for 'human rights'.
Michael Klare, Professor of Resource Politics at the University of Michigan, told me that "resource-driven objectives make politicians oblivious to all other considerations." I would have to admit I agree with him on this. And -as you say- this seems to be done at the expense of the stability within a lot of these regions.
Maybe my point should have been that the established leaders manage to conceal their dirty practices in a much better way than the Chinese do with their obvious lack of interest for human rights in general. There's multiple examples of this.
So, in that sense, China will probably have to adapt its publicly visible attitude to the rising attention it is currently getting.
Sounds like a textbook example of Chinese business to me. China plays a dominant role in negotiations, provide low-interest loans and in turn get rights over natural resources.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThe article states: “Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves.” This sounds like the Marshall Plan all over again, in that the American aid after the End of the Second World War also had to spent on American goods.
To give another real-life example: Angola was in the middle of negotiations with the IMF about a $2 billion loan. However, this institution attached a lot of transparency-related conditions to the loan. As such, China saw its opportunity and provided the loan for a low interests. What do we witness now: Angola is exporting large amounts of oil (I believe 40.000 barrels a day) to day. Coincidence? As Ms. Brautigam says: “The Chinese don’t particularly want a big scandal. That doesn’t further their interests. They just want their companies to get business.”
The article mentions China's corruption as a problem. China scores a 3.6 on a 0-10 scale concerning corruption on the international transparency index 2008.
China's so-called non-interventionist foreign policy comes forward in some distinct examples near the end of the article. It seems the Namibian party paid too much for their scanner. The responsible Chinese person turned out to be ‘unknown’. China has a long way to go before it can comply with the moral responsibilities that go with the leading economic position it is aiming for.
Some very valid points, Timon. Just a small question mark to put next to your final remark:
BeantwoordenVerwijderen"China has a long way to go before it can comply with the moral responsibilities that go with the leading economic position it is aiming for."
Do the current leading economies do a better job at being morally responsible? US and the EU do not exactly have a clean slate either.
Money inevitable comes with power and usually leads to a dependency relationship from which one party benefits much more than the other, sometimes even at the expense of the other.
Very good remark. The 'established' leaders -assuming we can call them what- are absolutely not morally superior. The US and EU are, for instance, exploiting Africa's resources on a massive scale, without much consideration for 'human rights'.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenMichael Klare, Professor of Resource Politics at the University of Michigan, told me that "resource-driven objectives make politicians oblivious to all other considerations." I would have to admit I agree with him on this. And -as you say- this seems to be done at the expense of the stability within a lot of these regions.
Maybe my point should have been that the established leaders manage to conceal their dirty practices in a much better way than the Chinese do with their obvious lack of interest for human rights in general. There's multiple examples of this.
So, in that sense, China will probably have to adapt its publicly visible attitude to the rising attention it is currently getting.