China Development Brief - China in the World

China in Africa: A relationship still in the making

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:15:34 +0100

Are China’s increased trade, investment and aid flows to Africa a neo-colonial threat or a new opportunity for South-South cooperation? Probably nothing so simple, concludes Nick Young in this review of the growing literature on the topic—but if the relationship is to be “win-win” it must embrace a wider and deeper discussion.

“China is resigned to the fact that US [global] domination is a cold reality it has to live and contend with. China has come to see globalisation as a way of transforming great power politics and establishing more co-operative forms of interstate competition that can increase the prospects for China’s peaceful rise. This has led to a situation where China, while recognising the dominance of the US, seeks to limit it through the UN and other international organisations, and by using its resources to forge stable relations with other countries and regions.”

China not solely responsible for its ecological footprint, says WWF

Tue, 29 May 2007 14:58:58 +0100

Consumers around the world, especially in developed countries, share responsibility for China’s growing ecological impact overseas, argues the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in a new report.

Chinese farmers feel WTO pinch, says report

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:11:00 +0000

A steep rise in soybean and cotton imports, mainly from the United States, has led to falling prices for Chinese farmers, with the result that “many . . . get almost nothing from the plant[s]” and twenty million have given up farming altogether, according to the November 30 issue of Beijing Review.

International friendship needs people-to-people links

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 02:11:52 +0000

November’s China-Africa summit in Beijing was like a coming-out ball for China as a new global force. As well as substantially boosting aid, trade and political ties, it further isolated Taiwan’s pro-independence movement and, as a bonus, gave Beijing extra, pre-Olympics practice in hosting major international events. But there was no sign of civil society at the party; and they should be invited next time.

China is “the most important country” in “a grey, contested, confused world”

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 04:34:00 +0100

So says Jonathon Porritt, a veteran environmental campaigner who now serves as Chair of the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission, and who visited China in late September under the auspices of a UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue. Here, he talks to Nick Young about some of the ideas in his recent book, Capitalism As If The World Matters, saying that although the earth is closer than ever to environmental meltdown, he remains an optimist. He believes the impending crisis will draw people together; that a few progressive corporations really are beginning to get the message and take actions that go well beyond “greenwashing,” and that China is not only critical to global sustainability but also, in some ways, way ahead of Western countries in taking action.

Interview: "China has saved globalisation”

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:13:11 +0100

Bilateral donors are fast winding down their aid programmes in China, but the World Bank is hoping the government of China will be willing to pay for continued Bank assistance in social policy and development projects, according to the Bank’s Resident Representative in China, David Dollar. The Bank’s partnership with China, he told Nick Young, may now also extend to joint projects in Africa, given that China has shown how globalisation can work for the poor.

Bank report highlights asphyxiating drive towards urban gridlock

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 06:04:32 +0100

The surge in private car ownership in China—from one million vehicles in 1994 to 16 million in 2004—is “fast eroding the quality of urban life and the efficiency of urban economic activities,” according to a hard-hitting World Bank Working Paper on urban transport released this week.

Yunnan tightens control over Burma timber trade, says Global Witness

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:56:15 +0100

Efforts to end the trade in illegal timber across the Yunnan–Burma border have been boosted by a Yunnan Provincial Government order to close the porous frontier to all timber, accompanied by a call for Chinese migrant loggers to return from Burma.

International fillip for Chinese greens

Sat, 13 May 2006 03:39:19 +0100

International accolades for two Chinese environmental advocates have underlined growing global interest—and, perhaps, unrealistically great expectations—vested in China’s fledgling environmental movement.

Writer and activist, Ma Jun, is ranked by Time magazine this month as among “100 People Who Shape Our World” while NGO leader, Yu Xiaogang, has been awarded a USD 125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize that has been styled a “green Nobel Prize.” Both men are critics of China’s water resource management.

Global Witness urges China to keep promise on illegal timber imports

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:17:45 +0000

A new forest protection agreement between China and Burma could end the flow of illegal timber into Yunnan, according to Global Witness investigators operating in Burma, but the UK-based NGO is continuing to stress the need for action to ensure effective implementation of the agreement.

Market drives volunteering to re-explore its boundaries

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 03:55:05 +0000

Demand for international volunteer ‘gap-year’ placements has triggered the growth of an industry worth an annual GBP 800 million to the UK economy alone (according to the gapyear.com website), and volunteer numbers in China have risen sharply. But many of the newcomers are young, relatively unskilled, and stay for only short periods. Here, Matt Perrement surveys the state and likely future of the international volunteer market in China, and possible links to domestic volunteer programmes.

Seven years have elapsed since China Development Brief last reported on international volunteer agencies in China. In 1999, a dozen respected international organisations ran established volunteer programmes on the mainland. The oldest of these, Princeton in Asia, dates back to 1898, while the most recent arrival, the US-China Friendship Volunteer Progam (part of the US Peace Corps), had arrived in 1993. Together, these agencies fielded around 300 volunteers across the length and breadth of China, with the notable exception of Tibet.

Poor showing for China in 'environmental performance index'

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 09:45:28 +0000

China ranks 94th out of 133 countries listed in an Environmental Performance Index put together by research centres at Yale and Columbia universities, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, and published at the end of January.

Communist capital flows downstream: China’s aid to Laos

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:55:41 +0000

China’s overseas aid “bolsters [a] responsible image” according to a January 19 China Daily editorial that may herald greater transparency in China’s large—and still officially secret—aid portfolio. But there is every sign that, like other donors before it, China will use aid to promote its commercial and geopolitical interests. Here, Tina Qian reports on China’s aid to poor and landlocked Laos, where GDP per capita in 2004 was no more than USD 382, and where almost 20% of GDP comes from international donors.

Growing critique of Beijing's international 'development model'

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:57:07 +0000

Massive loans from the government of China to developing countries may lower global standards of aid transparency and corporate responsibility, according to an article in the December issue of Ethical Corporation magazine.

Worldwatch: China, India are an eco-opportunity, not a threat

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:52:58 +0000

State of the World 2006, the Washington DC-based Worldwatch Institute's latest assessment of the world's environment, concludes that the future well-being of humanity rests on the shoulders of policymakers in the new 'ecological superpower' states of China and India.