Chinese do not think that much about India - Kaiser Kuo

+Kaiser Kuo 

Political relations between China and India are tense, and Indian internet users follow the issue closely. The opposite happens at the other side of the border, says Kaiser Kuo, director international communication of Baidu in the Beijing Review. "The sad truth is that most Chinese just don't think that often about India."

The Beijing Review:

Kaiser Kuo, International Communications Director at Baidu.com, the Chinese version of Google, said that while surfing Quora, an e-forum for bloggers and people seeking information on diverse subjects, he was struck by the barrage of queries, apparently from Indians, on China. It was in September 2014, almost four months after Modi had been sworn in and Xi had just paid a three-day official visit to India. 

Kuo said he jotted down the queries by Indian users from September 22 and 25, finding that all 28 were about security. They wondered if the two nations could go to war again, who would win if that happened, and bilateral rivalry in other areas. However, there were no questions from Chinese surfers. 

"Very few Chinese are aware of border issues," Kuo told Beijing Review, referring to the territorial dispute in 1962. "Not many are aware of the territories in dispute. I would be hard-pressed to name even one area of Chinese concern about India except perhaps support for Tibet Autonomous Region and the so-called "government in exile" of the Dalai Lama in [India's] Dharamshala. But that's not an insurmountable problem. It's a 50-year-old thing and not an issue now. The sad truth is that most Chinese just don't think that often about India. It's certainly not regarded as a threat."

 More in the Beijing Review.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

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My fascination with India - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

India as a holiday destination raises different feelings among tourists, but author Zhang Lijia admits on het weblog she is fascinated by the country. She recalls her first stay in New Delhi, and how she encountered Anuj – a book seller in Delhi.

Zhang Lijia:

I met Anuj, the owner of Bahri and Son Bookstore in Khan Market on my second night in Delhi. When I reached the bookstore, I noticed the sign ‘closed’ on the door, though the light was still on. Just as I was about to leave, two people arrived, one Indian man in his early 30’s with wild curly hair and a middle-aged western woman. The man went inside and started to talk to the owner. He obviously knew the owner. I thought: why couldn’t I follow his suit? Inside the store, I found the owner, a man in his fifties with a handle bar moustache, sit on a high counter, doing his paper work. It seems to me he is the easy-going type and someone feels totally comfortable with himself and his position in the world. I told him that I was looking for a book about prostitution in Mumbai called The Beautiful Thing. The book owner chuckled: “how uncanny is this? You came to look for a book about prostitution in Mumbai and right in front you is the man who has just published a book on prostitution in Delhi.” The young man, named Mayank handed me a copy of his book, entitled Nobody Can Love You More: life in delhi’s red light district. We swapped name cards and chatted. When the owner heard I was a writer from China, he climbed down to join us. Holding my name card, he exclaimed: “I know you. I sold your books before!” Then he asked: “Have you got an agent?” I told him that the agency represented my last book didn’t exist any more. He clapped and said, with child like delight: “Now, we need to talk. May be I can serve you as your agent?” I know there are few literary agents in India and some book owners function as agents. But I told him that I wasn’t sure that I needed an India agent to present me. Still he asked: “How about lunch tomorrow? On me.” I said I had lunch plan already. “Then the day after tomorrow?” I agreed happily, especially the young writer was also going to join us. After the pair left, the owner, named Anuj, and I started to chat. It turned out that we have a few Indian writers as mutual friends/acquaintances. I love contemporary Indian literature, much better and richer than the Chinese. I guess the Indians have their own rich literary heritage and easy access to English language/education and there’s no censorship, not the same way as China anyway. Then he invited me to join him and his family for dinner. Why not, even though I had already had my dinner. That’s another thing I love about the Indians: they are often so warm, hospital and spontaneous. So I went to his house to meet his Canada-born Indian wife and their three lovely grown children. He took us to his favorite restaurant – a road side Chinese/thai restaurant where we enjoyed a hearty meal and even heartier laughs. 

Oh, the joy of travel!

More at Zhang Lijia´s weblog.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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The marginalization of labor - Heleen Mees

Heleen Mees

China and India are not only adding potential consumers to the market, their integration in the global economy has added a large labor force, leading to the marginalization of labor, writes NYU economist Heleen Mees in Project Syndicate. 

+Heleen Mees :

The integration of China and India in the global market added more than 2.3 billion consumers and producers to the global economy. They entered as producers of core goods and services and as consumers of food and energy. 

The labor glut in China and India has put downward pressure on wages in the rest of the world as well because of international trade and the ever-looming threat of offshoring. Even if China’s labor supply eventually dries up, the rise of technologies may still displace large swaths of workers. 

Profits as a share of U.S. GDP have doubled since China’s entry to the WTO in 2001. The price of a barrel of oil has tripled. According to Chicago University’s Loukas Karabarbounis and Brent Neiman, companies’ share of private savings rose in aggregate by 20 percentage points between 1975 and 2007 across 51 countries, while labor’s share of GDP shrank by five percentage points in aggregate in countries where corporate savings rose. 

The marginalization of labor contributes to the shortfall of demand, which in turn accounts for weak business investment. In the 2000's a massive credit bubble kept consumer spending afloat, offering only temporary reprieve. Now the pressure is on governments to act as spender of last resort.

More in Project Syndicate.

Heleen Mees is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

The story of China going global is a huge story. The +China Weekly Hangout addressed on aspect, China's media conquering Africa, in its session on March 7, 2013, including veteran journalists +Eric Olander of the China Africa Project, and +Lara Farrar, previously working for both the China Daily and CNN. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the +China Speakers Bureau.

 
Is China's internet back to 'normal'. That is the question the China Weekly Hangout will address on Thursday 25 April. In December we looking into the dreadful internet connections so many companies and individuals were suffering from, when even the VPN's came under attack. We hoped that would inprove after the power transfer to Xi Jinping and his crew would be completed. Has that happened, and how do people on the ground expect the internet will serve them? You can read our announcement here, or register directly at our event page for participation. Below our December 20, 2012 session with participation of +Sam Xu, +John R. Otto, +Gabriel Rüeck and +Fons Tuinstra; are the recent hiccups just tests? Has China a kill button for the internet and will it use it? Or will there be a two-class internet, one for corporate users, and one for home users?

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China offers Africa more leverage - Howard French

Howard French

Former colonial powers have been anxiously watching how China has been entering Africa. While it is too early to give a final verdict, former foreign correspondent in Africa and China Howard French sees more positive than negative effects, he tells in AllAfrica.

AllAfrica:

Although it is still too early to tell what China's and India's impact on Africa will be, "it's potentially more positive than negative," says Howard French, former New York Times bureau chief in China and a fellow with the Open Society Foundation researching Chinese migration to Africa. 

"Africa has for a long time been stuck in a position with few options of whom it wants to trade with," French said. 

With China and India competing for investment opportunities alongside Europe and North America, African nations now have a multitude of potential trading partners to choose from. And more leverage to set the rules... 

"The Chinese state is surely a major motor of economic activity in Africa. But India is equally striving to boost its investment in resource extraction on the continent," said French.

More in AllAfrica.

Howard French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Why India is no competition for China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson visited India and tells on his weblog how relieved he was when he could return to China. It will take a while before India can compete with China, he writes. Bill Dodson:

 The Indian government’s lack of will in bringing even the rudiments of sanitation, infrastructure and utilities to its people after all this time is criminal, given the energy and initiative of its people. 

Any competition the media promotes between the economic development of China and India is bogus. There is not and never will be competition until the Indian government truly shows its concern for its citizens by building basic infrastructure for ALL to access, no matter the socioeconomic level. 

Despite transgressions against human rights and corruption on a systemic scale in China, at least things have gotten done and the quality of life for most of the country’s citizens is far beyond what it was twenty years ago. Now when I encounter a frustration in China, I mutter to myself, “At least it’s getting done”. 

I look forward one day to saying as much about India.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

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Zhang Lijia to visit Kovalam festival in India

Zhang Lijia in India Fantake via Flickr

Celebrity author Zhang Lijia of the novel "Socialism Is Great!": A Worker's Memoir of the New Chinawill be attending the Kovalam literary festival in India in the fest week of October, local media announced here and here. Last she also visited the literary festival in India last year.
Zhang Lijia's novel is fast getting an international audience, as she will be in Brazil in September to promote her book in Portuguese. A documentary about Zhang is now being made in Italy.
Zhang also contributed to the book by the China Speakers Bureau, A Changing China

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting, conference or festival? Do get in touch.
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