China meets growing skepticism in Africa - Howard French

+Howard French 

A decade of Chinese investments in Africa is now triggering off a larger degree of skepticism, writes author Howard French in the New York Times. Earlier this month he published his latest book China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa.

Howard French:

The doubts aren’t coming from any soured feelings from African leaders themselves, most of whom still welcome (and profit from) China’s embrace. The new skepticism has even less to do with the hectoring of Western governments, the traditional source of Africa’s foreign aid and investment (and interference). In a 2012 speech in Senegal, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state, implicitly warned Africa about China. The continent needs “a model of sustainable partnership that adds value, rather than extracts it,” she said, adding that unlike other countries, “America will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing.”

Some Africans found Mrs. Clinton’s remarks patronizing. What’s most remarkable, however, is how passé this now seems, given skepticism about China from Africa’s own increasingly vibrant civil society, which is demanding to know what China’s billions of dollars in infrastructure building, mineral extraction and land acquisition mean for the daily lives and political rights of ordinary Africans.

This represents a tricky and unfamiliar challenge for China’s authoritarian system, whose foreign policy has always focused heavily on state-to-state relations. China’s leaders demonstrate little appreciation of the yawning gulfs that separate African people from their rulers, even in newly democratic countries. Beijing is constitutionally uneasy about dealing with independent actors like advocacy groups, labor unions and independent journalists.

After a decade of bland talk about “win-win” partnerships, China seems finally aware that it needs to improve both the style and substance of its push into Africa. Last week, at the start of a four-country African trip, Prime Minister Li Keqiang acknowledged “growing pains” in the relationship, and the need to “assure our African friends in all seriousness that China will never pursue a colonialist path like some countries did, or allow colonialism, which belongs to the past, to reappear in Africa.”

More in the New York Times.

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.

Are you a media representative and do you want to talk to one of our speakers? Do drop us a line.    

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How Bloomberg started, and killed political reporting in China - Howard French

Howard French

In a detailed write-up for the Columbia Journalism Review former foreign correspondent Howard French describes how Bloomberg started to engage in political reporting in China, to compete with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, but killed a successful journalism project, after China´s power-brokers turned up the heat.

Howard French:

Meanwhile, just prior to publication, (former Bloomberg reporter Michael) Forsythe, the lead writer on the pending Xi article, who was then based in Beijing with his family, began receiving death threats. The first of these was indirectly conveyed via a China scholar at Columbia University who was passing along a conversation he had heard from a Chinese acquaintance, saying vaguely that Forsythe had better watch out. Later, Forsythe received a similar message relayed via a foreign press colleague in Beijing.

“What was extremely upsetting to me was that when we started getting death threats, Bloomberg told us that we were not allowed to speak about it,” said Leta Hong Fincher, a China scholar who is married to Forsythe. She contrasted the way that Bloomberg handled reported pressure from Chinese authorities with the response of The New York Times a few months later, after its prize-winning work from China was published. The Times had spoken forthrightly about the challenges of doing hard-hitting reporting in China, while Bloomberg sought to muffle discussion, she said.

Both companies have faced bans on their products in China since their groundbreaking investigative work.

For the Times, it has meant the blocking of a costly new Chinese language website, whose primary market is in China, and difficulties obtaining residency visas for its reporters, especially for new reporters rotating into the country as older hands leave.

The differing interests in the market seem to have dictated differing responses to official pressure. In particular, Fincher cited a December 2013 column by the public editor, Margaret Sullivan, which presented the Times’ attitude as stoicism in the face of difficulties like these and quoted the newspaper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., as saying that the Times “doesn’t flinch.”

Fincher said that Bloomberg has threatened legal action against her, but unlike her husband she is not bound by any confidentiality agreement. The Sullivan column appeared shortly after reports that Bloomberg had killed its big new investigative project.

Much more in the Columbia Journalism Review.

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.

Are you a media representative and do you want to talk to one of our speakers? Do drop us a line.

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China: its own worst enemy - Janet Carmosky

Janet Carmosky

The Chinese hacking efforts of the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other media has proved to be a disservice to China's international reputation, writes China veteran Janet Carmosky in Forbes. "China has a way of being its own worst enemy"   

Janet Carmosky:

What holds China back from sustainable prosperity and stability is not a lack of resources. The country is rich in human, financial, and technological capital. 

Nor is it a lack of skill in dealing with enemies. On the contrary, the obsession with enemies of the state reveals the deeper obstacle to China’s continued evolution: truly abysmal comprehension of the necessity of goodwill, the value of friends. And in the matter of making friends, China has a way of being its own worst enemy... 

The only way to be free of enemies is to do nothing and be nobody. Not an option for China. Since enemies are a given, friends are a necessary counter balance. Especially when China is often – as in the Chinese Media Hacker Ninja incident – its own worst enemy. Get some help. Really.

More in Forbes. 

Janet Carmosky 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.     

In our China Weekly Hangout of October 11, 2012 Janet Carmosky discussed, together with political scientist Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau the ability of China to innovate.    

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Why the New York Times heads for an internet block - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

The New York Times started an online edition in simplified Chinese to lure luxury good advertisers. A commendable move, writes serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs on his weblog, but also a receipt for disaster, as an internet block seems unavoidable.

Marc van der Chijs:

The New York Times decided to host the site outside the Great Firewall, which is probably a necessity because they would have likely never received a Chinese Internet publishing license. But by doing that they run the risk that the site can by blocked at any moment. It is difficult to judge how likely that is, but for sure the government doesn’t like it when foreign media companies start targeting their population in simplified Chinese. YouTube is a good example, they were allowed in China until they launched a simplified Chinese language site. 

So far the NYT was not blocked in China, although sometimes specific articles were censored. But with a Chinese site that may be different. One wrong article could lead to the whole nytimes.com domain being blocked (for some reason they did not use a separate domain name for their Chinese site, something I would have done to test the waters), meaning that also English language content won’t be available anymore.

More on Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Marc van der Chijs 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.