Posts Tagged ‘china’

About a month ago, one of the hundreds of emails that I get from the LSE had an interesting title: OUCAN Conference: Chinese Investment in Africa. I get these emails so frequently that I often pass up many very interesting conferences and talks. But this one, I opened it immediately and signed up with Jennifer, a fellow MPAer who shares this Sino-African interest.

The conference is held by OUCAN: Oxford University China-Africa Network. Ever since befriending my Chinese friends in Cameroon, whom more or less adopted me as a daughter, I have been deeply interested in this subject.

Due to the hectic end of the term, Jenn and I could only make Day 2 of this conference. We took a train from Paddington bright and early at 8:20 to get to Oxford. It was nice to get out of London. The sunny weather also helped lifting the mood! The conference wasn’t as full as I thought it would be, and had a surprisingly low number of students. There were more LSE students there than Oxford, which I thought was odd. Also, considering it’s a China-Africa conference, the proportion of Africans present were strangely low.

Nevertheless, it was one of the more stimulating conferences/talks that I have attended this year. Throughout the day, I heard practitioners from the World Bank/DFID, China’s IPRCC, a Senegalese economist, Spanish journalists in China, Angolan Embassy rep, etc. The lack of students actually allowed us a great deal of opportunities to network and to exchange interesting ideas with these practitioners. Besides, I always love a chance to speak English, Chinese and French all within 45 minutes. I talked about Taiwan as a fun place to travel in Chinese while discussed lots of various things about Africa in French. Good to know I still got it!

Anyhow, the debates were incredibly interesting as both extreme points of views were represented. On the one hand, there were those who applauded the Chinese efficiency in Africa in terms of infrastructure development. On the other, there were some who recognized positive impact of China’s role in Africa, but criticized on the lack of opportunities created for Africans, lack of accountability on the part of the Chinese government. I stand somewhere in the middle. Having personal ties with both the Africans and Chinese people on the ground, it’s hard for me to take one extreme position or another.

My Chinese Family's Shop in Cameroon

One thing that was repeated highlighted throughout the day was the resiliency of the Chinese people in Africa. One presenter described the way Chinese were doing business in Egypt – they recognized a need for larger Egyptian women to buy clothes without going to the market, where they may feel embarrassed. The Chinese walked around with a 25kg bag of different clothing goods and went door to door to sell them to Egyptian women. They did not speak a word of Arabic, yet were able to somehow make the sell. The presenter highlighted on the sacrifices that the Chinese are willing to make, and I couldn’t help but think of my Chinese family in Cameroon.

While the Western world criticizes Chinese practices, not enough credit is given for these Chinese workers who are willing to be a world apart from their family, to live in a place where they do not speak the language, do not understand the culture, and do not have luxury conditions (especially compare to Western aid workers). Perhaps people would not be so quick to form judgment if they would just take the time to cultivate some connections and to understand the people – both the Africans and the Chinese.

I would love to take part in more of these conversations and see more Africans and Chinese become engaged. There is something about discussing development with an African in French that makes me feel very alive!

Definitely a wonderful day in Oxford! Jenn and I then finished out the day by eating at a delicious Chinese restaurant in Queensway upon returning to London. Who knew there were so many authentic Asian restaurants in this part of the town. Not to mention, the oriental version of Costcutter – it blew my mind!

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I haven’t written much about the academic aspect of my experience thus far here at the LSE. To be honest, I really am still trying to figure out what is going on and what is the best strategy in tackling the course work and getting organized so I don’t seriously freak out come April. One thing for sure, I have been using my brain and drawing a great deal from two years of field experiences in the Peace Corps.

Last week, while attending the Wokai London Chapter launch event, I was cornered by Jono, a 2nd year Australian MPAer, into teaming up with him for the upcoming MPA Hot Topic – a debate series organized by the MPA Policy Forum. This round of debate topic was Is China the Security Threat of the 21st Century? I think the fact I am Chinese/Taiwanese and also America was largely the reason why I was targeted by Jono. I can rarely say no when people ask me favors as such, so I agreed.

Luckily, Jono had a good argument in place and all I had to do was strengthen some parts of it, add a few slides, talk for 7 minutes and answer some questions. Before the actual debate took place, I was tired and just wanted to end my day. But in the end, it turned out to be really fun. Our central argument was that there lacks an international institution such as the EU or NATO in the Asian region (note the recent incident between N. & S. Korea) will encourage China to gain hegemony power. Furthermore, tension with Taiwan is a major ticking bomb that in the unlikely chance of a major disagreement leading to conflict, US may intervene and the problem becomes a major international concern. There are also other factors such as lack of democracy in China (freedom of speech, press, etc), military spending, etc.

Prior to the debate, a poll was taken and 70% of argument took the stance of the opponent that Chinese is NOT the biggest security threat vs. 20% who were on our side and 10% who were indifferent. At the end of our compelling argument, we won the debate by earning majority support!

The Winning Team at The George

The whole thing turned out to be quite fun and we had a good laugh in some of the humors within the arguments. I also realized that my public speaking abilities have improved quite a lot due to two years in the Peace Corps. I suppose speaking English in front of people just isn’t that big of a deal after teaching and speaking to large groups of Cameroonians in French on a regular basis.

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Not sure when New York Times and the International Herald Tribune joined forces to create the Global Edition of the New York Times. I discovered this recently and -wow- I love it. I am not sure why I love it so much. Perhaps it’s the “global” nature of it all? Every section of the news now has an international component to it. Must be the globe-trotting blood within my veins.

Reading the NYTimes has long been my distraction tactic, and now it’s that much more enjoyable! Recently I have been trying to curb my Facebook access and this is a perfect substitute. Instead of reading about my friends’ goings about, now I am finding out what role Paris played in Edith Wharton’s life and discovering an interesting book on the tumultuous historical relationship between Taiwan and China from a personal perspective.

Reading the NYTimes is also a perfect complement to the GRE studying – I am practicing reading comprehension, n’est-ce pas?

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