sábado, 9 de agosto de 2008

La Fiesta de Beijing






China, la gran potencia emergente, salió a marcar la cancha en el terreno cultural mostrándole al resto del mundo su historia imperial y sus deseos de volver a serlo.

Viendo los comentarios de algunos medios americanos esta jugada molesta y por ello se oyen críticas a sus políticas medioambientales, el áspero trato que le da al Tibet, Myanmar y Taiwan, o al manejo de la información sobre todo en internet.

Las tensiones entre Estados Unidos y China son de larga data pero en los últimos años tuvieron capítulos al rojo vivo, de los cuales podemos recordar la captura por parte de los chinos de un avión espía americano, el desarrollo de un poderoso laser que "encandila" a los satélites yankies o bien, la prueba de misiles anti satélites.

En el plano económico, la otra gran pata de cualquier imperio, es sabido que los chinos poseen más de 900 billones de dólares en sus arcas y han amenzado (aunque dudosamente lo hagan) con vender esas reservas lo cual provocaría una estrepitosa caida de esa moneda y del sistema financiero en su conjunto.

A pesar de su fortaleza en el plano cultural, militar y económico China necesita imperiosamente de Petróleo, Minerales y Alimentos (proteínas + agua).

Conociendo las necesidades de esta nueva potencia y viendo el nivel de juego que tienen cabe preguntar: Que les conviene más a los chinos? Que seamos el granero del mundo? o que produzcamos alimentos con alto valor agregado?

A modo de ejemplo cito el caso de la importación de zapatos chinos. A través del Dumping -una trampa utilizada en el comercio internacional para destruir a la competencia a través de la venta de productos por debajo del costo- los chinos invadieron Brasil y Argentina con calzados de muy bajo precio con el objetivo de destruir la producción local. Afortunadamente, ambos paises dejaron la rivalidad futbolera de lado y se unieron para establecer barreras a la importación.

A pesar de tener un Gobierno Comunista, el nuevo imperio utiliza las peores prácticas comerciales, fronteras afuera, con el afán de expandir su producción.

Hoy, con una nueva razón, afirmamos que nuestro gran desafío es seguir apostando a la Integración Sudamericana como la única forma posible de enfrentar a este voraz dragón que está volando cada día más alto.

6 comentarios:

Roy Jiménez Oreamuno dijo...

"El pueblo chino se ha puesto en pie", dijo Mao Zedong el 1 de octubre de 1949 desde lo alto de la Puerta de la Paz Celestial, en la plaza de Tiananmen. En su camino hacia la sociedad armoniosa que propuso el Partido Comunista Chino en 2005, el regimen de Pekín aspira ahora a algo más que estar en pie; quiere estar, definitivamente, arriba.

Es un gigante que aún tiene pies de barro, pero de que se levanta, se levanta.

Desde que Deng Xiaoping abrió las puertas, el capital no ha dejado de fluir. La clase media china ya roza los 300 millones de personas, cuyo consumo desaforado ha provocado otros pequeños milagros.

Saludos

Anónimo dijo...

Repression of the Chinese People

In spite of promises that the Olympic Games would improve the lot of the Chinese people, it has lead to a dramatic increase in their repression. This began seven years ago when the country first won the Olympic bid. Immediately, it implemented an “Olympic beautification” program, to hide some of the harsher realities of life in Beijing.

Thus, thousands of the city’s poorest residents were forcefully evicted from their homes and shops, which were leveled. Many of these unfortunate people are still seeking compensation for their losses.

To deal with the “unsightly” residents the government could not expel from the city, it began building walls around the city’s less prosperous areas, to hide them from international cameras. Planning official Zhi Wenguang cynically described construction of one such wall in the following terms: “We extended an existing wall to improve the overall environment for the Olympic events.”[1]

However, the project has not only boxed in the city’s poor, it has hurt them financially, since many earn their living selling goods to passers-by. The walls have literally cut them off from their clientele.

The regime has also imprisoned those it fears might leak stories of Chinese repression to the international media. As Edwar Cody, writing in The Washington Post, put it:


The Olympic Games have become the occasion for a broad crackdown against dissidents, gadflies and malcontents this summer. Although human rights groups say they have no accurate estimate of how many people have been imprisoned, they believe the figure to be in the thousands. [2]

Unsuitable Location

Beijing is also an unsuitable location for the Olympic Games for health reasons. The air quality surrounding the city has some of the highest levels of the toxic gas, nitrogen dioxide, in the world.

Draconian measures employed by the government to clean the air, have included shutting down factories, stopping all “dust creating construction” and greatly restricting car traffic in the city.

Although these measures have improved the air quality, to some athletes, such as Ethiopian marathon runner Haile Gebreselassie, it is still not up to snuff. Although he is ranked number one in the world, he has decided not to participate in the marathon event, complaining that the pollution irritates his lungs.

Four American athletes also did not feel comfortable breathing Beijing’s air and wore breathing masks when getting off the plane. Responding to critical US Olympic officials, one athlete defended himself, saying: “Why we wore the masks is simple: pollution. When you train your whole life for something, dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s, why wouldn’t you be better safe than sorry?”

Some athletes are even refusing to train in China, preferring to stay in neighboring countries and only traveling to Beijing for their event.

Water quality is also a concern. This became particularly patent when out of control algae growth, due to fertilizer runoff, turned Lake Tai into a foul-smelling mess, threatening to force the Olympic rowing events to another location. Fortunately, there were thousands of volunteers on hand to remove the muck by hand.

Media Control
The media also are angered by China’s failure to fulfill pre-games promises to give them unfettered access to travel the country and interview Chinese, and also allow them unrestricted access to the internet (since Chinese citizens’ internet use is controlled, this had to be stipulated).

However, upon arriving, reporters found their internet access restricted, freedom to travel regulated and access to Chinese citizens controlled. A television reporter explained: “We already have to tell the Chinese everywhere we want to be in August, and what time. We have to provide a list of the guests who will be interviewed and the content of the interview.”[5]

The regime does not seem to realize that restricting the freedoms of those who will be reporting on events is not a sound plan to gain good press.

Preparing for War?
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the true state of China is the measures the government is taking to ensure that things run smoothly during the games. In addition to imprisoning, relocating and walling in potential discontents, the government has turned Beijing into a veritable war zone to prevent any forms of violence from breaking out during the event and frighten any would be protesters.

Writing for “World Socialist Web Site,” John Chan discusses the measures that have been taken:


In Beijing, security plans are already in full swing. According to the state media, an anti-terror force of 100,000 commandos, paramilitary police and soldiers has been deployed in Beijing and five other cities hosting the Olympic events. Another 100,000 police officers, 200,000 security guards and 600,000 volunteers will patrol the streets during the Olympics. There will also be a substantial Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) presence, including the deployment of fighter jets, helicopters, warships, surface-to-air missiles and bio-warfare units.[6]
Such a warlike atmosphere hardly reinforces the stable and peaceful image China hopes to portray. Perhaps that is a risk the government is willing to take since any public manifestation of opposition to the regime would destroy its olympic propaganda effort.

An Olympic Farce
However, this propaganda effort is a farce of olympic proportions. It is simply an effort to lend the repressive totalitarian regime a note of legitimacy.

Although many leaders of the international community are supporting this effort, worldwide public opinion cannot be muscled around like the enslaved Chinese masses. The Olympic Games will project the harsh reality of Chinese Communism throughout the globe and this could cause plans to backfire. It all depends on the reaction of the international community to what it sees and hears coming from Biejing.

It is up to the West to courageously confront reality. It must admit that China is not just a provider of cheap labor, but an evil empire that continues to support itself on European and American money. It must take steps to inhibit the waves of money being sent across the bamboo curtain.


Footnotes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/sports/olympics/29beijing.html.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103717_pf.html.
http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=3084.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/sports/
olympics/06masks.html?ex=1218600000&en=e44dbcee966f29
eb&ei=5070&emc=eta1.
http://www.spiegel.de/international
/world/0,1518,569903,00.html.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/
2008/jul2008/olym-j22.shtml

Rob Rufino dijo...

Anónimo
EEUU tiene a Guantánamo y que?

Además, puede llamarse democracia al gobierno de las corporaciones petroleras y financieras?

Saludos.

Unknown dijo...

Importante aporte del anónimo de habla inglesa.
Lo más importante es eso de que china asienta su poderío sobre la enorme masa dineraria norteamericana y europea. Y agrego sobre los mercados norteamericano y europeo. La recesión en EEUU y Europa es el talón de barro del gigante chino. Se habla de un nuevo eje China-Rusia-India-Brasil. No habrá herederos del capitalismo muchachos. Todo se irá al demonio.
Gio

Capacitaciones dijo...

¿Sabés cuánto vale tu trabajo?

Eduardo Real dijo...

Rob: Hay un documental que acabo de descubrir y poner en cetroizquierda, de nombre raro (Zeitgeist), que me parece que te puede llegar interesar. Echale una mirada al resumen del contenido en el blog.