Page 2 of 2 THE ROVING EYE Welcome, comrade Maobama
By Pepe Escobar
Dear comrade, you may have noticed that the Washington Consensus is for all
purposes dead. What has emerged is what we might call the Beijing Consensus.
China has shown the global South that "there is an alternative" - a "third way"
of independent economic development and integration to the global order. We
have shown that unlike the Washington Consensus "one-size-fits-all" package,
economic development has to be "local" in every case. Our beloved Little
Helmsman Deng Xiaoping would have called it "development with local
characteristics".
We have shown that developing states in the global South must unite, not to
hail US unilateralism but to organize a new world order based on economic
independence and at the same time respectful of cultural and political
differences. We have embarked on a yellow BRIC road - and it's not only us,
Brazil, Russia, India
and China, who are on to it; everybody else in the global South is. Yet we are
also aware that the rich North will always be trying to co-opt certain
countries in the South to prevent that hierarchical change the world can
believe in - which, as you may already know, is incarnated by China.
You may also have realized why China has consistently beaten hands down the
elitist economic and financial institutions controlled by the North. After all,
we offer countries all over the global South much better deals to access their
natural resources. We have been engaged in vast, complex infrastructure
projects that invariably end up costing less than half the price charged by
countries in the North. Our loans are more carefully targeted; they are
impervious to political misunderstandings; and they don't come with exorbitant
consultant fees attached.
You may have realized that key oil-producing countries have re-routed their
excess capacity towards the South. Oil-wealthy countries from West Asia have
started to heavily invest in East and South Asia some of the surplus that they
normally would have directed to the US and Europe.
You may have noticed, comrade, that the monetarist counter-revolution is dead.
So the question now is not whether Asia, and the global South as a whole, will
continue to use the US dollar as their exchange currency - that, of course,
will go on for years. The key long-term question is whether they will continue
to place their excess current account balances at the mercy of institutions
controlled by the North, or if they will instead work towards the emancipation
of the South. Your egalitarian instincts may agree with the latter, but we are
certain the US ruling class will fight it tooth and nail.
Forgive us what may be perceived as impertinence, comrade. Of course - taking a
leaf from the great master Lao Tzu - we are also aware of our shortcomings. We
well know that it would be suicidal for even one quarter of our population of
1.3 billion to adopt the mode of production and consumption known as the
American way of life. We know that we must do more to protect the environment.
Our 2006-2010 Five-Year Plan, for example, has made it a target to reduce
energy consumption by 20%, and our industrial policy has shut down nearly 400
industrial sub-sectors and restricted a further 190. We well know what's at
stake if, up to 2025, no less than 300 million peasants transfer themselves to
our cities, where cars, including your American Buicks, already dwarf the
number of bicycles.
We even acknowledge know many distortions may be implicit in our blind
reproduction of the Western development model. To give you an example, when our
foreign visitors go The Place megamall in the central business district in
Beijing and watch the largest suspended screen saver on Earth - featuring
computer-generated images - they complain what a waste of energy this is. It's
an addiction for which we still have no cure. We just can't get enough of malls
- and SUVs, and Hummers and Ferrari dealerships on Jinbao Dajie ...
We are well aware of hundreds of strikes and widespread social turmoil
happening here every single month, involving especially the new Chinese working
class - young internal migrants - that are the backbone of our enviable export
industry. You may not believe it in the US, but of course there is a worker's
movement in China - not one, but many, spontaneous and relatively
unarticulated, all extremely active in virtually every city in the country.
We pay attention, and we are doing our best to attend to their grievances.
Chairman Mao always alerted about luan - chaos - and nothing worries us
more than social revolt in urban and rural areas. That's why we changed our
policies, trying to correct development inequalities and passing new
legislation offering more rights to workers.
At the same time, we always remember how comrade Deng Xiaoping's reforms first
and foremost had to deal with the agricultural sector. That's why President Hu
today is so concentrated on the development of education, health protection and
social aid in the countryside. That's how we see the development of a
"harmonious society".
To sum it all up, comrade Maobama. We really hope you appreciate the fabulous
Peking duck in the company of comrade Hun Jintao, and that you conduct a frank
exchange of views. And by the way, if you need a crash course on Chinese
politics, don't bother to listen to your think-tanks; send a diplomat to a DVD
shop to buy you a (pirate) copy of Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower,
with Chow Yun-fat and our gorgeous Gong Li. It's all there; the cult of secrecy
and dissimulation; the logic and cruelty of competing clans; the sense of
political tragedy; and how, in China, the raison d'etat trumps
everything. Yes, we may be a violent society after all, but our violence is
internalized. Chairman Mao's luan is our deepest fear; we fear most what
ill we can inflict on ourselves. If we master our self-control, then we can be
a true Middle Kingdom - between heaven and Earth. "Global superpower" is just
an afterthought.
Anyway, as comrade Deng said, to get rich is glorious - the more so when you
become the banker of the current global superpower. We will always be here for
you when you need it - just please refrain from asking us to devalue the yuan.
May you be blessed to conduct an auspicious and prosperous administration, and
may you and your family live a long and fruitful life.
Respectfully yours,
The People's Republic of China
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
