Cowries and Rice: September 2014

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Translation Tuesday: Chinese Martial Arts Seminars Ignite African Passions

Author: Yang Kaiqi, Hao Shuang
Translator: Laiyin Yuan
Published on: 08/25/2014
Source: China News Service (CNS)
Original text (in Chinese): http://www.chinanews.com/hr/2014/08-25/6527281.shtml

Chinese martial arts have always been an important component of Chinese soft power. Their popularity in Africa provides African peoples with a better understanding about Chinese traditional culture.
---- Laiyin Yuan (translator)

“With the integration of seminars and performances, the ‘Cultures of China – Lectures of Masters’ series offers a new way to spread Chinese martial arts culture.” Li Hui, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Martial Arts Management Center, was very impressed by the enthusiasm of her African audience as she delivered three lectures in their respective countries.

In mid-August, many famous Chinese martial arts masters went to South Africa, Botswana, and Mauritius with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council’s “Cultures of China – Lectures of Masters” delegation, and provided wonderful kung fu seminars and live demonstrations for the locals. Among the delegation was Chen Zhenglei, one of the first state-level Intangible Cultural Heritage[1] inheritors of the Chen-style tai chi, and also Jiao Hongmin, President of the Henan Shaolin Martial Arts Academy. This was the first time that martial arts was a series theme since its initial launch in 2007.

China's Peace Corps?!?!

China has a little-known program equivalent to the U.S. Peace Corps: the unofficially titled Chinese Youth Volunteers in Africa. Wendy Wang, a Business Development and Communications Officer with China House, explained this program to host Winslow Robertson. If you want to know about this program, how it is administered, how the volunteers are recruited, how it is funded, and more, please listen to this episode!

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Mighty Mike

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Translation Tuesday: Hunan invites companies to invest in South Africa

By Joseph Webster

Author: Zhou Yuegui
Translator: Joseph Webster
Published on: 09/22/2014
Source: Hunan Daily
Original text (in Chinese): http://epaper.voc.com.cn/hnrb/html/2014-09/22/content_882276.htm?div=-1

On September 19, the South African Embassy in China and the Provincial Business Council Changsha conducted a public hearing “Hunan Province and South Africa Economic Cooperation and Investment Opportunities Summit.” South Africa's ambassador Langa and his party introduced the country's investment environment and opportunities, and cordially invited Hunan businesses to invest in South Africa.

Hunan and South Africa's trade relationship has steadily developed in recent years. According to the Department of Commerce's statistics, in the year 2013, Hunan and South Africa imports and exports totaled $22.3 billion which was an increase of 40.0 percent and accounted for one tenth of the province’s total imports and exports. Through August of this year, Hunan’s Department of Commerce had approved six companies to invest in South Africa, with investment contracts from the Chinese side totaling $15.88 million.　　

A Department of Commerce official stated that the South African and Hunan economies are highly complementary, with much room for further cooperation. On the one hand, South Africa is wealthy in mineral resources, possibly providing the iron, manganese ore and other mineral resources that Hunan needs. On the other hand, Hunan’s engineering machinery, automobile manufacturing, and other advantages in products and technological services are in high demand in South Africa.

The South African embassy's Political and Economic attache Gcoyi explained that South Africa had established Chinese-style Special Economic Zones, set up many industrial parks, assembled new energy sources, manufactured cars, produced jewelry, and other services. To firms operating in the industrial parks, the South Africa government gives preferential treatment with regard to finance, taxes, production equipment, customs, and other related policies. Hopefully, in cooperation with Hunan, new breakthroughs will be achieved in South Africa's developing industries such as new energy, car manufacturing.

Ask not what foreign nations are doing for Africa…

By Zander Rounds, Fulbright Scholar, Zhejiang Normal University

…but what Africa is doing for foreign nations: Tanzanian President Mkapa on the future of Africa’s relations with the world

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by former President of Tanzinia, Benjamin Mkapa, hosted by Zhejiang Normal University’s Institute of African Studies and the China-Africa Business College. President Mkapa delivered his speech, titled “Unscrambling Africa in the New Millennium” (在新千年实现非洲的自主发展), to a large conference room packed full with African and Chinese students, professors and perhaps three Americans (myself included).

Of Interest 09/15 - 09/21

09/15 - 09/21 2014 SADC: Do not forget about the UN Climate Summit

12 more Ugandans facing death in China - Simon Masaba, New Vision, September 6, 2014: "The conviction and sentencing of more Ugandans to death by hanging, was confirmed by the Interpol chief, Asan Kasingye, in an interview with New Vision this week. In July this year, the Chinese authorities executed two Ugandans — Omar Ddamulira and Ham Andrew Ngobi over drug trafficking. Kasingye identified the Ugandans recently sentenced to death in China as Joseph Kiberu Mulindwa, Sara Basima, Alex Kayiwa, Benjamin Bisuka, Derrick Kiryowa, Willy Musoke, Ambrose Tsimi, Scovia Nakintu, John Luke Wasonye, Peter Wamoka and Geoffrey Ogwal. There was no information yet about their next of kin in Uganda. Kasingye also said the list recently received from Interpol on Ugandans convicted abroad also includes a number of people serving long prison sentences in China, Japan and Kenya."
How Africa's first education tablet computer was created - Tamasin Ford, BBC News, September 15, 2014: "At the moment the tablets are all made and assembled in China, but Qelasy's vision includes setting up a factory in Ivory Coast. 'It's our dream,' says the entrepreneur. 'I'm passionate about education because I would like our country, our continent to take the place that it should have in the world and without education it's not possible.'"
Fourteen Nobel laureates urge Zuma to give Dalai Lama visa - The Citizen, September 16, 2014: "The Dalai Lama was to attend a summit of Nobel peace prize winners in Cape Town next month, the first-ever meeting of its kind in Africa. But, according to an aide, he cancelled after Pretoria denied him a visa in a bid to avoid angering China, which regards the Buddhist monk as a campaigner for Tibetan independence. 'We are deeply concerned about the damage that will be done to South Africa’s international image by a refusal – or failure – to grant him a visa yet again,' the group said in a letter to President Jacob Zuma. Signatories include Poland’s Lech Walesa, Bangladeshi entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Northern Irish peacemakers David Trimble and John Hume. The Dalai Lama has applied three times in the last five years to visit the country once led by Nelson Mandela."
Better local price challenges Ethiopia’s shoes export - Andualem Sisay Gessesse, The EastAfrican, September 16, 2014: "Chinese shoe manufacturing company Huajian, which has its own shoe city in China, is currently producing 2,000 pairs of shoes every day in Ethiopia. At about $40 per month, the cost of labour in Ethiopia is 10 times less than that in China, which stands at about $400.Huajian recently secured 138 hectares of land in Ethiopia where it plans to establish its own industrial zone at a cost of about $2.2 billion. Foreign shoe factories like Huajian with an international marketing network are expected to boost Ethiopia’s foreign currency from the sector but the question begs: For how long will foreign brands dominate the industry?"
Chinese man arrives in Namibia on bicycle - New Era Newspaper, September 17, 2014: "Yesterday, traffic almost came to a virtual standstill in the northern part of Windhoek when an uncommon heavily loaded bicycle, paddled by a Chinese rider, strolled along the outstretched Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue. Our team spotted the unusual attraction and resolved to have a word with the leg-weary but friendly, courageous cyclist. Li Jianbo, 29 is a man on a serious mission to have his name engraved in full print in the famous Guinness Book of Records. He cycled from his native China to Namibia through a journey that took 14-months through the African jungle, arriving in Katima Mulilo in July this year en route to the Mother City in South Africa."
How Much Can China Offer in Africa’s Ebola Crisis? - Yanzhong Huang, Asia Unbound | Council on Foreign Relations, September 18, 2014: "In short, China cannot become Africa’s savior in the current crisis. There is no evidence that Chinese leaders actually buy into the fantasy created by the state media. They might be convinced that allowing the latter to keep up the pretense helps spread soft power in Africa. But as Joseph Nye of Harvard University noted, soft power depends on credibility. By exaggerating its contributions to the Ebola outbreak, the state media is undermining China’s humanitarian efforts in Africa as well as its image internationally."
For Poor Countries, China Is No Model - Dambisa Moyo, The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 2014: "Other rising powers are eager to emulate China's success and pursue statist policies that can quickly deliver a short-term jolt. Under state capitalism, China has delivered phenomenal growth, brought hundreds of millions out of poverty, bulked up infrastructure and delivered social services. Moreover, as autocratic China has surged, democracy and capitalism have suffered a series of setbacks that make them less tempting options. These range from high levels of income inequality in the U.S. to the rise of governments in Russia, Venezuela and elsewhere that are nominally democratic but sharply limit free speech and the rule of law."
Fronteir Advisories hosted the China Africa Business Forum - SABC Digital News, Sep 19, 2014: "Fronteir Advisories hosted the China Africa Business Forum in Johannesburg on Friday - bringing together leading decision makers from Chinese and African companies. It notes that China's engagement of Africa has been the leading megatrend over the last decade. China is now the single largest trading partner of Africa, the largest financier of infrastructure and the largest lender to African governments."

5 takeaways from the ‘China & Development in Africa’ panel

On September 18, 2014, AfricanDevJobs and Cowries and Rice co-hosted a panel discussion entitled “China & Development in Africa: What China’s Engagement with Africa Means for the Development Sector & Professionals” held at Impact Hub in Washington, D.C.

The panel, moderated by Jackson M’vunganyi, host of Voice of America’s Upfront Africa, featured speakers who spoke about the intersection of development and the China-Africa relationship. They included Ambassador David Shinn, co-author of China and Africa: A Century of Engagement and Professorial Lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, Kelley Page Jibrell, Global Strategy Consultant and lecturer of International Business at Howard University, and Jyhjong Hwang, Research Assistant at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ China Africa Research Initiative. All of the panelists provided different perspectives on the growing involvement of China in Africa – a relationship that has major implications for not only Africa but the entire world.

The Chinese Aid White Paper: Beyond the Numbers (2/2)

Host Winslow Robertson continues his discussion with Ms. Marina Rudyak and Mr. Christian Straube on the Chinese white paper on foreign aid, released on July 10 of this. If you want to find out if Hu Jintao might be purged soon based on a VERY close reading of this document, or if you want to know more about the often opaque world of Chinese aid, this episode is for you!