Índice
Noviembre de 2017
Por Romano Paganini
A new silk road, huge infrastructure-projects, and all kinds of products “Made in China”: the Asian giant is expanding all over the world. And it is doing so with a speed that even surprises its own people. “It’s as if we we’re competing with someone”, says environmental activist Deng Yi, who declares: “We’re trying to do something in a very short time that others needed centuries for.”
To make the Beijing government’s plans a reality, China will need a huge amounts of copper, zinc and lithium to build railways, highways, and solar panels, as well as soy beans, sea-food and fruits to feed the growing middle-class of the cities. What is clear is that China is going to need natural resources from continents such as Africa and Latin America – with all the attendant consequences.
Bolivian researcher Nohely Guzmán explains what happens when big companies enter a world full of diversity. Guzmán carried out research in communities in the Bolivian Amazon that were being affected by Chinese mining-companies. “They not only polluted water and reduced flora and fauna; with the mine’s arrival also came alcoholism, prostitution and masculinization of the region, meaning that women and children couldn’t go out after 6pm because it was too risky.”
“The ministries, and Ministers, of economics and foreign affairs have very poor knowledge about China”, said long-standing China researcher Enrique Dussel Peters. This was one of the reasons why the Simón Bolivar Andean University and the Andean Region Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Ecuador organized the conference ‘China-Latin America, new dependencies, old resistances?’
In this bulletin, you will find links to fifteen videos of the event with discussions and opinions from ten different countries. The videos are subtitled in English and give an overview of the status quo. They also show the affinity between ancient Chinese and Abya Yala cultures.
China’s contradiction with modernity
Confucius, Lao Tse, Yin and Yang: China has a four thousand year old culture that inspires people all over the world. Environmental activist Deng Yi explains the contradiction between this ancient culture and the consumer world of 21st century.
Chinese projects and their impacts
Mineral mining is one of Chinese companies’ most import activities. However, its impact on local environments and indigenous communities living in affected areas is dramatic, as Bolivian researcher Nohely Guzman shows.
Chinese companies and their practices
Eighty percent of Chinese capital in Latin America corresponds to public companies. The Chinese way of doing business is therefore quite different to that of the West. Enrique Dussel Peters from Mexico speaks about Chinese customs and their western interpretation.
