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Q: G20 in Hangzhou... another international event.
A year ago, 1.3 Billion Chinese had never even heard of it... and now, about 1.2 billion still haven't. And... the number who even know what it actually is hasn't changed either.
So - do you think international events actually change anything?
Or, is the west 'panda-ing' too much to China? If it wasn't a big source of money and cheap labour, would the world give China any international events?
And, like the Olympics and other international events - what can we expect to see in Hangzhou for 2016?
hangzhou does seem to enforce traffic laws and has less blaring horns than most cities i have visited in china, but i dont think anybody for the meeting would even notice, snobs with noses in the air, telling the serfs what to do and how to live usually notice very little around themselves, its all about them.
hangzhou does seem to enforce traffic laws and has less blaring horns than most cities i have visited in china, but i dont think anybody for the meeting would even notice, snobs with noses in the air, telling the serfs what to do and how to live usually notice very little around themselves, its all about them.
I blame the commercial press and their need for ratings. When Beijing won the olympics for 2008, they had to agree to press freedom etc etc... Blah blah blah. They done it for a few months, then tightened up. Internet censorship here is worse now than it has ever been. And now china has the 2022 winter olympics. WTF.
Why do I blame the press? Because western press will not hold western politicians to account. They rely on viewing figures to get the advertising revenue. They won't ask any awkward questions. Ask a difficult question and you can kiss any future rating winning interviews bye bye.
It's not governments who have let us down. Its the press.
Think back to Watergate. Who was deepthroat? Fast forward to today...Edward Snowdon... Enemy. Hang him... Kill him... He did not give us an exclusive.
Yes, nobody would care about China if it would not be such a huge market, potentially the biggest in the world.
Nobody would also care about Europe and later US when they would not happen to be the most powerful and richest regions in their time.
But situation in China is slowly changing. With the growing wealth China is entering into the international sphere more and more aggressively.
I find it absolutely natural - when you have nothing to eat so your main concern is to find food. Once all your basic needs are covered so you will develop another set of needs.
China made a huge progress and more and more people are interested in the world around them.
And the world is more and more interested in China, no way out.
With China getting richer and stronger (and hopefully also India and Brazil) the world will become more stable.
I see nothing wrong with the fact that the Western superpowers will not be able to act on their own wills anymore. It will certainly still take some time but the road is clearly paved.
All the international events organized in China are only the consequence of that. And Chinese are more and more aware of it and become more selfconfident.
Shining_brow:
The problem with China is the one word that you use quite specifically - 'aggressive'.
China wants to be a big boy on the international arena - but doesn't want to play by international rules. Take, for example, the Spratley Islands fiasco. China is a signatory to the International Convention on maritime issues, and also one of the first to sign the agreement on international arbitration... and yet, China is now the first country in the history of international arbitration to use that resource to resolve the disputes. For the record, that's over 100 years!
China also continually flaunts copyrights and trademarks - to the extent that even Chinese judges, when lawsuits have been brought, have sided on the Chinese rip-offs!
The Chinese government controls virtually all internet access - and yet, we can see copyrighted videos - TV, movies, etc - on Youku, Sina, etc.
Safety measures, quality assurance, etc... not here!
What the other 'super-powers' did during their golden years, and the consequences thereof, ought to be used as LESSONS that China should learn from - NOT something to be repeated!
Much of this is the responsibility of many overseas companies moving their manufacturing to here for the lower costs. But if China wants to truly be seen as a part of the international community, it too must bear a LOT of the responsibility!!! (however, it's pretty clear that China doesn't care about the international community, or anything to do with foreign powers - except to take their money and nice quality goods, and to use it as their own little dumping ground or holiday destination).
Janosik:
I think the problem is with the word 'international' in the sense of international rules. The real meaning of this world is developing, or changing what is probably better expression in this case. If there are two big guys in the playground so all the children sooner or later agree on the rules set up and agreed by these two guys. When one day the third big guy comes, provided the 'old big guys' are not able to beat him easily, then the rules will change as the newcomer will also want his part of the pie and they all are going to reach new compromise. Current 'international rules' are to the big extent the rules of 'traditional, Western' superpowers. They were created to benefit Western countries and enforce Western values and point of views. No wonder the new powerful player will want to adjust these rules to also reflect its own interests and points of view. And exactly this can bring more stability because in the environment that Europe, America, China and several other superpowers will have to mtually reflect and also respect all these players values so these new international rules will be more balanced. I find it a very natural process. But I also find very natural that all the countries benefitting from the current rules will not like it. It's absolutely OK. And it's not true anymore that the foreign companies are coming to China due to cheap labour. Those who previously came due to the cheap labour are now in either Vietnam, India or other places with much lower labour costs than China. Now they are coming partly due to the same reason why Japanese and Korean but even Indian car and truck factories come to Europe - to overcome the legal and customs barriers for their products. Partly then to geographically diversify their production (be closer to their customers) and concurrently took the advantage of the huge Chinese market.
