The China Code: What’s Left for Us? PDF
Preview The China Code: What’s Left for Us?
The China Code What’s Left for Us? Frank Sieren Translated by Thomas Rede THE CHINA CODE This page intentionally left blank F S RANK IEREN The China Code What’s Left for Us? Translated by Thomas Rede © Frank Sieren 2007 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-00135-0 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-27983-8 ISBN 978-0-230-62508-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230625082 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 Contents Preface vi Chronology ix 1 The Yellow Peril? 1 2 The Crisis of Self-Esteem 36 3 The Decline of Power 56 4 The Kingdom Without A Middle 79 5 The ‘Heave-ho’ Economy 95 6 Reform Roulette 124 7 Dictatorship for the Common Good 173 8 The Concubine Economy 205 9 Controlling the World 232 10 The Globalisation Trap 246 11 The China Code 278 Notes 297 Bibliography 318 Companies Index 323 People Index 325 Word Index 329 v Preface This book was written out of curiosity. It observes a phenomenon, which I am convinced, will have an important impact on our lives. This belief has developed steadily over the 13 years that I have been living in China. I went to Beijing’s first jazz bar with my Chinese friends. We also went to Ikea to buy the first Billy bookcase. I enjoyed parties in their first privately-owned apartments and toasted their first cars. Many had their first mobile phone before my friends in Europe. I also experienced the elastic nature of the Chinese legal system when my friends tried to get their rights upheld. Then there was also the corruption and the brutal competition amongst people trying to move to the top. It was only once I had lived in China that I realised the meaning of legal rights but also how important sta- bility and growth are for a country. I had my run in with public officials who were so stubborn but then also more flexible than one would experience it in the west. I watched cities like Beijing and Shanghai grow. It fascinated me yet sometimes I was terrified and wondered whether it would all work out in the end. Deep in the west of the country I experienced breath-taking landscapes but then also mega-cities that were so massive,loud and unruly that everything which I had known before paled in comparison. I am also mightily impressed with what the Chinese have achieved in the last decade. An even greater challenge was to find out just how stable the new China is. This book not only talks about a globalisation phenomenon,it is a global product itself and would not have been possible without the help of so many people across the world. At its completion people in seven countries were involved in its production:Germany,China,USA,Laos,South Africa,India and Britain. vi Preface vii First of all I would like to thank Stefan Baron,Düsseldorf,Germany,the chief editor of WirtschaftsWoche(The German Business Weekly),a brilliant journalist,who polished my articles,taught me not to give in,and to follow an idea clearly to its conclusion even if that means rowing against the tide. Thank you also to his wife Yin Guangyuan, Cologne, Germany, who has been an untiring mediator between the two cultures. I also have to thank Professor Dr Eberhard Sandschneider, the Director of Research at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (DGAP, German Council on Foreign Relations), Berlin, Germany. In a very impressive way he is in the process of modernising the DGAP so that it generates new ideas and theo- ries instead of transforming other peopleís ideas into footnotes. Apart from his immediate support, it was a great incentive to follow his example with this book. I am also very grateful to the former German Ambassador to China, Dr Hans-Christian Ueberschaer, Bonn, Germany, for his immense assistance. I am very thankful to my agent Barbara J. Zitwer,New York,USA,who took care of the book as if it had been written by herself. And Bob Breen, Düsseldorf, Germany, who translated the initial proposal. My deep thanks goes especially to Thomas Redl,Vientienne,Laos,for translating the book into English under enormous time pressure and keeping its spirit. Thanks to Yang Liu,Berlin/Beijing,for designing the cover. Thanks as well to Catherine Moat and my brother Andreas Sieren, Johannesburg,South Africa,for polishing the work at short notice. Thanks to Vidhya from Chennai, India, for efficent project management and to Assistant Editor Alexandra Dawe in England for getting everything smoothly organized and checking the final proofs. And I am grateful to Stephen Rutt, Global Publishing Director with Palgrave Macmillan, who had the confidence of placing this book in a prominent position on their publishing agenda. When I first started this project I received incredible support from Kerstin “Anna”Wesendorf,the head librarian of Beijing’s Goethe Institute. She managed to provide me with decisive books and articles at exactly the right moment, with the greatest efficiency. I would also like to thank her husband Dirk Brauns,an outstanding writer and journalist. His almost com- pleted novel and this book are now so closely related that they have become inseparable. My gratitude also goes out to Anna Vandenhertz and Professor Wolfgang Engler whose influence on me can never be underestimated, although they have nothing to do with China. This can also be said of Sabine Schneller and Dr Bernward Dörner whose suggestions helped to put me on the right course. Preface viii Kathrin Albrecht, Sonja Banze, Dr Leo Flamm, Dr Claus Knoth, Julia Kühn, Uwe Kräuter, Li Aihua, Petra and Otto Mann, Professor Dr Erling von Mende,Konstantin Menzel,Zhang Wei,Günter Schabowski,Dr Martin Posth, Erk Schaffarczyk, Justus Krüger and the Trier Gang of Sinologists provided additional support. (I am especially grateful to Dr Katharina Ahr who brought China closer to me and Sabine Lippelt who enticed me to China.) Thanks also to Jürgen Kracht,founder of the Hong Kong-based consult- ing firm Fiducia, who generously shared his 30 years of experience of the Chinese market with me. Christian Sommer and Leif Goeritz, who are in charge of the German Centres in Shanghai and Beijing,were very helpful in spreading the word about the book. I would also like to thank a number of Chinese friends and acquaintances from Beijing’s Ministry of Economics and various university departments who also assisted me,but who prefer not to be mentioned because they feel that their influence is more important than being named here. This book is particularly dedicated to Peter Seidlitz,Geneva,Switzerland, who was at the beginning of the nineties the first German economic corre- spondent in China,and who enlightened this work with his clear and vision- ary analysis. He is a true pioneer, and there will be many generations of economic correspondents in China who will follow in his footsteps. Many of my colleagues,including me,are tremendously indebted to him. I am also especially grateful to Bernhard Bartsch whose rigorous argu- ments refined the concepts and ideas in the book and through his practical support ensured that it was completed on schedule. Lastly I would like to thank my parents who unrelentingly encouraged me to try a little bit harder,and now with the same wonderful patience urge me to work a little bit less. Finally and most importantly,thank you to Anke for enduring your human typewriter and for all you have done and continue to do for me. FRANKSIEREN Beijing,September 2006 Chronology 1368–1644 Ming-Dynasty 1405–33 First Chinese journey to the West 1433 Capital punishment on international maritime trade and military naval expeditions 1521 Ferdinand Magellan reaches the China Sea 1644–1911 Qing-Dynasty 1658 German Jesuit Adam Schall is appointed Mandarin of the First Class,the highest distinction ever awarded to a foreigner since mid- European traders on China’s east coat 17th century 1742 Prohibition of the Christian religion is reintroduced in China since 1760 Operations of European merchants are restricted to the port of Canton and to certain months of the year 1834 The East India Company’s monopoly on the opium trade collapses 1838 The Chinese court sends Lin Zexu as a special commissioner to Canton 1839–42 First Opium War 1842 ‘Unequal Treaties’between England and China 1851–64 Taiping Rebellion 1853 Taiping forces take the former empirial capital Nanking 1856–60 Second Opium War 1856 British and French troups occupy Peking ix
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