Jasper Becker

China’s second coming

It’s a new version of the Yellow Peril. The Chinese are taking over the world, starting with the nasty bits, like Burma, Sudan and Iran, which we are boycotting for all kinds of high-minded reasons. Two Spanish journalists, Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araújo, have returned from an exhausting trip round the globe to tell us how it’s being done. After carrying out 500 interviews, the authors seem outraged by the corruption and environmental devastation they witness, but also awed by the sheer guts and industry that individual Chinese show in doing business where so many others fail.

The authors believe that something is going on in the global economy that is altogether different, bigger and possibly uglier than anything seen before. The first waves of Chinese emigration took place in the autumn of the Qing dynasty when indentured labourers were shipped out to mine gold in California or Australia; they also built railways in the Wild West and in Malaya tapped rubber trees or mined tin. This influx alarmed some countries so much that they restricted further Chinese immigration for generations.

In Southeast Asia, the Chinese continued to arrive in the first half of the 20th century, often as penniless coolies, but they died as millionaires. They have taken control of the trade and commerce of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. There have been periodic attempts to expel them by the Burmese and Vietnamese, and Malaysia still discriminates against its ethnic Chinese citizens because they are too successful.

Could the same pattern repeat itself globally? These days the Chinese are turning up in places like Egypt, the Congo, Mozambique, Russia’s far east, the oil-rich steppes of Central Asia, the Middle East and Central America. Some are also starting out as penniless coolies, building roads, railways and pipelines, or felling forests.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in