China on display IV: Chuangsha

Blanket condemnation of the so-called socialist policies and communist structures of China has emanated from the doctrinaire ideologues of free market capitalism without regard of reality. China has in fact, practiced selective capitalism since after the Civil War of 1949.

Between 1980 and 1984, China established special economic zones (SEZs) in Shantou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province and designated the province of Hainan a special economic zone. Early Chinese business concerns in the CNMI are traceable to these zones.

In 1984, China opened 14 coastal cities to overseas investment in Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Beihai.

In 1985, it established more economic zones in the Liaodong Peninsula, Hebei Province (which surrounds Beijing and Tianjin), Shandong Peninsula, Yangtze River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in southern Fujian Province, Pearl River Delta, and Guangxi.

1987 would see the first Internet email emanating from China. In 1990 the State Council opened the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment.

Economic characteristics of these decisions are represented as “4 principles”: * Primary reliance on foreign capital on construction; * Formation of local-foreign joint ventures and partnerships first but allowing wholly foreign-owned enterprises; * Export-oriented products; * Resource utilization, production and distribution activities are driven by market forces.

In the mid-1990s, a major Chinese investment would establish the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino in the CNMI. Experienced personnel in the SEZs, especially from the Yangtze River Delta, would be the source of the skilled staffing of the garment industry of the CNMI, and would create an embarrassing situation of bonded servitude and HR exploitation that is still haunting the corridors of labor in the Commonwealth.

Again, only the blind would fail to see that the economic development of China has not been immune from the influence of capitalist practices. The Beijing 2008 XXIX Olympiad puts all of these on global display.

Restriction on mobility (surface entry into Beijing suddenly became difficult and heightened security in Beijing was just announced, particularly at the Olympic Games village and facilities, giving due notice to camera-toting laptop-logging foreigners to be on the lookout for being looked at), and limited immediately disposable resources (minimal cash flow, a sudden rise in the cost of local consumer goods since my visit in March, and spotty acceptance of the AMEX card) kept this series of reflections focused on Metropolitan Shanghai by the Huangpu River instead of the more expansive one previously planned.

Also, being of Ilocano extraction, the Philippines’ version of the Scot-Dutch European myth of thrift and industry, I decided to visit China on the cheap, zeroing on one of two accessible cities (Shanghai and Guangzhou) from Saipan, booking on the cheapest accommodations listed in the Internet. For housing, that proved to be the Ai Jin Hua Hotel on Chungsha Rd. right on the center of nowhere.

But center it is, between the Pudong International Airport and the New Shanghai Exposition Center currently under construction for the World Expo 2010, for instance. Designated as a high technology and scientific agriculture area, it is nevertheless at the moment a place where the taxi drivers from the airport would not normally bring their passengers. Nor is it a place the airport welcoming hotel staff would recommend to arriving guests. I was asked many times if I would consider being billeted elsewhere at just a slightly higher rate, but definitely more pleasant amenities than the one I had booked myself into. Stubborn, and not a tad bit stupid, I stayed the course.

Sure enough, the hotel, even in the shadows of the night, was definitely a sore sight. The services were not any better, and only one of the hotel staff members could navigate her way through the English language with some level of elementary proficiency. But I was in an adventurous mood. Absence of the advertised WiFi was not going to be a contradiction, nor would I allow it to rattle me, and sure enough, a day later, I discovered a land line that connected me to a broadband in my room. It helped that I asked, and I was told that my room number served as my address and I was given a password to access it.

Shanghai’s famed Metro does not reach Chuangsha yet, but it is on the drawing board. Bus 993 off Chuangsha Rd., however, brought me to the Huangpu River ferry under the shadow of the famous Pearl Tower overlooking the Bund. Taking the bus provided views on the varied Pudong residential landscape and industrial areas, and the state of Pudong’s public infrastructures in their spanking newly minted conditions as well as the state of disrepair of older ones.

Arriving at the hotel an hour short of midnight, I was struck by the number of people still hovering about and around a makeshift street market in front of the hotel, two doors down from the Chuangsha Rd-Chuangxin St. intersection. It was a wonder that there was a makeshift street market at all! At first chance, I headed towards the corner fruit stall where peaches, grapes, watermelons, mangoes, lychees, etc. were without a doubt, basement bargains from what I am used to paying Joeten and Payless.

Bus Route 933 at the other end takes one to Xinde Rd. which has the expected upscale shops. Down the street is a video store offering Will Smith’s “Hancock,” among recent releases, sells at $1.25, a steal; an Akira Kurosawa anthology at $25, a miracle. That beat hands down the 3-for-$10 sale-is-final, no exchange/no return offering that Sunleader in Saipan occasionally foists on the unwary of DVD Regions and format designations.

At the corner noodle shop are business folks who will pick chopsticks first prior to conducting business negotiations. Cultural practices have economic purposes. A bicycle is loaded with a bundle of garments twice the size of the rider on the way to delivery; a well-dressed couple are prim and proper on a scooter on their way to their office; a young entrepreneur weaves through traffic on a motorbike with the latest clip-on-to-the-ear cellular phone, making his marketing sales pitch.

Greg Cruz, Jr. and his Taotao Tano group require respect, a cultural value. Obama is particular about broad participation, a political virtue. The Chinese greet you at New Year with, “May money come your way,” and their businesses and dwellings have a cat perpetually beckoning ‘money’ to enter the room. Everything has an economic value and everyone has an economic price. Virtues and values are of economic measures. China = Yuan. And that’s my 2-cent piece, for now.