alanjjohnstone
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You are correct that Masimba Mavaza is up to his neck in the internal partisan party politics and tribalist politics of Zimbabwe and its extensive diaspora.
But his report on Uzumba, Mashonaland East province, and the Chinese company, Heijin Mining appears to hold up from other sources.
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2021/09/its-wrong-for-chinese-miner-to-evict-villagers/
https://www.rosgwen24.com/2021/09/mnangagwa-opens-arms-to-zimbabwes.html
the Chinese company Heijin Mining started exploration in 2020 and pegged areas which cover a total of 300 hectares of communal lands and could possibly displace nearly 12,000 people.
“Affected villagers were informed of these developments a year after the arrival of the Chinese company.
“They were also informed that the majority of them would be displaced and should seek alternative settlement from their traditional leaders.
ZimEye, an Zimbabwe magazine on Chinese neo-colonialism
thousands of Zimbabwean villagers have woken up to find their entire land taken away by Chinese businessmen. People in rural areas have been shocked, angered flabbergasted and deeply depressed by the freedom to destroy their livelihood and cultural bases given to the Chinese. Villages are being destroyed graves, defiled no consultation as people are reminded of the colonial horrors.
September 16, 2021: In eastern Congo (South Kivu province) six Chinese owned companies were ordered to leave Congo by the Chinese government after multiple instances of illegal mining and environmental destruction. The Chinese order came after South Kivu province ordered the Chinese companies to suspend operations. China said it would punish Chinese personnel responsible. The accused firms include BM Global Business, Congo Blueant Minerals, Groupe Cristal, Orientale Resource Congo, Yellow Water Resources and New Continent Mineral. The Chinese government is saying the right things but many Congolese believe the Chinese government is doing this so they can find out who to bribe and how much to make the problem officially settled. told Congo it will punish the companies. As has happened in the past, the legal and illegal mining operations will continue under the same management but there will be new names and the most identifiable Chinese held responsible will be moved to other Chinese operations in Africa or back to China to share their experience with Chinese planning to join the overseas minerals boom that the government encourages and supports, especially operators who can get production going and deal with any local obstacles. There are no rules because many of the mining areas are lawless and available to anyone able to do whatever it takes to extract the valuable minerals and get them back to Chinese businesses that depend on a steady supply of raw materials.
“At Chinese-run mines in Zambia’s copper belt workers must work for two years before they get safety helmets.” Bullshit.
Not according to The Economist
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2011/04/20/trying-to-pull-together
(registration required)No doubt whereas the Daily Telegraph is a reliable source for TS to quote from, The Economist like the Guardian is not dependable to report the facts.
It could be explained that there might be a two-year probationary period before a new recruit can work underground. Who knows?
But if TS wishes another right-wing newspaper reporter’s opinion, Peter Hitchins,
Sata says: ‘The Chinese are not here as investors, they are here as invaders… ‘Wherever our Chinese “brothers” are they don’t care about the local workers,’ he complains, alleging that Chinese companies have lax safety procedures and treat their African workers like dirt.
In language which seems exaggerated, but which will later turn out to be at least partly true, he claims: ‘They employ people in slave conditions.’
‘They bring Chinese to come and push wheelbarrows, they bring Chinese bricklayers, they bring Chinese carpenters, Chinese plumbers. We have plenty of those in Zambia.’Denis Lukwesa, deputy general secretary of the Zambian Mineworkers’ Union, also backed up Sata’s view, saying: ‘They just don’t understand about safety. They are more interested in profit.’
If sino-phobic means being critical of the Chinese government domestic and foreign policy then I plead guilty.
But a look at another thread topic – Chinese Tensions
“BBC bias stokes anti-China narrative”
“The encirclement of China continues”
“Blaming China for the climate crisis. Ignoring it was the USA who left the Paris Treaty”
“US vice-president ignores Afghanistan and criticises China”
“I always wonder the average American’s reaction if one of the Chinese aircraft carriers patrolled off the west coast of America or if Iranian navy battleships entered the Gulf of Mexico to visit Venezuela to claim freedom of the seas.”I could go on quoting my references that could be interpreted by a genuine sino-phobe as a defence of China.
But equally, I could also quote from that topic thread my numerous references to China’s aggressive posturing, intimidating its neighbours in the claims over the South China Sea.
It is a propaganda war, a war of words, a cold war.
The position of this organisation is not to choose between two wrongs to determine the lesser evil.
Neither Washington nor Beijing. No worker in any land should lay down his or her life for the ruling class.
There is no good war but the class war.
As for the problem of the Chinese fishing fleet being remedied, my source was a few years old, so the government has had ample time to fix the problem.
This report is practically live.
AP News tracked Chinese fishing ships either sailed with their mandatory safety transponders turned off, broadcast multiple electronic IDs or transmitted information that didn’t match its listed name or location — discrepancies that are often associated with illegal fishing
Pingtan Marine and its affiliates have left in their wake accusations of illegal fishing by authorities in places as diverse as South Africa, Timor Leste, Ecuador, and Indonesia.
But the company is not some rogue outfit. It boasts China’s second-largest overseas fleet, trades shares on the U.S. Nasdaq, and in its home port of Fuzhou, is helping build one of the world’s largest fish factories. The company’s Chairman and CEO, Zhou Xinrong, appears to have built the fishing empire through massive state loans, generous subsidies, and Communist Party connections.
“It’s not just a fishing company — it’s practically a Chinese government asset,” said Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s former fishing ministerhttps://apnews.com/article/china-oceans-overfishing-squid-294ff1e489589b2510cc806ec898c78f
The report does concede that China is at least publicly trying to make amends
“At least now, they’re acknowledging that their fishing is unsustainable, even if it’s just to counter all the negative pushback they’re getting around the world.”
Better late than never, eh?
And it explains that China isn’t doing anything other countries have done. Our blog has reported on Iceland looting foreign fishing beds and the Japanese and Korean, too.
We try to be even-handed and not spout the propaganda of either side.
The ‘Quad’, the US, India, Australia and Japan, will hold its first in-person meeting, in Washington DC
A correction to my #222484 post.
I thought TS was citing Mao, but no, it is a quote I think TS got from here.
Nor should we forget that the FLN of Algeria once they threw out the French had a form of workers councils. It arose when the French owners, the pied noirs, fled and abandoned the factories and farms and (as Argentinan workers later experienced during its economic melt-down), for survival, workers had to take control of their work-places and the State then institutionalized them.
Ben Bella described himself as a Marxist-Leninist
Senior diplomat, Daniel Foote, US special envoy for Haiti has resigned in protest over the deportation of Haitian migrants as “inhumane”.
At one time Yugoslavia was the model for the left-wing with its self-management, cooperatives and worker councils until the national debt and inflation grew so large it embarked upon the privatisation of its industries.
Tito was another charismatic political leader who some described as a benevolent dictator.
The Vietnam government is going to export more than one million Vietnamese to perform jobs in other countries due to the high level of unemployment and poverty
MS, The nation famous for this is, of course, The Philippines, the use of its citizens as labour in return for remittances, is an extensive part of its economy.
An estimated 10 million overseas Filipino workers are the second-largest source of foreign exchange for the Philippines and 9.2% of its GDP.
ILO say a total of 80,000 Vietnamese leave the country for jobs overseas each year. Approximately 400,000 Vietnamese workers are now present in over 40 countries and territories worldwide. The annual inflows of remittances by labour migrant have reached about US$2 billion, showing the economic significance of labour migration.
But I don’t believe this include the figure of “illegal” migrants and a couple of years ago we saw in the UK the deaths of 39 Vietnamese being smuggled into the country in the back of a refrigerated truck.
Such is the success of Doi Moi
The number of immigrants jailed by ICE has increased 70 percent since the start of the Biden administration. And he continues to lock up children, nearly 15,000 daily, in large-scale facilities and military bases.
Number of Immigrants Detained by ICE Has Increased 70 Percent Under Biden
And he intends to re-use Guantanamo Bay to detain migrants
MS, you judge on deeds and not on words. It is all about walking the walk and talking the talk.
China acts in no different way from any other imperialist, regardless of official statements and press releases.
The train to no-where in Kenya
https://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/2019/10/kenyan-railways.htmlAnd note how TS reproaches the use of the Guardian and anonymous quotes but happily cites a very right-wing newspaper using hearsay. Again it is his “do as I say and not what I do”
Our late Zambian member wrote “The ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) has spoken out strongly against the New Economic Zone by pointing out that Chinese investors pay low salaries and the incidence of accidents at workplaces.”
Isolated incidents, we think not. At Chinese-run mines in Zambia’s copper belt workers must work for two years before they get safety helmets. Ventilation below ground is poor and deadly accidents occur almost daily.
Sanou Mbaye, a former senior official at the African Development Bank, claims more Chinese have come to Africa in the past ten years than Europeans in the past 400 – there is supposed to be 1 million Chinese workers in the continent of Africa.
First came Chinese workers from state-owned companies, but more and more arrive individually or stay behind after finishing contract work. There is already more Chinese living in Nigeria than there were Britons during the height of the empire. From state-owned and state-linked corporations to small cockroach capitalists, the Chinese are investing across the continent bringing with them as many as one million Chinese workers to build and run the facilities.
The BBC reporting on Xi’s return to “socialism”
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58579831The fact that many of Xi’s reforms resemble those of the EU and the US escape the BBC and that the “socialism” is more or less akin to those the Republican Right accuse Biden of implementing with his “Big Government” plans (and some they themselves support such as imposing more control on the Silicon Valley social media hi-tech corporations)
I think we should see Beijing’s Hong Kong policy in the context of the wider imposition of his authority on the Mainland and high profile individuals such as Jack Ma.
And for the moment, he does have at least the acquiescence of the majority of workers. But we also know that when conditions worsen, the Chinese worker is not averse to taking independent industrial action outside the official trade unions.
TS “Immature citizens: communism requires everyone to be responsible for every aspect of government, commerce and civil life. This requires not only great maturity but considerable prosperity: in order to participate fully, everyone needs a good education and plenty of leisure time to devote to running the country and its economy.”
On this, we can all agree. For socialism to successfully operate working people have to understand and desire it and socialism is predicated on relative economic abundance.
This is why 1917 and 1949 failed. The working class was not the most numerous class, did not comprehend nor wish socialism. They supported that famous phrase “peace bread and land”, a slogan first originated by the Social Revolutionaries, not the Bolsheviks who did win the majority in the Constituent Assembly that Lenin dissolved
TS – “So they’ve been devoting the last 40 years to education and prosperity and, by June 1, 2021: everyone will have an education, paid employment, more than enough food and clothing, access to medical services, old-age support, a home and a comfortable life.”
These accomplishments have been developed for far longer elsewhere and merely reflect Welfare Statism of a version of what once was called “state socialism” of Prussia’s Bismarck and quickly re-labelled properly as state-capitalism by Engels.
TS – “And they have not lost sight of their eventual goal. In his report to the 19th Party Congress, President Xi mentioned two intermediate dates: 2035 (modern socialist country) and 2049 (mastery of all aspects of life: economic, social and technical).
He also mentioned the next centenary, 2121. By then, the government hopes, the population will be mature, well-educated prosperous and ready to assume responsibility for communist life. It’s a radical vision”Yet again very little difference from the earlier efforts to differentiate socialism from communism, claiming it is a transitional system. Marx and Engels used the words synonymously and their intermediate society was to be a short-lived political change and swift material advancement via wages being abolished and labour-time vouchers used instead although the latter was a temporary measure, no longer necessary today.
Che Guevara was best known for his ‘Man and Socialism’ to create the appropriate personality for socialist society. But how can half-measures, compromises and concessions of a mixed economy build the character of a socialist when the rewards of capitalist competition and acquisition are still rewarded? Arbitrary wage differentials remain the norm. There can be no oasis of socialism in the ocean of capitalism, as our own critique of cooperatives explains
TS quoting Mao – “The only [true way] is sharing the world in common by all (tienxia weigong) …To share in common is to treat each and every one alike. There should be no distinction between high and low, no discrepancy between rich and poor, no segregation of human races, no inequality between sexes. …All should be educated and supported with the common property; none should depend on private possession.”
In a very early post on this thread, I recalled Stalin’s 1907 ‘Socialism and Anarchism’ article where he too understood socialism (as he called it) to be a class-free society without buying or selling. So we are reminded the Mao also understood what the goal is.
Perhaps Xi does as well. (St Paul in Acts 4-32 also advocated such a society.)
Does Xi’s state-capitalism show the way to achieving it? Or is it another promise that making sacrifices today to enrich either the state directly or the state-approved enterprise, that the Christian heaven on Earth awaits those who follow Xi’s teachings.
As for the denial of Chinese imperialism, in 2006 five Zambians were shot by their Chinese manager while they were protesting against low wages and lax safety standards at the NFCA Chambishi mine. In 2010, a Chinese supervisor at the Collum Coal mine in Southern Province shot thirteen Zambians. The workers at the mine were complaining against the state of safety standards in the mines and their low wages.
http://www.chinoiresie.info/regulating-chinese-investment-in-zambian-mines/And the theft of fish from local communities by large scale industrial trawling.
“It’s estimated that half of China’s total catch from the distant water fleet is from West Africa… three-quarters of the foreign trawlers are Chinese. Chinese vessels, in particular, have been accused of using illegal methods in Sierra Leone waters such as pair trawling. This is when two boats string a net between them and trawl in parallel. Pair trawling is highly effective because it allows boats to cast a wider net. At the same time, it’s incredibly destructive because it rakes in all marine life it encounters. Only a fraction of this catch has a commercial value, with the rest being discarded as bycatch.”
https://www.dw.com/en/sierra-leones-1-month-fishing-ban-achieves-little/a-48531485As I always have said, there is little difference between the policy of China and Xi from so-called conventional capitalist countries.
The argument being present by the pro-Xi is that he is once more asserting the power of the state over China’s corporations and billionaires.
He is returning it to a more centralised command economy.
But this is not too different from the policies of other nations who are declaring proposed tax rises for the 0.01%, closing down their tax evasion loopholes, breaking their monopoly hold and narrowing the inequality gaps.
The Economist magazine calls Xi’s economic changes “hybrid capitalism”, a glorified trickle-down theory where more State investment and intervention will bring more prosperity.
Xi recognises that the Chinese people do have a higher disposable income to increase consumption so feels he can now concentrate Chinese capitalism more upon the domestic market and less on the global market.
With his anti-corruption drive and anti-billionaire campaign, he is appealing to the Chinese workers as a populist, akin to Trump’s draining the swamp, and it is giving him record approval ratings to also ensure his political power and authoritarian rule.
It is an interesting time for China
