Forget what you think you know about China

Toss out everything that you think that you know about China. That’s what I’ve been telling friends since I’ve got home to America. Beijing is a city that’s got six-lane freeways, a state of the art airport, world-class hotels and hundreds of restaurants and bars. It’s a modern city woven among well-known historic sites like the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

While there for two weeks, I saved some of the headlines from the China Daily, the country’s English-language publication, and China Pictorial to give you a glimpse of what’s making news there.

China is not welcoming Hummer. If you’re a car aficionado, you know that General Motors sold Hummer to a Chinese company. But a key government agency is holding up the purchase. They don’t think that Hummer fits in with China’s new emphasis on stemming global warming and the country’s energy saving policy. Look for tough negotiations ahead.

Can China hit its 9 per cent growth target? From 2001 to 2007, China’s economy grew at a 10.2 per ent rate. But the current worldwide recession is causing experts there to defray hopes of a serious rebound until 2012. One reason: The US is reshaping its economy into one that’s less oil-dependent and more focused on saving, meaning that it won’t be a huge future consumer of Chinese goods.

Remember the Water Cube? That is the famous structure built for aquatics that was one of the highlights of last year’s Olympics. It’s located in the famous Beijing Olympic Park, next door to the Bird’s Nest stadium. This year, the Imperial Russian Ballet is presenting Swan Lake in the aquatics centre, which has been transformed into a dreamy fairyland for the summer season.

Is there a connection between Taiwan and North Korea? The Chinese government has made no secret of its disdain for America’s penchant to sell high-tech weapons to the Taiwan government. They believe America is failing to live up to a 1982 treaty, where the US pledged to gradually reduce weapon sales to Taiwan. That hasn’t happened. And until it does, don’t look for China to use its influence to help settle North Korea’s recent threats towards the US. Chairman Mao once said North Korea and China were as close as lips and teeth. It’s worth remembering.

Google is in a major battle in China: The Chinese are proposing that all computers purchased after July 1 have new software, called Green Dam, that will prevent pornography. In reality, the software is far from perfected and blocks much more than porn. Google has been pulled into the debate because the government charges that the search engine allows pornography to be accessed. As a result, Google has been shut down on several occasions. Look for this battle to continue.

Is the West making too much of Iran? There’s a belief by some Chinese that Western journalists have blown the Iranian election out of context. They think Iran should solve its election disputes without outside interference. There are far bigger issues, such as global warming, the financial downturn and starvation. These are the things, the argument goes, that should receive attention in the West.

No guns allowed in China. Walking down the streets of Beijing, there is a sense of safety. Besides the frequent police patrols, the no-gun policy makes one feel safer than almost any street in America. But as China grows in affluence, it has also attracted drug gangs. Did you know?

In southwestern China in Yunnan Province, 13,000 hectares are abloom each February with yellow rape flowers, attracting butterflies, bees and tourists from around the world. The Chinese navy is patrolling the Somali coast to ward off pirates. Chinese paintings, such as those of Qi Baishi, are rising in value, some of them 100,000 fold of original value. China is building its third research base in Antartica. Chinese scientists have found a new way to magnetically reduce tail gas emissions by as much as 60 percent for gasoline engines.

rsmith4825@gmail.com