Back from China: The Full Story

I’ve spent my last 2 weeks wondering across China. I visited Hong Kong, Shanghai and Chengdu.

Who said that holidays are just to relax? When you are 100% dedicated to your mission even holiday is an opportunity for learning, networking and business development.

I won’t tell you about my holiday except I discovered the heaven for shoppers: Hong Kong, the cross road of Western and Asian trade. I’ve never indulged in shopping so much.

Hong Kong has also the most vibrant civil society in the whole of Asia. Freedom of speech and association are well established rights. The passage to Popular Republic of China hasn’t changed a good tradition. This time I must recognise this is a British legacy.

There are plenty of NGOs and very well developed: on par with any top western NGO. HK is the largest hub for business as well: rule of law and transparency have high standards. The cooperation between civil society and corporations is strong.

As you step out of HK the situation changes. Since I’m not afraid of delays and accidents I adventured in mainland China. I wanted to visit the Expo in Shanghai and see what’s going on in the emerging world power.

I was expecting some sort of Biennial of Art of Venice but I found a tacky fair of goods and services for Chinese peasants.

Chinese visitors were given a passport at the entrance. It was for them like travelling around the world in 8 hours. However the world displayed looked like more a giant mall.

When you travel across mainland China the real challenge is not poverty but bad manners. Villagers – there are 700 millions around – have their daily toilette in public: spitting, weeing, yarning in public, coughing without covering their mouth, and picking every possible body orifice. Watch out old ladies: they push the most  in a queue.

Once overcome this you are ready for China. At that point you discovered megalopolis like Shanghai which counts more skyscrapers than NY, London and Berlin together .

I was overwhelmed by the scale and colours. It’s beyond what we are used in Europe. It looks a infinite theme park but is a real city.

Civil society is there but still underdeveloped. Following the earthquake in Sichuan the Chinese Communist Part ie government, realised the need for civil society and started improving the environment for its development. It was 2008.

Since then there has been a raising tide in the field. Government can’t afford the social challenges on its own and look for allies.

Last week PM Wen Jaobao called for citizens to get organised and participate in political as well as all the other fields of society. It’s an historical change.

The change is not only in the sector but whole society. When I went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan where the earthquake took place, I feared I wouldn’t have been able to communicate. It’s a provincial town and I speak 2 words of Chinese.

On the contrary I discovered the youth speak English. They study it starting at the primary school and CCTV, the national broadcaster, has a channel all in English.

Chinese are getting ready for future world domination. Hopefully they will improve their manners as well. Perhaps we should educate them as Greeks did with the Romans.

In their curriculum we must include several subjects. Let start with diversity. Chinese are not familiar with other peoples. My travel companion Darren discovered what being a TV start means as everybody was staring at him excited because of his black features.

Moreover, Chinese haven’t realized they are a global power and have to share the burden. They still see themselves as a developing country and domestic poverty as priority in government agenda.

We must change as we look at China as well stopping patronising. The most high tech and fastest train in the world is in construction in China: over Km/h. It combines magnet technology with vacuum tunnels. Our stereotype of China is global assembly line not the most innovative laboratory.

I went to China 3 years after my last trip knowing we must keep an eye on it. I realized that it’s time to engage with it as civil society as well.

I arranged a meeting with the EC Delegation in HK. There is already a European China Forum going on. I want Euclid to launch an exchange programme for civil society leaders. HK is the perfect gate between Europe and mainland China.

If European NGOs opened an office in NY in ’90 for their policy work and fundraising, in London in first decade of 2000, HK is the next global hub.

For charities it would a business opportunity as well: exporting their know-how into the largest market in the world.

I also realised something more. As the italian philosopher Umberto Eco said
you realised you are European only when you leave the continent. I realised I’m a Westener  when for the first time in life I desperatly looked for a McDonalds or Starbacks while I was in Chengdu.