Harsh words about China from the US State Department are par for the course. So when Chinese forces conducted a military exercise around Taiwan on Monday in the wake of a National Day address by the island’s President Lai Ching-te, it wasn’t entirely a surprise that State Department spokesman Matthew Miller claimed the war games were “provocations” that were “unwarranted” and risked “escalation”.
Mr Miller said they were in response to what he called “a routine annual speech”. But of course, it was nothing of the sort. Mr Lai had used the occasion to publicly announce that he would “resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty” and said that “the People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan”. From the point of view of Beijing, which views the island as a renegade province, that certainly constituted a provocation, as was Mr Lai’s claim a few days earlier that the island was already a “sovereign and independent country”.
Only 12 rather small countries agree with him. The rest of the world officially does not. Alluding to the fact that Taiwan is only separate from the mainland because the losing side of China’s civil war retreated to the island in 1949, one long-time participant in Asia-Pacific dialogues said to me on Tuesday night: “After the US Civil War, did the North allow part of the South to go its own way?” He added, only half tongue-in-cheek: “China’s been too soft.”
In any case, more and more countries are rejecting the western approach. Take the Gulf, for instance. On November 1, the UAE and China will mark 40 years of diplomatic ties, and there will be much to celebrate. The UAE Founding Father and first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, became the first leader from the Gulf to visit China in 1990, reciprocating Chinese president Yang Shangkun’s visit to the UAE the previous year.
This laid the foundations for a relationship that has grown into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, with the UAE an engaged participant in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), non-oil trade between the countries reaching $81 billion in 2023, numerous initiatives aimed at building closer connections between the two peoples, and the friendship further sealed by President Sheikh Mohamed’s visit to the People’s Republic this May.
Just under two years ago, the Gulf Co-operation Council and China held their first summit in Riyadh, at which President Xi Jinping said the two sides were natural partners for co-operation and had written together a splendid chapter of solidarity, mutual assistance and win-win co-operation.
China’s ties are deepening with the African continent as well. In September the Forum on China–Africa Co-operation drew over 50 heads of government to Beijing. Mr Xi promised $51 billion in loans, investment and aid over the next three years, the upgrading of diplomatic ties, and the creation of at least one million jobs. "China and Africa account for one-third of the world population,” he said. “Without our modernisation, there will be no global modernisation." One attendee, Dennis Mwaniki from the Africa Policy Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, approved. The BRI, he told a TV reporter, was a “game changer”. The continent had come from a period of underdevelopment that put Africa “on the menu”, as he put it – but the BRI had made it “part of the table, to be making decisions as global citizens”.
Crucially, the Chinese leadership is listening and responding to what the continent’s leaders are telling them about the kinds of investments that will help them best. As Linda Calabrese of the UK’s Overseas Development Institute wrote in an analysis just after the forum: “In 2021, Xi introduced the concept of 'small and beautiful' projects better targeted at the partner country’s needs – a concept he repeated at the recent summit. It is this alignment with the requests of African leaders that differentiates China’s engagement with Africa from that of the West.”
So what of the West? There used to be politicians who were positive about relations with China. In 2012, the Princeton academic Aaron Friedberg wrote in these pages that there was in Washington “a loosely integrated pro-engagement ‘lobby’ whose members favour preserving good relations with China at almost any price”. At the same time, then UK prime minister David Cameron was still talking of a “golden era” of ties with China, and as late as 2015 took Mr Xi for a pally drink in an English countryside pub.
What of the West? There used to be politicians who were positive about relations with China
But if there is still a “pro-engagement lobby” in the US it has gone extremely quiet, and my own view – that we should all work with China, peacefully and for mutual benefit – has apparently been completely excluded from the political mainstream in the UK. It seems to have become an article of faith that Beijing is not just a competitor but also a threat – although to whom or to what is never adequately explained.
There could be all sorts of reasons for this change in attitudes, too many to go into here. But I wonder if Mr Mwaniki has put his finger on one of them. In the Gulf, Africa, South-East Asia and beyond, many are more than happy to share the table with China. No one in Europe and North America would be as crass as to say they preferred the situation in the 19th century, when China and the Global South were all on “the menu” as far as some predatory western powers were concerned. But they seem reluctant to draw up a chair.
Perhaps their worries about China’s great strides in the technologies of the future mean they fear ending up on “the menu” themselves. I can’t see it happening soon, but there is time to change their minds, if only they can see what the rest of the world can – that there is plenty of room “at the table” for all.
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Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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Why seagrass matters
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The biog
Most memorable achievement: Leading my first city-wide charity campaign in Toronto holds a special place in my heart. It was for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program and showed me the power of how communities can come together in the smallest ways to have such wide impact.
Favourite film: Childhood favourite would be Disney’s Jungle Book and classic favourite Gone With The Wind.
Favourite book: To Kill A Mockingbird for a timeless story on justice and courage and Harry Potters for my love of all things magical.
Favourite quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
Favourite food: Dim sum
Favourite place to travel to: Anywhere with natural beauty, wildlife and awe-inspiring sunsets.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
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The five pillars of Islam
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252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
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The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
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- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
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- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
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In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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