Beijing's battle of the bicycles
When I was last posted in China, in the mid 90s, there was no doubt that bicycles were still winning the urban transport wars. There were plenty of cars by then, but bikes ruled the road. They were heavy Flying Pigeons, or Forevers. They often had an adult passenger on the back. If they wanted to stop the cars, and just carry on going, it was easy. A stranded car surrounded by a sea of cycling commuters was a common sight.
Now I am a more lonely cyclist on the streets of East Beijing. New cars are pouring onto Beijing's streets at the rate of about 1,500 a day. There are still a good number of sensible cyclists - they know that even for quite long distances, it is faster than a car in rush hour. But most people are in cars now, and an increasing number use the subway. The Beijing metro system - which ten years ago only had two lines - is now rapidly catching up with the London underground. A new line opened last month, that can take you right across town to the Summer Palace.
Right now it is below freezing in Beijing - some of the coldest weather for 40 years, and wierdly early snow (some man made, to fix a drought, but more recently it's been natural). I still like biking. But, with less and less hair, I really need the hat.
Posted at 08:41 18 November 2009 by Peter Wilson | Comments[2]
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China and International Institutional Reform
China's think tank world is very active on international issues. Today I went to a seminar we organised with Renmin (People's) University in Beijing on international institutional reform, with professors from across Beijing. They are listened to carefully by the central government, as well as educating the next generation.
From what I heard today China wants a new and better system for the twenty first century as much as the UK does. Scholars worry in particular about proliferation, about what the global financial crisis proved about interconnectedness, about making the UN more representative, and about when to intervene. They accept that the world expects more from a growing China. But they point out that if China gets too close to the West, it will lose the influence we all want it to exercise on countries like North Korea, Iran, Burma or Sudan.
The reason we had this conversation today is because as we talk about institutional reform, we want to engage with other key powers, like China, rather than just try to push our own views without listening. But a key issue for all of us is urgency. Some scholars thought that the West has a bias towards intervention. We don't: it is a last resort. But we are prepared to contemplate it when the alternatives are worse. I tend to think that China's doctrine of non-interference can be an excuse for inactivity - but was reminded that the interpretation of this doctrine has changed quite dramatically, and that the academic community here think it needs to change further. We all recognised that a new administration in the US created new opportunities, and new obligations, for the rest of us - on disarmament, on Iran, on climate change and on the effectiveness of the UN itself, including Security Council reform. We all recognised our joint interests in financial stability and better global governance.
Posted at 14:41 08 December 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[0]
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We had a big meeting of the China network's top management on Friday, to review progress on our China strategy, and agree on future work. I thought you might be interested by the highlights, because it shows the scale of what we are doing across China, and how much it matters to us. There are three pillars to our strategy. The first is to get the best for the UK from China's rise. Some highlights. In education, we are now issuing more student visas than ever before (see my last blog). In science co-operation, we are on track for almost 12,000 joint research papers between British and Chinese scientists between 2006 and 2010 - we have more substantive co-operation in this area than any other country in Europe. We are making progress on migration - both legal, with the introduction of a points based system a bit like Australia's, plus by allowing students to stay and work in the UK for two years after gradulation, and in combatting illegal migration, where we, wiht the help and support of the Chinese authorities, are now sending many more people back. Our exports to China are up 40% this year, in particular in the automotive, power generation, and retail sectors. And we are now seeing higher numbers of Chinese companies investing in the UK - we were the biggest source of Chinese investment in the EU in 2007. This is good news for the UK. We worked closely on the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, and successfully located over five hundred British citizens registered as missing. China and the UK both had a good Olympics, and we will be working together on 2012 (a big group from the Beijing Organising Committee is coming across to London to share expertise, next month). The UK and the companies and regions involved have great plans for our unique pavilion at Shanghai EXPO in 2010, based round the theme "better city, better life". We are doing more, and plan to do still more, in China's secondary cities, which are growing fast, and offer great opportunities. The second pillar is to work with China on issues where we both have a global responsibility to act. We are doing a lot together on climate change, and we have dramatically expanded our climate change network in China in the last six months. China is doing a lot domestically - the only developing economy with really tough energy efficiency and afforestation targets, that it is now coming closer to meeting. But there is much still to do, including on carbon capture and storage power stations (China is building between one and two power stations a week), and the idea that China look at low carbon development zones which would benefit us all. We are pursuing a number of initiatives that were kick started by a unique meeting in April, when our Ambassadors to other P5 countries, the UN and the EU all came to Beijing for high level discussions on key issues, including proliferation, the millennium development goals, and China/European issues. We see reform of the international financial institutions in a similar way. We are co-operating on what China calls 'hotspot issues', week by week, in particular on Iran, Sudan, and Burma, tho' on all three there is much, much more to be done. The third pillar is working together on sustainable development, modernisation and reform. We have extensive co-operation on sustainable development, backed up by a powerful contribution from Alistair Darling's China Task Force in the UK. We now have a strong political dialogue between our countries, at a number of levels (I blogged recently about our Leadership of the Future Forum, which is just one of them). We have a human rights dialogue, which is critically important. Progress in this area is slower than in so many other areas of Chinese life, and on some issues we profoundly disagree. But that makes conversation between us important, and should not mask the areas where there is movement - for example, China's death penalty reforms, which have reduced the number of crimes to which it applies, and given the Supreme Court the obligation to review all sentences. We hope that the media freedoms introduced for the Olympics are extended. China's stability is an important interest for the rest of the world. Continued reform is vital to that. The Consul Generals from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, and the head of the Far Eastern Department in London, all came over for this meeting. We are a big network now - over seven hundred people, from sixteen different government departments. China's a good place to work if you are a British diplomat, too - four different centres to work in, covering the issues that most matter to us, careers at all levels, and we are expanding. So my advice to my younger Foreign Office (and other civil service) colleagues, and those thinking about joining, is - learn Chinese, while your brain is young enough to get it in, or if you are not good at languages, or are a bit older and have a particular expertise, come to China anyway (we don't run an exclusive club) - this really is a good place to work. James, thank you very much for your kind comment, and the link to your blog. It is great both you and John are doing this! I'd like to come over and see you and the rest of your group, and learn more about what you are seeing in China, if you are up for that.
Posted at 08:16 13 October 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[1]
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The Olympics ends, and Paralympics starts soon
Many people in the Embassy, along with just around everyone else in Beijing, were involved with the Olympics in some way. And most of us have been trying to find a chance to have a quick rest, because the Paralympics, the world's second largest event, will start next week.
For Team GB, this was an astonishing Olympics. Best performance since 1908. Chris Hoy's three and Rebecca Adlington's two great golds. Some heroic individual stories, and extraordinary discipline from very determined athletes. On the Embassy side, we had just under 2,000 guests at events in the course of the Games - to welcome the athletes, promote trade and inward investment, London 2012 and our training facilities across the country. Seven high level visitors came, culminating in the Prime Minister's visit for the closing ceremony, a substantive meeting and later a lunch with President Hu, and a meeting followed by dinner with Premier Wen. We ran an operations centre round the clock for the duration of the Games, to co-ordinate all the different activities, provide help to British nationals who needed it, and collect learning points for 2012: we are analysing those lessons now. Thanks to the Prime Minister's personal intervention, one of those detained for demonstrating about Tibet was released and put on a plane hours before the Prime Minister himself left Beijing.
And this Olympics was a great moment for China. The Prime Minister called it a "spectacular" Olympics. Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC said that "the world learned more about China, and China more about the rest of the world" A lot of very helpful volunteers must have breathed a sigh of relief, and gone home to bed. I hope many proud Chinese athletes will be celebrating their success, although I guess, like the British athletes, many of them will have already started to train again.
The Chinese press have been writing a lot about what the success at this Games means for China. The Communist Party's leading newspaper, the People's Daily, said on 25 August that "the opportunity of the Olympics has allowed us to calmly show a more open and self confident China after 30 years of reform and opening up". The Chinese Youth Daily said that China's "people have never been so optimistic and self confident, so full of faith in their country's advancement". I hope that is how China feels about itself. Certainly for the rest of the world, which wants to engage with China, and wants China to do more in the world on so many issues, China's increased confidence on the world stage is something we want too.
People around town in Beijing are definitely very cheerful. And sport is a great subject to talk about. With more than 50 nations winning gold, and 80 taking medals, it seems that everyone has something happy to remember. The Prime Minister had been to Afghanistan on his way to Beijing - the Afghan bronze medallist in Taekwondo was their first ever medallist, he said, and was a huge source of pride.
There's a brief respite now, before the Paralympics begins on 6 September, and runs to 17 September. 145 countries will take part in 20 sports. Paralympic GB aims to come second in the medal table, as it did in Athens. That's a tall order, in some highly competitive sports. The way they work is interesting -in particular blind football, which is played five aside, with one sighted goalie, and using a special sound in the ball to follow its movement. Wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby are both supposed to be fierce, although I'm told by a leading paralympian that these days victory depends more on skill than force. There are few tickets left, and sprinting and swimming events have already completely sold out...
Posted at 17:05 28 August 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[0]
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Beijing is into the final strait as it gears up for the Olympics. The most visible change is in the traffic: half the cars have been taken off the road. If your plate ended in an even number on Sunday, you got to drive. Today, Monday, it is the turn of the odd numbers. But what's left is more tightly squeezed: the Olympic lanes on key thoroughfares are being kept clear for cars with special passes, so they are almost completely empty. Skies are a bit bluer, too, as rules kick in to end big construction projects and halt production in the most polluting industries for the period of the Olympics and Paralympics in September.
There are other big changes too. The metro system when I worked in Beijing ten years ago had only two lines, which rarely went where you wanted to go, so most people biked. The lines occupied tunnels built by Mao to withstand a Soviet atom bomb. Today Beijing has a network of metro and light rail that is 220km long (only London and New York are longer). Three new lines have been built in time for the Olympics. A metro line opened up on the weekend from the airport to a downtown transport hub (that happens to be right outside our house). You can fly into Beijing and reach the centre of the city in 30 minutes, for under £2 - and then go anywhere else on the metro system for under 20p. Line 10 also opened on the weekend - it links the Capital Business District on the East side of town (where almost all foreign Embassies are, and where many foreigners live) with the high tech zone near the universities in the West. Line 8 - the Olympic line - is ready too. But it will not open until 8 August, the first day of the Games.
I took a ride on Line 10 on the weekend, to try it out. So did a lot of other cheerful people, who went to see the Bird's Nest Stadium from the southern bit of the Olympic park. Some of the big Olympic hotels next to the stadium have large TV screens on the front, which seem to broadcast only sport. A small army of young volunteers has already started to help people out, at the airport, in the subway, and across the city. They have ready smiles, and good English. They are a good face for Beijing.
Thanks for more comments. Mark said that Tian's message meant maybe more things can now be read in China. This blog can be. I checked over the weekend. Hope it stays up.
Posted at 12:10 21 July 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[3]
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China - where change is a constant theme
Today is my first day blogging. I am the British Embassy's Political Counsellor in China . That means I run a team that covers China's internal politics, its relationship with the rest of the world, our press and public affairs operation here, and our bilateral relationship with China. I am also responsible for the Olympic attache at the Embassy (one of the more unusual Foreign Office jobs) and his team.
I am just back from two weeks away in Europe. It was just under a month to go at the Olympics. Even with only two weeks to go, there's been change. I just got off at Beijing's new terminal three that opened in March - a Norman Foster design, that is bigger than the whole of Heathrow, tho' nowhere near as full. The airport is gearing up: young Olympic volunteers, friendly airport staff, and luggage out five minutes after I was. Not many using the Olympic channel yet, said one of the border control officials, but better to be prepared. A lot of smiles and friendliness.
Now coming back into town. Coming in on a new road, that was not open when I left two weeks ago - not unusual for Beijing!. A second airport express way, just opened for the Olympics. It is good, tho' I am getting a bit lost now coming in a new way, past buildings that were not here a year and a half ago. The one thing I already miss, tho', is the blue skies I have been enjoying on holiday. Most Chinese still live in the countryside. But the cities, which are growing as rapidly as the economy, are polluted. Beijing's skies are grey (and it is double the size it was a decade ago). Climate change is a big issue for this Embassy. Domestic environmental pollution, and energy conservation, are key issues for China's top politicians, because the public cares about it now, and because it makes economic sense.
Change is a constant theme here. It is hard to get perspective on a place moving as fast as China is . I've now been back in China a year and a half, after almost ten years working on other things. I first came to Beijing in 1981, briefly, when I was 13. I came back in March 1989 as a student on vacation. And then not again until 1994, when I was studying Mandarin in the Foreign Office (I had two years training, full time, one in London and one in Beijing) . My first posting was here , in our Commercial Section , helping British companies enter the China market . I left in 1998. Even if blogs had existed then, the political climate here would have made it impossible to write one. That is not so true any more - although I am not sure this will be easy to access from a Chinese terminal. But I thought it would be worth having a go, to see.
There is plenty of material out there now in English to help form an impression of this country that now matters so much for all of us. And there are some really excellent British perpectives. James Kynge's China Shakes the World, published three years ago now, is still my favourite book about modern China. Rana Mitter's Short Introduction to Modern China, which came out earlier this year, is really imaginative. More and more British people are coming to see China for themselves: 600,000 visited last year. That exchange is two way - Chinese students are the largest foreign student community in the UK, with more than 60,000 students. I do not know who might read this, but I hope that perhaps some of those students will, and will comment.
Posted at 15:13 10 July 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[4]
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