China &
US military cooperation coverage from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6135356
This sound bite was very welcome news. It is this type of communication that is necessary between the US & China. This can only lead to more information, more clarity & greater understanding between the navies of these 2 countries. I hope to see more military collaboration in the future; this is a positive way to dispel fear & chip away at some big questions regarding intent (on both sides).
At an outdoor conference here in Nanjing, where I intended to find out some information about the city, I instead spent most of my time meeting some of the other Nanjing foreigners.
That was one goal of the Nanjing government officials in holding the event, the other being to entertain and not actually provide any information about the city of Nanjing. They left that up to the businesses that bought table space at the event. So, I learned about Nanjing from restaurants owners, bar managers, corporate recruiters & car dealers... There was only one local charity (a Christian foundation called Amity).
I was not entertained, nor did I feel well informed about Nanjing. Suffice it to say during the event I struggled to find ways of salvaging the visit and ended up talking with some of the guys decked out in full military uniforms. There were about 300 people at this event, and about 200 of them were military of some sort. Not the Chinese po-po, mind you, these people were foreign military (of course, there were no fewer than 30 Chinese police on the perimeter but they aren’t key players in this piece).
The majority were African & Middle Eastern. I met a few friendly Zimbabwean fellas; a couple of guys in their mid 20’s there to learn about computer engineering. Several Angolan guys were there on some sort of exchange. Several other African countries were represented though I did not see any Sudanese military. Other countries represented: Turkey, Russia (I think, could have been one or many of the Eastern bloc countries), and several from the Middle East but I’ve forgotten which countries in particular.
Anyways, being there I realized that China will satisfy its growing energy demand through deals & relationships with many of these countries. As you can read about in any newspaper, they also share military information. Thinking back on it now…maybe I was exposed to more information about Nanjing than I ever imagined possible!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to really explore that notion at the time. I was too distracted by my (unmet) expectations. I didn’t understand at that moment what was going on all around me – had I been more open to the possibility that I might come across such a hotbed of international relations I might have been able to really appreciate my situation.
The event was not for me. Not for the benefit of this type of foreigner. It was just one of many informal demonstrations of China’s growing influence in the world - and a basic networking session.
I shared my initial reaction with some friends; that I was dismayed about having wasted a few hours of my life & learning nothing about Nanjing as it was explained to me in the brochure. Only now, reflecting back on it, do I begin to realize how much I actually took away. Regardless of opinions on these matters, to stumble into it & see it first hand was eye-opening. I’m only glad I stumbled into reflecting on it, too...and won’t pass up the chance to learn more next time.
# posted by Scott @ 6:49 AM
