Chinese economic boom riles West

Pamela Shumba, in Beijing, China
THE United States of America and its allies in the West are feeling threatened by the rapid economic development of China, a veteran Chinese academic has said.

Since 1978, China’s economy has been growing rapidly, surpassing Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan by 2005 to become the world’s second biggest economy by 2010.

Addressing 20 Zimbabwean journalists attending a three-week seminar here, Head of English Studies School at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Professor Youzhong Sun, said it was shocking that although China still has a number of challenges, the West is not happy with the economic development that has happened in the Asian country in recent decades.

“It’s sad that the rapid development of the Chinese economy hasn’t been good news to the West and we really don’t know why they’ve been so envious and uncomfortable.

“The pace at which our economy has developed has taken them aback and it’s sad that America and other countries in the West have clearly shown their envy and resentment toward the economic development of China,” he said.

The countries are also feeling threatened by China’s growing business ties with Zimbabwe and other African countries and are making frantic efforts to scuttle the Asian country’s deals through a media onslaught.

Another Chinese academic Prof Xu Jie said China’s economy has been growing rapidly with an average growth rate of over 9,9 percent after 1978 and more than 10,4 percent from 2001 to 2010 and around 11 percent from 2006 to 2010.

“From 2005, China surpassed Italy, UK, Germany and Japan. By 2010 China became the second biggest economy and now its growth rate is around 2,5 times of that of the world,” she said.

Prof Xu also said her country, with a population of over 1,3 billion people, has been successful in reducing poverty in recent years.
She, however, said China still faces various challenges which include environmental pollution due to carbon emissions, trade conflicts and unemployment.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Lin Lin recently said that Western countries were feeling the heat of China’s mutual beneficial relationship with Zimbabwe and other African countries.

Ambassador Lin said that China was not there to siphon resources from Zimbabwe, but wanted to partner the country to ensure it revives its economy that was bludgeoned by the illegal sanctions regime for over a decade.

“There’re some sectors of the Western media that are trying to tarnish China’s image by claiming that we want to siphon resources from Zimbabwe and Africa at large. They’re the former colonial masters of Africa and they want to break the fabric between China and Africa,” said Lin, while delivering a public lecture at Midlands State University.

“They’ve imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and the country has suffered a lot, particularly the economic sector. The West’s illegal sanctions regime is estimated to have cost Zimbabwe over $42 billion in revenue since 2000 in addition to shrinking the economy by a factor of over 40 percent.”