The Kenyanese Option

The Chinese Communist Party during the week starting 1st of July 2021 held celebrations to mark 100 years of communist rule and the success of their socialist agenda. Everything looks solid with many remarkable achievements. Reports indicate that within the past approximately 40 years they have managed to pull close to 800 million of their citizens out of extreme poverty, a figure almost three times the population of America or 75% that of Africa with a count of about 1.2 billion people. As the second world war ended, they were almost comparable to a basket case. The country has come a long way while continuously being vilified by the west for the lack of transparency and human rights abuses.  China is now the second-largest economy in the world behind the USA. When considering its huge population then the GDP per capita places it amongst the middle upper-income economy countries. The Chinese number is about 1.4 billion in population and in the recent past few decades has averaged an annual GDP growth rate of about 9.5%. This has happened in defiance of what pundits have always projected for a command economy in comparison to a free one.

 

During these centenary celebrations, the Chinese president Xi Jinping said, " the era of China being bullied is over and that anyone who tries will face a wall of steel". A statement confirming the orient nation has come of age and has joined the big boys club of Nations with great economic and military power. The economic growth statistics being reported from the Asian giant continue to dazzle many. As it is, their target of becoming the world’s largest economy could be realized earlier than the set one of 2050.

 

On the international scene, China appears to display the attitude of more work and less talk. Without much fanfare, the dragon nation has in the recent past launched their space station, managed to land a spacecraft both on the moon and on mars lately. Unlike the west, China does not push anyone to adopt their government model and does not attach any conditions to their support to friendly nations. Their strategy appears to be paying off. It is this policy that seems to enable them to close business deals across the globe. The Chinese are everywhere constructing roads, dams, bridges, power stations, airports, seaports, and other projects whose social-economic impact is immense. Key to them are projects with great visibility thus warming their way into the hearts of local communities they operate from. Whether the project is a national priority to their hosts or not is not for them to know. All that matters here is whether it is good business and less of whether it generates returns to the recipient let alone any mention of corruption and other controversies.

 

As an emerging power, China has carefully evaded becoming a terrorism target. A global scourge, terror, and the Chinese government policies do not appear to cross paths. Chinese companies have managed to camouflage getting into nations with extremist ideas and low tolerance for divergent views yet managing to do business with them.Their nationals quickly learn the local languages, easily adapt to the local conditions, and are humble enough to stay even in African slums and with their hands-on ability take up employment,business or any other opportunity presenting itself. There is very little to let pass by once local conditions allow. Chinese nationals have been known to even join and compete with their host nations` small traders including opting to join the hawking trade to make an income. Where the west has shunned a country because of corruption and other vices perpetrated by the government of the day, the Chinese have been known to find a way of working around these challenges and proceeded to fix lucrative business deals while back home in their country, corruption is a capital offense and their laws have got very low tolerance levels for unethical behavior. Chinese do not require special treatment to achieve their goals. Their engineers working in hots pots such as in Somalia where there is a raging civil war and have no qualms living in the containers that brought in construction equipment and all other assorted equipment for their projects. Once done, the expatriates are not in a hurry to go back home. If the local law allows them, they will go on to settle down quickly, learn the local dialects and even intermarry with the locals to fit in well. They are known to comfortably take up any available opportunity to the chagrin of locals. This allows them to easily blend in the community and go about their businesses without raising any eyebrows. In Kenya, they have adopted local delicacies for their diet. This includes Ugali, rice, roasted meat, and chapati in addition to their foreign diet. The few locally available Chinese restaurants are not necessarily a preserve of Chinese nationals and their food. In west Africa eating fufu is not a problem so long as one will be strong enough to wake up the next day to go about their Chinese agenda. They do not force locals to learn their language and culture, even if they donate a school. The curriculum is determined by the government of the day. Those who learn Chinese do so voluntarily and not as a condition for Chinese aid.

 

The Chinese apply soft diplomacy when operating in any nation whether a dictatorship or not. They conform to the laws of the land and their policy appears to adopt the attitude of, see no evil or hear no evil. The local leadership is always right and once government approval is obtained the Chinese will readily be available to lend a hand. They have never abrogated to themselves the burden of being an international policeman. They never take up some else`s wars. The Chinese have been developing their armed forces but hardly engage or take sides amongst warring factions in some of the most volatile regions on the globe. When one moves across the world especially in the second and third it is not surprising to come across the sign, 'Built with funds from the friendly people's republic of china, imprinted on a plaque pinned along most roads, sports stadia, dams, and railways across the African continent. The Mandarin-speaking people are everywhere constructing these eye-catching and public wooing projects. The project will be executed with speed and precision and will be all over the local media. Some of these projects examples which include sports stadia that have been built will remain the nation's priority even used only once in a year while a section of the populace is starving to death. The Chinese support charity but not to the tune to which western organizations do. In their language, they allege that as a developing nation they are not rich enough to heavily invest in such. Thus hardly would one hear of them contributing substantially towards poverty alleviation, education on civil rights, reduction of mortality rates, eradication of malaria, etc. From this arrangement, one sees a country that is very strategic in its support. In Kenya recently the friendly people's republic of China has decided to fully fund the construction of a new state of the art foreign affairs ministry headquarters worth  Usd.40 million which is the equivalent of about Kshs 4b in local currency.

 

Besides all these, the Chinese never forget their identity and loyalty to their motherland. When around one another they speak in mandarin while fully cognizant of the fact that it sounds like Greek to the locals. Their children attend local ordinary schools. Hardly do you find any Chinese citizen working or talking against their country's government or leaders. It would appear like building the Chinese brand is a collective effort. In the western world terms, these type of behavior smirks of freedom muzzled and that citizens have been denied freedom of expression. Efforts to build the Chinese brand worldwide are so intense that in Kenya over 50 years after independence roads are being identified with Chinese names such as Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall. On the contrary, there is little tolerance seeing a narrow estate road named after a local a long-serving trade unionist.

Home loyalty to them is unshakable, such that nothing of whatever influence can take way the slogan buy china, build china. In the town they settle after completion of projects items such as toothpicks, nail cutters, razor blades, plastic toys to even trucks and bulldozers will be sourced from their home. Were it not for local legislation and tight controls then in some areas probably importing even bottled water and bananas from china would be the norm, since Chinese onions are already on our tables as food.

 

The Chinese offer a challenge but also a great learning point to refer to in developing our own brand to become Kenyanese and develop a culture that would seek to protect our country and prioritize what is Kenyan. Nation-building is not rocket science.  It is a task that can be accomplished probably by shifting our thinking to make us more patriotic and uphold and support the Kenyan brand. Becoming Kenyanese may ultimately help us change and cultivate nationhood with more zeal and vigor enabling us to become a country of citizens who embrace their national values, seek to protect our country`s image, eventually growing their own home. Probably this can help us to reflect and start to think nationally. We could for a while  forget about our tribe and become Kenyanese and direct our loyalty towards one Kenya, one people with the single goal of building a better place for all. As Kenyanese we would probably realize that our real enemies are our highly polarized politics, greed, grand corruption and negative ethnicity.