by Teodoro Raúl Rentería Villa
Vice President of Colegio Nacional de Licenciados en Periodismo, General Director of Irradia Noticias, Mexico
Nothing is more accurate than pluralizing the title of the delivery that has been requested of us. No one worth knowing or talking about China could have a single “first impression.”
In our country, as surely happens in nations with high influence of the United States of America, and even with more impact on the generations that grew up in the stage of what is now known as traditional media, the “first impression” about China was precisely which North America, to date, wants to be known in the world.
At the time there was only one way to contrast and know what was really experienced in the ancient country; Only a few managed to cross the more than 12,500 kilometers between Mexico and China, as well as travel through that nation. Those of us who were interested and had the opportunity to meet one of those travelers resorted to listening to his experiences, of course, subject to the subjectivity of his point of view.
In Mexico, since the primary school stage in the 1960s, learning the English language in private educational institutions became a priority; The border of more than 3,152 kilometers with the United States and everything that happens in that area, erased for decades the interest of the large population in knowing what was happening thousands of kilometers away.
However, the Mexican government, also in an attitude of permanent defense against its northern neighbor – remember that in 1848, after an interventionist war, our country was forced to give up 55 percent of its territory that currently makes up the North American states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, a large part of Arizona and Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming – decided to defend its sovereignty, open itself to the world to establish diplomatic relations with nations that had and have the yoke of the power of North America, among them the People’s Republic of China.
In 1930, President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río made history by decreeing the expropriation of the oil industry, the majority of which was in North American and English hands; Historians and analysts describe the event as a lesson for foreign companies not only because it showed that a developing country could challenge their power, but also because Mexico demonstrated that despite its limited resources it could operate hydrocarbons autonomously.
The global division resulting from World War II was not alien to Mexico: liberal democracy and capitalism promoted by the United States against socialism-communism led by the Union of Soviet Republics and China, found positive effects in our nation. Mexico completed an industrialization process, its relations with foreign countries improved, the import substitution model was implemented to produce what was needed in Mexico, the “Mexican Miracle” was experienced and in addition the land problem was being resolved with the agricultural distribution.
On February 14, 2022, 50 years of friendship between our nations marked; It was the then Mexican president Luis Echeverría Álvarez who, despite the telephone call from the North American president Richard Nixon for Mexico to grant its support to Taiwan to occupy a seat in the United Nations General Assembly, who gave the instruction to Foreign Minister Emilio Rabasa to They will vote in favor of China’s entry. In 1972, presidents Luis Echeverría Álvarez and Mao Zedong, in Beijing, strengthened one of the most important relations between nations that ultimately have meant balance and mutual growth.
These historical references serve to try to explain the difficulty of the Mexican people in knowing the reality on the Asian continent and specifically in China.
Language is another factor that greatly affects understanding between our nations. Although there are currently multiple learning and translation alternatives, the gap that divides us is very large.
Our experience:
After five trips to that great country, all of them on a professional mission through exchanges with the National Association of Journalists of China, AJCA, and another with the Beijing Legality Journal, signed with our groups Club Primera Plana, A.C., Federation of Associations of Mexican Journalists A.C, and our company Libertas Comunicación, I can assure you that there is always a “first impression of China.”
Although our first arrival in Beijing was in October 1998 during the time of Jiang Zemin, we had already had the experience through our father, Mr. Teodoro Rentería Arróyave, who was the promoter of the first exchange agreement between journalists from China and Mexico, of listening about the era of the founding of Mao Zedong and the opening to the world with Deng Xiaoping. And now we are experiencing the great projection as a world power with Xi Jinping.
It is understandable that a traveler has expectations of the places he decides to visit; on a first occasion or upon returning to them. No matter how permanent the journeys are, there will always be a “first impression” and it will vary each time the opportunity is repeated.
However, when it comes to China, things are different. We explain ourselves.
We have visited Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Wuhan, Tianjin, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and some towns, the most recent occasion in 2019 on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary celebrations of Beijing. For example, returning to the capital, despite the obligatory visit to Tiananmen, gave us that “first impression” when witnessing a military and social parade led by President Xi. Unmatched.
Recently, a few days after the electoral process developed in our country, in the state of Morelos where we live, located 65 kilometers from Mexico City, we held a meeting with the elected governor who will take office on the 1st of October, Margarita González Saravia; Before owners, executives, directors and administrators of media outlets, she referred to China’s achievement in reducing poverty. A few days later she received a visit from the Chinese ambassador to our country, Zheng Run, to announce joint work on issues such as culture, countryside, education, employment and investments.
Some years before, on a visit to the Chinese embassy in Mexico, we managed to get our hands on the literary work “Get Rid of Poverty” by Xi Jinping; Its reading is mandatory. In that sense, we thought we knew China, its people, its culture, its spaces, its journalists; We once again had “a first impression” from reading this work.
Nothing is more accurate than pluralizing the title of the delivery that has been requested of us. No one worth knowing or talking about China could have a single “first impression.” Surely this August 26, when we arrive in the city of Chongqing, of which we have references, from our father and mentor, who has navigated the Three Gorges Dam, we will experience the same feeling.
See you soon and until the next “first impression” of China.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.