Teodoro Raul
Vice-president of National College of Journalism Graduates, Mexico
When referring to the great work of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the obligatory question, according to some experts, must be: How many times have you read Don Quixote? This questioning can have many meanings, from evaluating the knowledge of the work, knowing the relationship with literature, understanding preferences, or any other that can be deduced; However, the depth of such an interrogation is because in the face of the depth of the concepts, the vast vocabulary, the multiple interpretations that can be made of the quotations, passages and other ideas captured, the work is a range of surprises that are found every time the pages of that literary work are turned.
To understand and get to know China, exactly the same thing happens. The query should be about how many times have you been to China? And indeed, whoever presumes to know that nation, its history, its ideology, its governmental and economic system, the feelings of its people, its struggles, conquests and defenses, its stages and now world expansion, must necessarily have set foot on that Asian territory several times.
And not only that; it is necessary to have lived with its people, with its people, with its daily life. Having talked with its legendary promoters and lived with the new generations. It is also necessary to have received in other latitudes and traveled with Chinese friends.
Reading about China is of course a must. Documenting oneself, knowing through cyberspace now within universal reach, helps and allows us to open up the panorama, however, landing in its ports, navigating its rivers, perceiving the immensity linked to the organization, observing happiness and purchasing power, verifying the development and the format of government, can only be understood, in a first stage, by touring its territory.
That is why we maintain what we wrote a year ago, precisely prior to the meeting of this Forum for International Cooperation of Journalists of the Belt and Road, in Chongqing, it is impossible to speak in the singular to refer to a first impression of China, because every time there is the opportunity to visit, we have proven it, the perception is completely different; And it is that time seems to have another speed in that country.
Here are some examples.
Wuhan and COVID
In 2019 we were in Wuhan. Upon our return to Mexico, as to the rest of the world, we were dealt with the long confinement generated by the SARS-COV2 pandemic, known as the coronavirus. It was up to us to receive the overwhelming information that pointed precisely to Wuhan as the city of origin of the virus, and to its seafood market in Huanan as the space of the first contagion.
On that visit we got to know the wholesale market, we were able to see the quality and freshness of the products. We in Mexico, in many corners of our nation, have similar spaces and we must recognize it, far removed from the health policies of Wuhan.
It was easy to understand that the manipulated press, and especially through the management of social networks, detected the smear campaign waged against China. It is known that to date there is no scientific certainty that proves the origin of the COVID virus and much less the possibility of pointing out a point with geographical coordinates… All that remained was for them to present us alive with the carrier bat.
It was up to us to explain in various forums, through our journalistic programs, interviews and talks, to detail the magnificence of the urban and agricultural area, the immense infrastructure and amazing organization of the Hubei region.
History and the new way of getting information with direct contributions from China, recorded the effective way of controlling the deadly virus and the confinement policies, although painful, undertaken by the Chinese authorities. It is worth recognizing the speed to reach the CanSino Biologics, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, which saved so many lives.
Shenzhen and its development
In 2001 we toured that special economic zone for the first time; the projection towards strengthening the triangle with Hong Kong and Macau, recently reintegrated into Chinese sovereignty, was a difficult proposal to understand or imagine. We returned in 2014, and that first impression was cancelled out by the surprising orderly development that, as shocking, left us amazed to find a new city. Once again, in 2024, although it was only in passing, getting to know the new Shenzhen airport, allowed us to understand that its infrastructure spoke to the rest of the city and its rapid growth.
It is not superfluous to share the comments in journalistic deliveries of my father Teodoro Rentería Arróyave, current president of the National College of Graduates in Journalism, CONALIPE, in exactly the same sense; it was his turn to visit the old fishing city and return in 2001; Their stories about the development and projection can only be understood by living the various visits in the periods described.
High-speed trains
Train growth in Mexico experienced a sharp decline and then a pause from the 1990s onwards, mainly due to the privatization of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (F.N.M.) in 1995 and its subsequent demise in 2001.
In that decade we had the opportunity to travel on the so-called Bullet Train from Osaka to Kyoto in Japan; from Madrid to Seville on the AVE (Spanish High Speed). In 2019 we traveled the Beijing – Tianjin route on the high-speed train; we also visited the maintenance and food processing workshops in the Chinese capital.
At that time, prior to our trip, in 2014 the government of Mexico canceled the concession for the construction of the railway for the habilitation of a high-speed train between Mexico City and Querétaro, awarded to the consortium led by CRCC and made up of the also Chinese parastatal CSR Corporation Limited and the Mexican GIA. Prodemex, Teya and GHP Infraestructura Mexicana.
During our visit to the headquarters of the China High Speed Railway, we were able to question Mr. HUO Baoshi, director of the Department of Science and Technology, about the decision taken by Mexico. His answer was blunt: “they asked us to charge more than the project was worth.”
Our impression was twofold: to realize the gigantic infrastructure and challenge of connectivity by this means of the population in China, and our surprise that our country has let such a valuable mobility project slip away. This year, the Mexican government announced that the Felipe Ángeles Engineers Association of the Ministry of National Defense will be in charge of building the passenger train that will connect Mexico City with Querétaro. The project is developed under the public works scheme.
Beijing anniversary and military parade
In October 2019 we went to Beijing and it was our turn to be present at the commemorative parade of the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China; from a privileged place in the front row in Tiananmen Square, in addition to having listened to President Xi Jinping in person, and having observed his transportation to begin the start of the contingents, knowing the military fortress surpasses any idea.
We know and understand that China, like Mexico, are countries that carry a message of peace, but also strong and firm in the defense of their sovereignty. The history of both countries, over the centuries, has known the permanent anxiety of invasions, a lot of blood flowed to conquer and maintain their autonomies.
Today, in the midst of this trade battle waged by the United States, China has risen to the world as a balancing option and development alternative. For this reason, the impression of that parade, of which we keep a photo of each of the vehicles of the Army and its social contingents, generates the expectation of being able to grow in harmony accompanied by a powerful country but with the firm and defined culture of propagating and defending peace.
Chongqing and its global offer
Getting to know this great development pole, located as an important logistics center, connected through land, sea and air routes to numerous countries through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, has been one of the most impactful experiences. Like our visit to Wuhan, this part also bathed by the Yangtze, can only be understood by walking through it. Its development by regions, respect for nature, care for the environment, order and economic strength, surprises the most traveled and the most avid in business.
Being in a region of more than 30 million inhabitants and not having suffered a single delay in transportation, not perceiving pollution in the environment or visual, not finding graffiti and waste in its streets, is a great experience. It is not superfluous, like Wuhan, to have lived the experience of navigating the mighty river and seeing the spectacle of the LED light that adorns the immense buildings that cause a passage that, although artificial, does not diminish in its beauty. It is a perfect balance between nature and urbanism.
It would take us many pages to narrate the series of impressions of this important visit, due to the freshness of the memory, and the many surprises experienced there.
But we don’t want to miss something that we find interesting. In the West, the influence of the United States, given its technological advances and dominance of digital connectivity, does not allow us to understand a life without social networks as well as messaging systems dependent on the United States; having occupied WeChat, but more than that, observing the series of utilities that are developed in China from that application, was the impression that until this moment we see very far from living in these latitudes.
The use of cash has practically been nullified in China, all generations use their smartphones for daily life; and when we say daily life, it is in all possible services. Precisely realizing the purchasing power or in other words, the accessibility to digital life of the largest number of the population makes us understand the development and development of their society.
Present
China’s stance before the world, in this new stage of the world economic order, was as surprising as the series of unilateral decisions of the president of the United States; however, the message is opposite, while China invites openness and healthy competition, the United States threatens a controlled and subjugated market.
Those who did not know China and its economic progress, at this stage have surely had their first impression of the message of the one who is positioned as the “Asian giant”. The firmness of the Chinese government’s decisions in the face of, first the threats and then the application of tariffs and other strategies from North America, has in effect generated a new world order supported by the capacity and infrastructure to be able to do world trade.
Although the formation of BRICS+ already has a history and a path traveled since 2008, these days the large population has dimensioned the significance of the meeting of the then emerging economies and the importance of generating a global pole autonomous from the United States. The founding countries Brazil, Russia, India and China, then South Africa, are great territories of great potential in every sense. Of these economies, especially China, if it was ever “emerging”; Now it stands as a great support for this group that from having 4 allied nations today is a powerful market with 10 member states and 11 associate members.
China’s impression of the world has changed. Today it presents itself as the country of openness, competition, trade, technological progress, as an ally, with open borders, with great infrastructure, with opportunities, with an intelligent people, and many other virtues.
Mexico is a lifelong ally; Diplomatic and commercial relations have always been respected and strengthened over the years.
Another saying, and we quote it because in China there are an infinity of them, which mark the development of that nation, establishes the permanent siege of the neighbor to the north: “Mexico so far from God and so close to the United States.”
In this sense, today the physical distance, the one that marks planet earth between China and Mexico, has been shortened in many ways; The kilometers are the same, but the means to cross them are very diverse and within reach.
May this dedication serve to express our desire that the world order, in every sense, be strengthened. But most importantly, that growth and development is always supported by peace.
*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.