Kenya can look to China in the face of punitive sanctions by the West on the ICC suspects

As Kenyans are gearing up to the much anticipated March elections of 2013, there are fears that the Country’s relationship with the International community will not be business as usual if the ICC suspects are elected into office. However, Kenyans can bet on China to continue with its friendly diplomatic relationship with Kenya.

China’s friendship and cooperation with Kenya and other developing countries is based on the principle of mutual respect, equality and non-interference in internal affairs. It respects other countries choices of leaders, social system and development path. In the recent report to the 18^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, outgoing president Hu Jintao outlined China’s diplomatic priorities in the new era. He emphasized that China will remain a reliable political ally and sincere partner to developing countries. He said China is opposed to any attempts to subvert the legitimate government of any developing country and will not abandon the principle of non-interference in other countries, however, it will share its views and experiences with other developing countries to ensure peace and stability prevails.

Western and developed nations often take advantage of their dominant positions to take offensive positions and interfere with the internal affairs of developing nations. China has strongly spoken against this practice and has consistently come to the defense of developing countries by insisting on legality, justice and consensus among countries across the globe. Its stance in favor of developing countries in not only reflected in what it says but by its actions. It opposes punitive economic sanctions that affect the lives of ordinary citizens. With respect to Zimbabwe; China has used its veto six times to protect the citizens of Zimbabwe from the punitive sanctions imposed by the western countries.  These sanctions do not entirely influence the decisions of the leadership of Zimbabwe but only subject the ordinary citizen to more hardship and suffering. China will always stand by developing countries. “We will decide our position and policy on an issue on its own merits and work to uphold fairness and justice,” Hu Jintao said.

Chinese media has added sparkle to the local media scene

There is a simmering revolution shaking up the media landscape in Kenya. Some sense of renewed strength, vigor and interest in all things Chinese. For Instance, I feel good watching Kenyans interviewing international figures and experts live via satellite all over the world from Nairobi on CCTV Africa live.

All the major Chinese state media with a global audience, namely China Central Television (CCTV), Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International and China Daily, have all established operations in Africa with their headquarters in Nairobi.

This is truly an exciting time, not only for Kenya but Africa in general. Most of the time, China and Africa learnt about each other from a third party, which was normally western media. International opinions were, and still are led by western media. Voices from Africa and other regions have been relatively weak. However, the entrance of Chinese media and the close exchanges and collaboration with African media will balance the situation. China and Africa can now communicate with each other more effectively, build mutual trust and eliminate misunderstanding. This is an effective way to ensure that the friendship and cooperation between China and Africa will bring opportunities to the citizens of both countries to achieve their full potential.

They have managed to portray the true picture of Africa to the Chinese people and the real China to the African people. This year, a crew from CCTV recorded a documentary of the landscape and beautiful scenery of Kenya and its magnificent wildlife. The documentary titled “Glamorous Kenya” was aired every day in China on CCTV documentary channel 9 and the effects were amazing. Chinese people are getting more interested in Kenya and Africa and the number of Chinese tourists to Kenya and Africa is rising sharply.

The Chinese media are also establishing close and constructive collaboration with Africa’s influential broadcasters to increase their capacity and share ideas for better programming and to serve both our interest. KBC channel has collaborated with CCTV to air CCTV’s “Africa live” program for one hour every day. This is just what our local media scene needed to shake up things in the newsrooms.

Chinese economic miracle will continue under the new leadership

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping made his debut as the new leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on  November 15^th, 2012, with a strong mandate to continue the country’s economic miracle and improve the lives of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are expected to formally take over the presidency and premiership from Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao respectively at the National People’s congress in March 2013. They have promised to deliver the arduous task of leading the Chinese people in building a moderately prosperous society. As it pushes for a more balanced development with the new leaders, China will continue to serve as a global economic powerhouse.

Convened at a time when the world’s economic future is tied to China’s growth, the 18^th CPC National congress gave a report of its work in the last decade and made plans for delivering economic prosperity and equity to all Chinese people. The report gave priority to improving the people’s livelihoods and enabling them to benefit substantially from China’s development. With the bar having been raised, the new leadership will be under pressure to deliver on the daunting task ahead. There are great challenges of inequality, social cohesion and an unpredictable global environment and for the new leadership; these challenges will only grow in complexity as China becomes a middle income country.

The report also set the goal of doubling China’s GDP of 2010 and the per-capita income of urban and rural residents by 2020. This is the first time that the CPC has included per capita income in its 2020 development blueprint of a moderately prosperous society. Previous targets only focused on GDP growth. This is an ambitious goal but considering China’s economic miracle in the last decade, it is possible that the Chinese leadership will deliver. The per-capita disposable income of urban residents in China rose 8.4 percent in 2011 from a year earlier while the per-capita net income of rural residents grew 11.4 percent over the same period.

Despite the global economic slowdown, the CPC has promised to make this goal a reality by 2020. When the goal is realized, the 1.3 billion Chinese people will join the group of fewer than 2 billion people worldwide who currently enjoy the standard of living as envisioned in a moderately prosperous society.

China’s new leaders are devoted to this economic goal and have vowed to build on the achievements of their predecessors to scale the new heights. In a report published by the Paris based Organization for economic cooperation and development, it is expected that China will overtake the United States by 2016 to become the world’s largest economy.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also predicted that than China’s economy will be bigger than that of the United States in terms of purchasing power parity.

Mindful of the opportunities and the Challenges lying ahead, the new leaders will put the policies agreed upon at the 18^th National Congress into practice. While placing emphasis on economic growth, the CPC will spearhead a Change in China’s development model to ensure that the wealth divide is bridged. As China rebalances its economy, there are global implications. China’s important role in the global economy means that its success is a success for the world and its failure is a failure for the world.