On the second day of the Bananas New Zealand Going Global conference, Charlotte Glennie’s speech touched on human rights, pollution, corruption, the clinging on to power by the Communist Party, and how she does not subscribe to the fact that the Reds are there to make things better. It was a real-world speech delivered by a journalist based in Beijing itself that struck a chord with me. ‘The gap between rich and poor has never been wider,’ she reported. There are 30 million more illiterates in Red China. She spoke of a 16-year-old girl who fell ill through overwork: something she had to do because her family could not afford her education, a story in contrast to the “economic miracle” image that the Politburo wants to show.
   While Charlotte looked at the positive side of things as well (‘China makes 80 per cent of the world’s photocopiers. One town makes a third of the world’s socks’), I am glad that she was balanced about things. The conference is about Chinese culture globalizing, but until we as a people deal with our own problems, we aren’t doing it from a position of strength.
   Listening to her live, I have to say that this woman was too smart for TVNZ, who disbanded the Asia bureau she set up in Hong Kong for cost reasons. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. snapped her up as its Beijing correspondent and she has been based there for 14 months, in a position to truly see the changes that will impact on the world in the next decade. Naturally, the New Zealand television media have to buy up stories from her and from other overseas companies now.
   More from the conference later: I need food after giving my talk, the notes from which I will put on this site soon. Posted by Jack Yan, 06:32  permalink

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