The Tribune

Rashad Rolle reports on a media summit designed to improve understanding of the world’s most populous country and its intentions . . .

One does not have to look far to see why China hosted its first ever China-Latin America and Caribbean Media Summit in Chile last month.

Here in the Bahamas, hot topics recently have been proposed Chinese investments and the Bahamian people’s aversion to them.

These investments include a Chinese Agri-Fisheries proposal that would purportedly require using 10,000 acres of North Andros’ land while promising millions of dollars in return for the country.

The proposal does not appear to have gone anywhere far, not even reaching Cabinet, but that has not stopped critics from haranguing the Christie Administration for “selling the country out to the Chinese”.

As some observers are quick to note when controversies like these arise, investments by Americans, Canadians or British never attract such hullabaloo.

The Chinese are clearly aware that while their ties to government officials the world over may be deepening, discontent about developments from the people who put those officials in power exists as well.

The Chinese reasons are that this is because of a fundamental misunderstanding, a lack of knowledge about their country’s intentions as well as the success the western media has had in painting their country in a negative light.

Against this backdrop came last month’s media summit in Santiago, the Chilean capital.

To boost the event’s profile, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a short and surprising appearance during the opening ceremony as part of his own trip throughout Latin America

The event brought together more than 100 mostly senior officials of media companies from around the region in a bid to strengthen ties between their companies and China.

The goal is to get these media representatives and their companies, which are responsible for disseminating information and creating narratives about the relationship between the countries, to do their part in counteracting Western portrayals of the Chinese that harm its interests.

During the summit, officials emphasised the need for Latin American and Chinese media companies to increase their footprint in each other’s countries, for instance, bypassing the agency wire systems and American-led media that gives everyone the same news and presents it with a supposedly slanted viewpoint.

The summit had all the feeling of an inaugural event, one whose likely impact was not immediately obvious. Speeches were heavy on the niceties, emphasising the shared ambitions of peoples separated by thousands of miles. They were also light on specifying what should happen next. There may have even been a disconnect between the two sides concerning their responsibilities.

“To keep pushing forward the China-Latin American relation in the new era, the media circles on both sides have to pool together our wisdom and power,” said Huang Kunming, Executive Deputy Director of the publicity department and Director of the Cultural Progress Advancement Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

“In the modern society, media is an important force that leads public opinions, influences government decisions and promotes people-to-people exchanges. It should give full play to its advantages and play a more constructive and conducive role in promoting China-Latin America co-operation. The media should facilitate the progress on China-Latin America relations.”

To some though, the media’s role in the China-Latin American relationship should be neutral.

It’s goal is to neither be positive or negative.

“Promotion” of a relationship is the province of governments and public relations experts, not traditional media companies concerned with truth.

At the same time, China deserves an open mind rather than knee-jerk xenophobia.

In a country that too often embraces unfair stereotypes of them, the Chinese people’s way of life deserves more attention in the Bahamas and its people should be humanized.

But none of this should come at the expense of sober analysis of the impact of China’s investments or a demand that both the Bahamian government and Chinese representatives be more transparent concerning them.

Last month’s summit functioned best when it did two things. One, when it emphasized the need for personnel exchanges and explored programs to allow this; knowledge of Chinese cultures is critical to combating xenophobia.

Two, as an opportunity to network with media professionals in countries near and far in hope of collaboration.

China’s economic ventures in the region were rarely mentioned but loomed large nonetheless.

China’s international economic outreach, officials emphasize, doesn’t bespeak imperialism but is the inevitable consequence of seeking to address the needs of the country with the planet’s largest population.

China’s trade surpluses and foreign reserves leave it desperate to seek ways of spending it, including through investments outside its country.

With its massive population, it needs to reduce poverty rates and to address the constraints of its own domestic resources, prompting it to go outside its lines.

Nothing but peace and prosperity are its goal, it emphasizes.

Flaws notwithstanding, as far as this region is concerned, its critics have mostly failed to prove otherwise.

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