Thank God for the Chinese

"Thank God for the Chinese."

China Daily is an English-language, state-run mouthpiece publication for the People's Republic of China. It can be counted upon to put forth the official propaganda of the state. This stuff is naked propaganda of a type that you just don't see in the free world. For example:

The railroad station in the Angolan town of Dondo hasn't seen a train in years. Its windows are boarded up, its pale pink facade crumbling away; the local coffee trade that Portuguese colonialists founded long ago is a distant memory, victim of a civil war that lasted for 27 years. Dondo's fortunes, however, may be looking up. This month, work is scheduled to start on the local section of the line that links the town to the deep harbor at Luanda, Angola's capital. The work will be done by Chinese construction firms, and as two of their workers survey the track, an Angolan security guard sums up his feelings. "Thank you, God," he says, "for the Chinese."

That sentiment, or something like it, can be heard a lot these days in Africa, where Chinese investment is building roads and railways, opening textile factories and digging oil wells. You hear it on the farms of Brazil, where Chinese appetite for soy and beef has led to a booming export trade. And you hear it in Chiang Saen, a town on the Mekong River in northern Thailand, where locals used to subsist on whatever they could make from farming and smuggling--until Chinese engineers began blasting the rapids and reefs on the upper Mekong so that large boats could take Chinese-manufactured goods to markets in Southeast Asia.

Just the sort of thing China Daily loves. All the world is joined in praise of the wise leadership of Hu Jintao, and the Chinese Communist Party!

Only one thing is different in this case.

The article was originally printed in Time. The editors of China Daily are only reprinting it.

If you'd like to compare it with something the Chinese wrote for themselves, you might consider their opinion piece from the same issue, "China Implementing Harmonious Diplomacy." I'd have to say the folks at Time have learned the lessons well.