China's New Silk Road

[Julie Wakefield]

Amazon Prime - - China's New Silk Road

From 2019 - talks about the global supply chain of China's resources. Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Pakistan are all connected as China works to expand this international influence and foreign investment (infrastructure construction of ports and railways). 

The students will not have any problem understanding this. The vocabulary and commentary is not over their head (9th and 10th graders). It will definitely help them understand the globalized and interconnected world we live in, how China is pushing investment in 'new areas' for resources, and China's goal to be the economic powerhouse of the world. 

Since this is from 2019 - the assignment after viewing the video will find some new information about the locations talked about in the video or other aspects of the new Silk Road.

 

Here is another video I found on China's New Silk Road from DW Documentary in Dec 2020. 

 

[Deirdre Harris]

How does China achieve "World Domination?"  With the New Silk Road of course.  (Thought of by none other than  Xi Ping himself.)  What an eye-opening view of how China has created and begun implementing plans to build new railways, and ports that begin in China, and pass through three major cities in order to deliver merchandise, goods and services to European customers.  Rather than ship these goods via air, or sea, they have decided to invest in a cheaper railway / port system, in order to deliver these goods more economically.  China has heavily invested billions into Djibouti (South Africa), parts of Ethiopia, and Pakistan, it seems with or without their government's permission.  The goal seems to be to redesign the political and economic roadmaps of the world no less. 

I think this film would be easily understood by students even as young as in my gifted 4th grade class.  I think that children need to think globally as well as focusing on our typical social studies topic of California.  The Elementary student's education has been somewhat limited to National topics, rather than World-Wide topics, until this past year, when Covid came into our world.  

I also think that the film-makers made this film easily understandable and accessible to everyone, by going city by city, and focusing on different people actually involved, with the narrator explaining what is going on between China and each country.  For example, how Jim Chu, who used to live in the US working for Microsoft, who now has 60 patents of his own using bluetooth technology, now develops consumer products very successfully.  They take the camera into his home, to meet his family and you learn how other people live.  The film continues to follow the camera into Djibouti where their port is strategically placed to transport goods towards Europe.   The people are somewhat upset and don't seem to understand why they are treated as 2nd class citizens however. 

Our journey continues into Addis-Ababa where again, the Chinese are the bosses, in many factories, and the Ethiopian workers feel some animosity towards the Chinese and their methods.   I found it interesting that the typical Ethiopian laborer earns $56 per month, when their Chinese supervisors earn $2000 per month, but live on the premises of the factories in dorm-style housing. 

Our last stop takes the viewer into Pakistan, through Islamabad, towards the port city of Gwadar.  This port also gives rare access to China and the nearby oil wells near the Arabian Sea.  Despite angry Pakistani who occasionally show their opposition through terrorism, the Chinese are persistent in their development of the sea port and have begun pushing out local fishermen and their families, while leaving the coastline degrated.  We are again taken into the home of a poor fisherman and his family to see what this new development is doing to all concerned.  I like that this film is showing all sides of this action by China.

I agree with the previous submission that since this film was made in 2019, it would be a wonderful assignment for students to see what has happened in this area since then.  Let's hope that China wants to help benefit all in their new community projects, otherwise, they will encounter greater opposition along the China's New Silk Road.

 

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