session #5 - november 6 (china and the world)

[Marcos Rico]

”No chance against China”: Gas deal worries Filipino fishermen.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/features/chance-china-gas-deal-worries-filipino-fishermen-181101213758521.html

Author:   Santiago Arnaiz and Vittoria Elliott

Title: ”No chance against China”: Gas deal worries Filipino fishermen.

Publication Title: Aljazeera

Date: November 1st, 2018

This article states that China and the Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte have a great relationship. Unfortunately that is bad news for fishermen on the island of San Salvador, Philippines. Fishermen used to earn supplemental income of about $130-$165 dollars per week by catching aquarium fish near Scarborough Shoal, in the past six years things have changed a lot. Now on a lucky week fishermen might be able to earn about $37 dollars, because Scarborough Shoal has become offlimit. The reason why filipino are no longer allowed to fish there is because China established a blockade on the area.

A court from The Hague, ruled that China had broken U.N Convention laws, and that the shoal is within Philippines territory. The area below the sea bed is estimated to be rich in oil and gas, The Filipino President, signed an agreement to allow China extract oild and gas from the disputed area. It is great for businesses, but not for the local fishermen.

 

[Natalie Sanchez]

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei, has been arrested under the suspicion that she had knowledge of ties with a company dealing around the Iran sanctions. She is caught in Vancouver, Canada and faces extradition to the United States. However, China is calling for her immediate release. Wanzhou is the daughter of the companies founder and part of the elite in China.

[Natalie Sanchez]

There was an Morning Edition report earlier this week that talked about the importance of voice over work. Today many box office American hits are actually making more money in other countries. China is an example where recently the Avengers made more in China than it did in the United States. However, many viewers prefer to watch the movie in their native language rather than watch subtitles, so there has been a spike in the need for voice over actors.

[Natalie Sanchez]

Christine,  ever since I was young I've noticed protesters in different parts of Los Angeles that are trying to get issues of human rights acknowledged in regards to China's government. I mostly see people that practice Falun Gong showing what the Chinese governemt has allegedly done to followers. I find it hard to see China moving toward becoming a more developed country as long as so many freedoms and ideals are oppressed amongst the people.

[Natalie Sanchez]

Lin, that is one of my big questions I still have and have to wait and see. WIll government intervention slow Chinese growth? We saw with early industrialization in Great Britain and the United States part of their success is because of support for innovation and little government intervention. Places like France were slower to innovate and industrialize because the government was so controlling and beauracratic. The was one of the news clips we were asked to watch and the questions was posed; can capitalism ever marry communism? 

[Natalie Sanchez]

Many developed countries do fear China's rapid expansion and view what China is doing with the BI is to create a new "silk road." So while the United States is pushing away less developed countries by name calling, China is embracing the opportunity and is investing in these less developed countries by building infastructure like roads and ports. It's hard to say what China's ultimate goal is but many countries are seeing China as a new opportunity for them to succeed.

[Natalie Sanchez]

A colleague and I created a lesson using a portion of the Black Mirror episode Nosedive to discuss China's social credit score. It was interesting to hear what the students had to say but they were in the general consensus that they would not like to be scored on social issues. Some said that people that may not like you would be malicious and try to drop your score intentionally, and we saw that happen in this episode. Also, based on your score the students said people may stop talking to certain people and again we saw that in the episode as well.

For the lesson, we started with a short article for the students to have more background knowledge, had a short discussion about China and the social credit score, watched the first 13 minutes of Black Mirror: Nosedive, then had a short discussion about our society and culture and whether that would work, finally brought it back to whether thsi is something that can slow China's development. 

[Natalie Sanchez]

This is interesting that you mention China's relationship with Myanmar. Recently, Myanmar has been accussed of human rights violations against the Rohingya Muslim group and have been pushed onto refugee camps in Bengladesh. I wonder what China's stance is on this issue?

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