South Africans, it is fair to say, are frightened by China. We complain about the cheap imports that are doing South African garment workers out of their jobs, we fret about the “insatiable” demand for natural resources, and the re-ordering of influence on the rest of the continent. And when we are really nervous, we talk about drug gangs that trade smuggled abalone for mandrax in the coastal villages of the Western Cape.
And we aren’t alone; the whole world is convulsed with anxiety as it watches the dragon rise to a level of global influence it has not enjoyed since the 14th century. Like the Americans, and the Europeans, of course, we worry even as we stock up on cut-price DVD players and bargain bras.
There is an element of racism in all this that is reminiscent of the “yellow peril” hysteria whipped up against Chinese immigration around the turn of the last century. China is undemocratic, mind-bogglingly huge, and developing at a rate we can only dream of. So it is probably not surprising that it figures in the language of economists and ordinary citizens alike as a kind of monster rampaging through global markets, with scant regard for the proprieties of good governance, environmental standards and labour rights.
The real picture is, at once, more complicated and simpler.
That China’s boom is reorganising the world in disruptive and often disturbing ways there can be no doubt. And there is nothing South Africans, or anyone else, can do to prevent that. China is now deeply integrated in the global economic system. Not only is it keeping the resource-based economies of the world churning, it is lending the United States billions of dollars to keep its consumption spree going. And it has dragged Japan out of its prolonged malaise.
We have more to fear from the collapse of those cycles than from any number of Mr Price T-shirts.
And China’s internal changes go much deeper than the arrival of traffic jams and skyscrapers. Private firms — some of them even with South African partners — are increasingly coming to dominate the economy, and to move beyond the control of Beijing. Meanwhile growing social unrest, particularly over unemployment, poses major new challenges for the Communist Party.
To be sure, it would be unwise for South Africa to rush into a free trade agreement with such a large and effective competitor. But there is no point in building new barriers to trade in the hope that they will hold back the tide of globalisation. On the contrary, riding this wave will take Chinese levels of flexibility and discipline. For a government unskilled in economic and diplomatic Tai Chi, it will be tough to sell the concept to a sceptical public, but it is going to have to do it.
Oh for an African al-Jazeera
In a world of media convergence the focus is more profit-centred than ever before. Owners are fighting for advertising revenues (despite an upturn occasioned by an economic boom) and the focus is on doing more with less. The lines are being blurred as newspapers metamorphose into new media operations where the imperative is to diversify into new media and chase new revenue streams.
Good journalism is increasingly taking a back seat. Investigative journalism is rare, while newsrooms are being run down to the bone.
In such an atmosphere, the role of public broadcasters becomes even more vital. They can provide impartial news, broader coverage and be a fourth estate — but only if they choose to. The SABC has the potential to be the leading public broadcaster on the continent, but is too often mired in controversy and too unsure of its role to exploit that potential.
Take this week. There have been disclosures that the SABC is developing a blacklist of commentators it will not use on its programmes. The list is diverse but united in one thing: it comprises people who are not afraid to speak their minds and oppose hegemonic politics, be it in relation to Zimbabwe or the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. And they are all black.
Last week the SABC was gripped by a scandal about the axing of a documentary critical of Mbeki. Last year it squirmed uncomfortably under public scrutiny of its failure to report that Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka had been booed off a stage shortly after taking up her new job. The SABC confuses its role as a public broadcaster with that of a state broadcaster. It does not know how to cover difficult political issues and seems often to take decisions based on imperatives other than its duty to inform impartially and without bias.
Its news and current affairs department is staffed by many talented journalists who know their work and who do it with aplomb, but is run by people who lack an understanding of the public broadcaster’s role. The MD of news and current affairs, Snuki Zikalala, was arguably far more suited to his previous job as a government spokesperson. The board’s watchdog news committee includes businessman Thami Mazwai, who conflates the national interest with the public interest. With him sits lawyer Christine Qunta, another hegemon, and little-known Cecil Msomi, a former regional news manager of the SABC whose communications company counts the African National Congress as a client.
The good fortunes of the television station al-Jazeera show that there is an appetite for independent news reported in an appetising way. The SABC could be Africa’s al-Jazeera — if only it had the will.