China in his eyes
A proud moment for Reno Calleja: Tiananmen Square, 1989
This is from the Chinese website cpaffc.org.cn.
CHINA IN MY EYES
By Reno Calleja (Malta)
Chairman of the Malta China Friendship Society
HOW I BECAME A FAN OF CHINA
Between 1958 and 1964 the Maltese Labour Movement, led by Dom Mintoff, kept Britain under constant pressure to close its military bases and give Malta true independence. After all Malta was the last colony in Europe.
In the turbulent sixties, as an activist in the youth section of the Malta Labour Party, I was gripped by a holy zeal to help Malta get rid of the British and the NATO military bases and see my country become truly independent.
In 1969, as a Parliamentary reporter for the daily workers paper I was on my way to the press box, when Dom Mintoff, the leader of the Opposition, stopped me.
“Young man, I hear you are a fan of the Soviet Union,” said he, “You must look towards China.” That was the first time I realized that China was a friend of Malta.
In June 1971, Dom Mintoff won the general election and became prime minister. Hundreds of journalists from all over the world were coming to Malta because the Island under the maverick Mintoff, became a hot story.
CHINA AND AFRICA
One of these was Richard Gibson, an Afro-American journalist and writer, who had just written a book The Liberation Movement of Africa.
As one of the leaders of the Young Socialist Movement in Malta, he interviewed me for his magazine. We became instant friends and have kept in touch to this day.
What he told me cemented my admiration for China. He had just came from Zambia and Zanzibar (later to become Tanzania) where thousands of Chinese workers were working day and night to complete a railway system to enable these newly independent African states to by-pass South Africa and thereby wrestle itself from the grip of the cruel and ruthless Apartheid system.
MINTOFF AND CHINA
In March l972, Mintoff signed a new agreement with Britain and Nato, recognizing that in seven years time they have to close their bases and leave Malta for good. Barely had the ink on this agreement dried, when Mintoff headed for China. He visited China soon after U.S. President Richard Nixon. He was the first Western European prime minister to visit China. Malta immediately recognized China. The Chinese gave Dom Mintoff and the Maltese delegation a great welcome.
China not only gave Malta a large loan without interest but sent hundreds of Chinese workers and engineers to build Malta’s two largest construction projects, the Red China Dock and the Marsaxlokk Port Project. I shall never forget what China did for Malta. China was poor at that time but from the little it had, it helped Malta to wrestle itself out the economic dominance of the West.
Bitter hatred was being fomented against the Chinese people by the right wing press. It was then that I decided to set up the Malta China Friendship Society. I wanted to show the Maltese people that the Chinese people were a kind and hardworking people, dedicated to peace.
CHINA TODAY
Since the seventies I have visited China 27 times. The most memorable visit was in 1979 when Prime Minister of Malta Dom Mintoff assigned me to present the highest honour of Malta (The Medal of the Republic) to the widow of a Chinese late engineer Xu Huizhong, who was accidentally killed while working in Malta on the Red China Dock, the largest dry-dock in the Mediterranean. In a moving ceremony I presented the medal to his widow Yu Jin’e.
Since 1978, under the reformist leader Deng Xiaoping, China created a market economy and opened it to massive foreign direct investment.
Since then I have visited China every year. The changes I have seen with my own eyes are beyond description. In a world gripped by the worst economic recession since the 1930s, China’s economy still registered a massive 9 per cent growth.
Chinese thinkers, predict, and I agree, that in a few decades China’s economy will become the most sizeable and powerful economy in the world, surpassing that of the United States. This in my view will have profound economic, cultural and political consequences.
What strikes me is that China is destined to become a global player without causing the terrible sufferings the Europeans caused to hundreds of millions of people when they colonized Africa and Asia and exploited their wealth and resources.
Unlike the United States who accumulated enormous wealth and power on the blood of the millions of African slaves, China is expanding and gaining economic strength without waging war or attacking other nations.
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Is it the same Reno Calleja whose words of wisdom we’ve been hearing these past few days?
[Daphne – Yes, of course.]
He was a ‘fan’ of the Soviet Union, then of China (thank you Dom) and now he’s a fan of Gaddafi. Not bad for a pillar who suffers from democracy phobia.
Seeing him on Xarabank reminded me that when Pietru Pawl Busuttil was framed for the murder of Raymond Caruana and was taken ill, Reno Calleja insisted that an ad hoc courtroom be set up in hospital, such was his eagerness to see injustice done.
That’s the type of justice you get from our Bubaqra MP . I’m not joking.
Also, I think that Joe Grima was sent on Xarabank by PL to limit the damage.
Ghaliex is-Sur Calleja semma dawk iz-zewg progetti biss . Nesa il-famuza fabbrika tal-elf jew tar-rattan jew tat-twapet u ohrajn li hadd ma jaf x’gara minnhom?
What a crackpot! It is so obvious that China has changed in many ways during these last 40 years, but the gentleman has NOT changed at all – still suffering the mindset of the 1960s. “China is …. a global player without causing the terrible sufferings the Europeans caused to hundreds of millions …..”. Right, but China caused terrible sufferings to its OWN people. And what else, he was a fan of the Soviet Union in 1969.
What is it with the psychology of this man that he is infatuated with Russia, China and this wretched Libyan dictator next door to us?
He definitely does not seem to have the nous to even begin to fathom that these dictatorships built themselves up at the expense of individual freedom, the brutal abuse of basic human rights and the merciless torture and murder of their citizens?
God please deliver us from anyone who, by shouting out ” Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox”, believes that he is patriotic.
Nawgura lil Reno li jmur jghix ic-Cina jew il-Libja jew fir-Russja ghax hawn zgur li m’ghandniex bzonnu.
Without understanding a word he says it’s clear to me that I wouldn’t even say hello to him on a lonely day.
Reno seems unconcerned about the continuous sufferings of the people of Mongolia, Nepal and Tibet caused by Chinese occupation.
“What strikes me is that China is destined to become a global player without causing the terrible sufferings the Europeans caused to hundreds of millions of people when they colonized Africa and Asia and exploited their wealth and resources. ”
We should send this fucker for a long stay in a Chinese sweatshop in Nigeria.
“China not only gave Malta a large loan without interest…”
The ‘large loan’ was made in Sterling, but was tied to the price of gold. Perhaps Reno would like to enlighten us on the actual amount of money that Malta paid back to China in respect of that ‘interest free loan’, when that loan matured for payment some years later.
And another thing, a good proportion of that loan money found its way back to China in the way of purchases of machinery for factories in Malta which factories then excelled at producing huge operating losses.
But then all this happened in the O zmien helu tad-deheb, so no one ever talked much about these matters, There were no complaints then – no one was allowed to..
It is estimated that Chairman Mao was directly resposible for the death of sixty to eighty million Chinese. A large proportion of these died in the famines that followed the devastating great leap forward.
Stalin for forty million Russians.
Adolf Hitler for twelve million, half of them Jews.
These figures do not include deaths related to war.
Mao still holds the world record for murder and is not likely to be beaten soon because the population of Libya is only six million.
This is surely a case of one-upmanship by Reno Calleja on John Dalli.
Moral of the story : a yearly paid holiday to China suffices, for certain people, to erase the memory of at least sixty million murdered human beings.
Mind boggling.
A rotten dirty scoundrel, no doubt a graduate of il-Brigata and living under the dark wings of il-Partit tal-Lejber.
The old hen keeps hatching lame chicks – some fair, some bearded and the occasional cock.
Conveniently, perhaps, Reno Kolonna Calleja omits a number of important details from his review of China. It is a fact that China’s history, like Malta’s history as recently presented by Labour, has been the subject of revision and selectionism.
In 1969, when Dom Mintoff told Reno to look at China, China was ruled by Mao Tse-Tung. Mao was hailed as a revolutionary leader (not very different from Gaddafi in this respect), but he is also blamed for the deaths of millions of his own people.
Is Reno suggesting that the Chinese people do not have blood in their veins?
Mao’s policies caused unprecedented famine in China, while his large projects were built on the slavery of the Chinese people.
The modern economic revolution of China started in the late 70s, when Mintoff’s time to go had arrived, as confirmed by the 1981 elections.
It was Deng Xiaoping, who came to power in 1978 and who had opposed a number of Mao’s policies, who promoted the rapid reforms in China.
Then came the episodes of Tienanmen Square in 1989, which put China and its lack of respect for human rights in the limelight.
Even if this did not halt development in China, there are still many issues which Reno fails to analyse.
China has a high level of state ownership of enterprises, regional economic imbalances, production overcapacity, and a low growth in its agricultural production.
Above all, China remains a one-party undemocratic country and a place where human rights are not fully respected. Perhaps Reno Calleja, who for the last 20+ years has been travelling annually to China but living in democratic Malta of Dr. Fenech Adami and Dr. Gonzi, cannot appreciate this sufficiently.
Reno has been impressed by the economic growth rates of recent years, and especially by the fact that China’s economy could soon be the world’s largest.
However, GDP per capita is a far better measure than total GDP in assessing a country’s economic well being.
In the IMF’s 2010 GDP per capita table, China ranked in the 93rd place, while Malta ranked in the 38th place.
Maybe Reno Kolonna Calleja is talking about another China which for years did not execute petty criminals in order to harvest and sell their replantable organs?
Maybe Mr. Calleja would like to follow this link:
http://internationalwarcrimesreport.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/china/
In case he is too busy investigating war crimes by the civilian fighters against Gaddafi, here are some excerpts:
” Immediately after coming to power, the Chinese Communist Party mobilized political campaigns to purge “enemy classes” and fortify a “dictatorship of the proletariat” modeled after Stalin’s Soviet Union. During the 1950s, there were several attempts at land reforms, as well as a series of movements to eliminate counterrevolutionaries and institute collectives. In addition, there were the “Anti-Rightist Struggle,” and the “Great Leap Forward.” These mass campaigns involved beating, torture, and execution, and were responsible for as many as 15 million deaths. One million “rightists” were punished for up to twenty years in internal exile or labor camps. The “Great Leap Forward” alone caused an estimated thirty million famine deaths, the highest number ever recorded in famine history.”
“The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s tactic to secure his power. He encouraged his Red Guards—students who had pledged personal loyalty to Mao—to challenge local Communist authorities. This quickly led to violent conflicts and anarchy. Historians estimate that a total of seven million were killed during the decade of the Cultural Revolution.”
Where was Reno Calleja when KMB (or was it is-Salvatur ta Malta) were tear-gassing fellow Maltese citizens way back in the eighties, for having the audacity to attend PN meetings?
He was busy having his corner house with basement and front garden being built on a homeownership scheme plot meant for young penniless couples.
In those years he was some chairman of Kalaxlokk or whatever. His house was being ‘finished’ by some three workers employed with the said parastatal company as sub contractors. If I recall correctly they were from some Mosta MLP contractor (Micallef, Ballut Blocks?).
He was already living in a ‘farmhouse’ on the outskirts of Zurrieq in Hal Far road.
Those were years like we are experiencing on TV. Some people say that Tripoli is normal and some others say that bodies are being picked up on trucks during the night.
Yes, those were the Golden Years of Labour rule, when we had Reno Calleja in parliament inciting the police to crucify an innocent person for killing Ray Caruana.
Reno Calleja has shown us once again on what pillars the PL is built.
Does Mr Reno Calleja know that in China people are persecuted simply for being Christian or Muslim?
Tat-tqalliegh tal-istonku
123 testing…Robert Mugabe speaking
China in his arse would be more appropriate…
As if China is not “accumulating enormous wealth and power on the blood of the millions of Chinese slaves, who cannot protest against a savage communist regime which is milking them dry and killing those trying to fight for their freedom.
And on whose blood has the Chinese economy improved? Have we forgotten the help given by the USA which treated China as a most privileged nation in terms of the economy? A rope for this Kolonna tal-Partit Reno Calleja so he can hang himself with it.