And once more, we have to go to the Chinese press to find out what our prime minister is doing next week
Published:
July 4, 2014 at 9:43am
Joseph Muscat is going to be at the Eco Forum Global Annual Conference in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province in south-west China, from July 10 to 12.
He will be in illustrious company, and the only foreign prime minister there – though Vanuatu is sending its deputy PM. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told the press in China that the list of foreign dignitaries so far comprises:
the Ethiopian President, Mulatu Teshome
Malta’s Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat
the President of the Council of States of Switzerland’s Federal Assembly, Hannes Germann
Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov
the deputy prime minister of Vanuatu, Ham Lini
“Maltese lapdog in China pocket.”
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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/n/2014/0703/c90883-8750579.html
And he calls it ‘memorandum of understanding’ rather than ‘I-got-my-hands-tied’ after signing an agreement with the Sleeping Dragon in 2010.
These MoUs with China are becoming like pit-stops on Joseph Muscat’s (invisible) roadmap, strategically located between one U-turn and another, and between signs of cul-de-sacs, wrong ways and give way (to the Opposition).
However, I prefer to call these MoUs with China by their exact nature: Chinese bailouts on Muscat’s path to bankrupting Malta.
Or you may wish to call them socialism or communism, if you like: handouts from the overlords to keep the slaves happy and adequately nourished so that they can reproduce and maintain the population, without having to work hard, otherwise they will be too tired to reproduce.
Are there no depths to which Muscat will not sink?
The highest Chinese political representation at this meeting is not the prime minister but the prime minister of Malta has been summoned and must attend.
Imbasta hafna pulikarja. China snaps its fingers and Muscat sits up and begs. He should know that in China dogs are food, not pampered pets.
Muscat is attending “upon invitation”. Translation: The serf has been summoned by his emperor.
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1171246.shtml
The annual conference of the Eco-Forum Global Guiyang 2014 will be held in Guiyang, Guizhou Province from July 10 to 12.
Vice President Li Yuanchao will attend the opening ceremony. President Mulatu Toshome of Ethiopia, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, President of the Council of States of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland Hannes Germann, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia Ivanov Sergei and Vice Prime Minister Ham Lini of Vanuatu will attend the forum upon invitation.
By calling their ‘servant’ Joseph Muscat to China for the second time for the signing of a second Memorandum of Understanding while he is leading the Malta government, the Chinese are sending a clear message that it is their sovereignty which is superior in this relationship, not Malta’s.
If the first MOU was signed in China, the second one should have been signed in Malta.
As far as I can remember, since Muscat has been prime minister, no Chinese President, Vice President or Premier has paid him a visit here in Malta. Proof that he is low in their hierarchy.
China’s Premier Li Keqiang was in the UK just a couple of weeks ago. He even visited Greece.
And in March, President Xi Jinping was on a European tour, visiting the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium.
Despite Muscat’s efforts to paint a different story, I see a disrespect to Malta’s sovereignty here – the way they treat us is more like the way they treat Hong Kong or Taiwan.
I wonder what national assets they will be taking as their own this time. The hospital? Some sea concession for a land reclamation project? A share in public transport? Oil exploration? Airmalta?
Besides, judging by the previous MOU about Enemalta back in September 2013, there tend to be major differences between what is in the MOU and how it is executed later (based on what has been explained publicly in March 2014). For instance, it had been announced in September 2013 that China would be investing in Enemalta and cutting its debt. Facts turn out that China used most of its money under the deal to buy off, and take as its own, the BWSC plant from Enemalta, and then paid only Eur 100 million to acquire one-third of Enemalta with the remaining debts. The deal with China on Enemalta is still to be taken to Parliament.
It amazes me that when these people have such a bad social policy track record they try to sound open and democratic by staging see theatricals on “Eco” issues……..another spin I suppose from an excellent marketing media in China!
This is hilarious – resorting to the People’s Republic of China to exert one’s right to information.
I’m not really laughing. Shows the extent of how far we have sunk in a very short time.
Oh look, Malta Today reported this news one hour after it was published here.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/40794/prime_minister_in_china_next_week
There may be a delay of 1 hour, but they do read this website for the news.
So now we are in the company of Vanuatu, another one of those South Pacific countries which is slowly becoming a Chinese outpost.
Vanuatu and other Pacific Ocean small countries have seen an increase in foreign (secretive) aid from China in recent years.
“China’s aid to Pacific tops $800m” – The New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10718478
“China’s secretive aid programme to Pacific nations over five years totals just over $800 million, according to the latest Lowy Institute report on assistance from the communist state.”
“Vanuatu refused to co-operate for the current report and Fiji gave incomplete data.”
And here is a detailed account of the type of help China gives to Pacific Ocean countries. Expect something like this in the MOU that Joseph MOUscat will sign with China.
http://devpolicy.org/china-announces-more-aid-and-loans-to-pacific-islands-countries-20131113-2/
But interestingly, Mr. Ham Lini, who is attending the Eco Forum in China and who will no doubt be sharing a few jokes with Joseph MOUscat, is clearly a puppet of Chinese interests. Here he is, when he was still Leader of the Opposition, defending Chinese interests against the Vanuatu government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQlzLLjUD9g
Fi ftit kliem, rapprezentanti ta’ pajjizi komdi ghat-tahwid fi flus mohbija.
Sergei Ivanov, the Russian chief of staff, is to Vladimir Putin what Keith tal-Kasco is to Joseph Muscat.
Ivanov is one of those targeted by US sanctions following the Ukraine crisis.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26672800
His inferiority complex is so obvious. He is no match to any other Western PM, but is so comfortable staying in “China’s pocket”.
And this is a brief bulletin about Mulatu Teshome, the Ethiopian President.
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/index/49181
“Mulatu was such a loyal puppet that he was then promoted to Minister of Agriculture in 2001 and continued to a give a blind eye while TPLF leased millions of hectares of fertile Ethiopian land to foreign investors after evicting Ethiopian farmers. Such policy brought what NGOs termed “Green Famine” to southwestern Ethiopia, the most fertile region of the country.
The Guardian Newspaper in London wrote: “The rains have come, the land is lush but Ethiopians still go hungry.” It is because the farmers were being evicted and their land was being leased to Chinese, Indian and TPLF investors. The Ethiopian “Green Famine” was caused by TPLF and its puppets like Girma Birru and Mulatu Teshome.”
“While in school, according to those who knew Mulatu, he was a mediocre student at best who left no impression on any one. But he excelled at one thing — wagging his tail to get what he wants. That seems to have served him “well.” After high school, he wagged his tail to China on scholarship, even though there were other students who had been more qualified than him. When Woyanne came to power, he rushed to volunteer as one of the new regime’s loyal ethnic puppets, and went on to be appointed “president” by TPLF. At what cost? In such context, does the word “president” has any more value that the word “prostitute”?”
Mr. Teshome graduated from the University of Peking.
He became president of Ethiopia in 2013.
Am I the only one thinking that in the past few years China has been busy putting a number of loyal puppets in government in a number of countries around the globe?
And why do I suspect that Shiv Nair personally has been distributing the invitations to the Eco Forum to China’s puppets?
The buck is passing from the US to China. Communism here we come.
This is what I have been asking myself, why a so called ground breaking agreement with communist dictatorial China and not the democratic USA? Why do Maltese Socialist Government always look to the East and not the West.
Does this mean that Ham Lini is Shiv Nair’s contact in Vanuatu or that the PM despatched Ham Lini with both Muscat and Lini working to Nair’s / China’s agenda?
According to his LinkedIn account, Mr. Shiv Shankaran Nair has been Special Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government of Vanuatu since February 2013.
He advises on quote “European Relations, Trade Issues and inward Investment.”
Mr. Ham Lini is current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of Trade and Commerce.
Hmmm.
http://mt.linkedin.com/pub/shiv-shankaran-nair/19/bba/0
Chinese Checkers has taken on a different meaning.
We sell them a national asset on the (unbelievably) cheap – and they write out a cheque.
In conclusion.
Jo will be in good company in Guiyang.
He will get exactly what he deserves.
Mediocrity.
What are the moderator’s thoughts on this article: http://goo.gl/z8Pbte ? Given that it seems that Malta is hardly alone in trying to deepen its relations with China (the NYT article details efforts by Germany), could Daphne please explain whether she also wishes to criticise Chancellor Merkel for doing so?
I ask these questions because I think it is important to make a distinction between questioning the suitability of the strategy that is being adopted for deepening Sino-Maltese relations, and rejecting the idea of looking for opportunities for cooperation beneficial to Malta. If even the latter idea is rejected outright – well then, that’ s where I get off the bus.
[Daphne – As with everything else, context is all. Germany cannot be taken over by Chinese investment. Malta – a couple of islands one 17 miles by nine and the other nine miles by wotsit, with a population of under half a million – can. A bit of investment in one power station in Germany will not control Germany’s power supply, for example. In Malta, it does. Germany has leverage. Malta does not. The problem is not that it is China. The problem is that it is a communist dictatorship without the brakes or controls, or the systems of scrutiny, to which democracies are subject. Look at what China is doing in the Third World, has been doing for years. There’s another point: Germany has a strong press and the sort of electorate that scrutinises and discusses things, and will not allow things to get past it without a fight. Malta does not. You are an example of that: a person educated enough to write a complicated sentence in a foreign language but not educated enough to see the immense risks for Malta in dalliance with China that do not exist for another European country which is immensely vaster and with a hugely diversified economy.]
We agree on a number of things: the absence in Malta of an inquisitive press to allow for proper scrutiny of domestic – never mind foreign – policy. I too am extremely wary of the idea of foreign control of vital national interests (like our system of electricity generation).
We can also agree that we don’t want anyone – Chinese, American or German, for that matter – to take over our country. As for the matter of leverage, Malta suffers from a relative lack of leverage in most of its bilateral relationships (even with its EU partners) – if this was to dissuade us from trying to deepen relations with countries, then we might as well close up most of our diplomatic missions.
[Daphne – Again, you are misreading the context. Nowhere did I say that I am against having foreign interests in Malta. The crux of the matter is whether those interests are state-owned or not, and whether the FDI comes from a democratic country or not. There is the world of difference between investment by a German business and investment by the Chinese state. The first is investment by a privately-owned/publicly-listed company in a democratic European state subject to the rule of law, the second is investment by a communist dictatorship itself through state-sponsored and state-owned vehicles.]
Fundamentally, the effort to attract Chinese investment and interest in Malta – including in areas like energy – did not begin in March 2013 – it has been conducted over a number of years, with varying degrees of success.
That we are seeing much more of it now can be attributed to i) the governing party in Malta having a stable parliamentary majority and ii) to the will of the Chinese government.
My problem with the tone of all your comments about China is that you seem to be advocating against all contacts with that country. Would you object to the presence of a Confucius Centre and Cultural Institute in Malta? Both were introduced under the previous government, as I’m sure you’re aware.
[Daphne – Again, you are being – deliberately, I suspect – obtuse. The Confucious Centre and Cultural Institute was not set up by the government of Malta. It was set up by the Chinese communist dictatorship to promote the virtues of Chinese communism. Because Malta is not a communist dictatorship itself, and because the Maltese constitution safeguards freedom of expression and political belief, Chinese communists are free to promote their ideas here. The government of Malta would not, however, be equally free to set up a European Maltese Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights, Democracy and Freedom of Expression in Beijing. You see the thing about the Chinese communist dictatorship is that it takes maximum advantage of the freedoms of the west while not according the same freedoms to Europeans and Americans in China – or to their own people.]
What about an increased number of Chinese tourists and students visiting and studying in Malta?
[Daphne – I think it’s an excellent thing. The more ordinary Chinese people are exposed to the reality of freedom in a democracy, the more intolerant they will become of the oppression and control under which they live. That was the major push for the fall of communism in Europe: it couldn’t survive in such close proximity to freedom.]
The presence of Chinese-owned businesses in Malta that manufacture goods which are then exported to the rest of the EU and other countries in North Africa? We already have one such. To my mind, these are the things that we have been and should be seeking.
[Daphne – More obtuseness: a factory making this or that is irrelevant to everything but employment and the balance of payments. Buying up control of the island’s power supply is wholly different. Surely you realise that the national airline is next. Should we be bothered? Well, yes – Malta is a remote blob of stone that would be increasingly isolated without the freedom to control its air connections. Rynair is great, but there’s a limit to how useful Girona airport is. Air Malta serves a purpose so vital that it actually should not be treated as just another business. The day we can get into a car and drive across the continent without hauling ourselves up the entire length of Italy is the day Air Malta ceases to be relevant. But even then…]
Because in China a lot of decision-making is made at the government level, and because in order to have a meaningful presence in China we need the Chinese authorities’ cooperation, we have – for a number of years – been trying to increase government to government contacts.
[Daphne – Oh, I see now that you’re involved, hence your interest and your use of ‘we’. I would never say ‘we’ when what I mean is Malta or Maltese government policy. Let’s just agree to disagree, then, because I come from the stand-point that doing business with inherently corrupt and despotic regimes is not just lousy long-term strategy (at some point, even what seems permanent might blow up – look at North Africa) but it is also fundamentally immoral. I support the Chinese people. I do not support or approve of the Chinese dictatorship. I would have as much of a problem doing business with Chinese dictators who crush their own people as I would with a cocaine trafficker in Malta. By doing business with people like that, you make their continued survival possible and are therefore a party to their violations, as an indirect enabler.]
One of the ways of doing that is by attending (seemingly obscure) international events organised in China. We might quibble that it was not necessary to be sending our Prime Minister to such an event, but the truth of the matter is that if our Prime Minister wants to meet with his Chinese counterpart, presence at such events is essentially the price of admission.
[Daphne – Well, clearly your opinion is not shared by many, given that the only other ‘VIPs’ there are going to the deputy prime minister of Vanuatu and Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff. By going to something like that, with people like that, Joseph Muscat devalues himself and devalues Malta and will be treated and viewed accordingly, as he treats and views himself: the equivalent of the deputy PM of Vanuatu and Putin’s chief of staff.]
There isn’t enough space or time to review every one of your points – especially on issues of ownership of vital national interests, where I thought I’d been clear that I agree with you.
I’d only note that you seem to have missed my point about the Confucius Centre and Cultural Institute – both of which are, essentially, state-owned Chinese enterprises. These were introduced in Malta with the encouragement of the previous, Nationalist, government – the latter given a prime location in Valletta just steps away from the Foreign Office.
[Daphne – You are completely wrong and so is your argument because it is based on this essentially false premiss: that the Maltese government encouraged China to set up shop here to the point of ‘giving them a prime location just steps away from the Foreign Office’.
The building of which you speak was not Malta government property but private property. It was owned by Eric Pace Bonello and for as long as I can remember it housed his company, Britannia Services Ltd. For a time, he also lived there. When he got a good offer from the Chinese government, he sold it. It is only now that the house is government property – the Chinese government, because they bought it outright and do not rent it.
And in case you’re wondering how I know all this and have the information instantaneously available, the explanation is simple and not suspicious. There is only one other house (with several front doors) on that stretch of Britannia/Melita Street between Merchants Street and St Paul’s, and my grandparents lived in it for around 50 years. My father grew up in the house next door to what is now the Chinese Cultural Institute, and that’s where I visited my grandparents right into my own adulthood.]
Presumably you disapprove of them because you think there will never be any prospect of reciprocity? (as an aside: there are a number of European cultural centres in Beijing, though obviously none of them are able to explicitly promote human rights) Or do you object to them in principle because of your views about China?
[Daphne – I could not have been more clear. The one thing of which nobody can accuse me is ambiguity or lack of clarity in speech and thought. I do not use obfuscating language, either.]
As to the final point re: attendance at the event, I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you. One side of the argument about attending these events (yours) says that doing so devalues Malta. The other side would probably say that if Malta wants/needs something from China, and if the Prime Minister receives an invitation to attend the event (the Chinese want as many foreign VIPs in attendance as possible), he has to consider the message that would be sent by a refusal.
[Daphne – Again, you are wrong. People value you as highly as you value yourself. Malta already has a major problem because it lacks clout in and of itself. Any clout Malta has is by virtue of its membership of the European Union. The minute you align yourself in terms of value with Vanuatu, you have a problem. And Vanuatu did not even send its PM but his deputy. Russia? We all know why Vladimir Putin thinks his chief of staff should be there, though he is too important to go himself (see above).]
The price of dignity may be that your entreaties in other areas are politely ignored – precisely because we have so little leverage.
[Daphne – I trust that this is not how you conduct yourself in your personal life. If it is, then you have a problem. The best way to ensure that your entreaties are ignored – and not politely, either – is to divest yourself of your dignity. Haven’t you ever noticed that the more you put yourself out for someone, the more accommodating you are to them, the likelier they are to take you for granted and treat you like crap, while chasing after those who put themselves on a pedestal and who behave as though they’re the ones bestowing the favour of their attention? This is the operating principle in every sort of human relationship. Muscat has something China is gagging for: an EU member state tiny enough, undemocratic enough and vulnerable enough to be swallowed whole. Yet he is behaving as though he’s the one who’s desperate for something that China has. A tragic error.]
Fautdemieux, just take your money, and shut the fuck up.
You businessmen wrote my country’s foreign policy in Libya, and now you’re doing it in China, and the awe-struck politicians were only to glad to follow your orders.
Oh and it’s “faute de mieux”.
Malta’s prime minister is going to China’s eco-forum because he has been summoned and must obey. It is not essential to attend an international forum to meet his Chinese counterpart, not least because China’s head of government, Li Keqiang, is not going to be there.
fautdemieux, there’s a link between Merkel’s draconian stance on European investment and growth and her more than lacklustre approach to Chinese economic cheating.
She committed to dismantling Germany’s nuclear infrastructure but hasn’t really managed to look after domestic alternative energy producers, even because she couldn’t see past her country’s borders for locating these plants. Her weaknesses for federalistic electoral dynamics come to the fore every decision she takes.
She wasn’t even capable of forcing through economic sanctions to counter Chinese double dealing when it comes to energy supply and market regulations protecting European industry.
Or better, it’s useless looking at the Chinese market as some manna unless democracy prevails in that continent.
After all, Greece bailed out Germany once, and Merkel acted too late bringing a people to their knees.
We’re now in a situation where German exports risk dumping to make up for an EU relegated back to 1997 in terms of GDP levels.
It’s what happens when the main trading partner couldn’t care less for the rights and life of its workforce.
800 million living in absolute poverty in the provinces, waiting for forced displacement to Chinese megacities to replace those 200 million earning 2 dollars a week, once these are exhausted, make sure the Chinese government still holds the trump card; excess labour at impossibly low costs.
Given that the Chinese won’t change, perhaps we should.
What Muscat’s doing is sabotage our rights and those of China’s slave workers.
‘800 million living in absolute poverty in the provinces, waiting for forced displacement to Chinese megacities to replace those 200 million earning 2 dollars a week, once these are exhausted, make sure the Chinese government still holds the trump card; excess labour at impossibly low costs.’
I’m afraid that the reality in China is rather different than what you are describing. For information about poverty, see this: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/CHN
Also, for the record: I can’t explain, nor would I seek to justify, things (like contracts) that I don’t know anything about.
@fautdemieux
People in China are being systematically driven out of their homes and off their land in the name of development. Some are killed for protesting too much.
Those stories rarely make the international news because 1) it is next to impossible to report freely from China, and 2) any internal independent reports are removed asap.
Periodically, homemade videos of people being removed from their land pop up online. Those are the few that make it. Most disappear from view almost as soon as they are uploaded.
China is very efficient at suppressing dissent and criticism. They call it the maintenance of social harmony. In Muscat-speak, that would be energija pozittiva.
There are fortunes to be made from formal relations with China. Your mistake is in assuming that the net benefits accrue to Malta.
Perhaps fautdemieux could explain how a civil servant’s contract becomes a state secret.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-07-05/news/asia-investment-envoy-sai-mizzis-contract-still-a-state-secret-5725356033/
Am I to assume her role includes doing stuff I better not know? It’s the nature and contents of the contract that’s being held from us, not just her blessed salary.
Economic growth and wealth cannot be removed from democratic principles and safeguards, anything else and it becomes stealthy power brokering. .
The irony there is that Sai Liang Mizzi’s contract is declared a state secret, as though it is perfectly normal to say such a thing.
Muscat said his MOU will cover all aspects of Malta’s economy. One assumes, then, that it includes provisions against human trafficking.
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-06-29/news/malta-a-source-and-destination-country-for-women-and-children-subjected-to-sex-trafficking-5652709376/
By extension, it is fair to assume that Muscat will also take a firm stand against the arrest of human rights activists:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140614/world/China-arrests-prominent-rights-lawyer.523333