Double Handshake

Writing a blog about China and Latin America, some news stories seem just too good to be true. This is one of them: Real, live bullfighting may be coming to Beijing as early as next year. CAS International, a Dutch anti-bullfighting organization, reports:

According to pro-bullfighting websites, bullfighter Manolo Sánchez made a deal with the local government of the Huairou District in Beijing (Peking) to build a bullring and a bull breeding farm close to the Chinese Wall, as part of a Spanish amusement park (also with tapas bars and flamenco shows).

…

In January, they want to import 100 bulls and 100 cows from Spain and they also want to start building the bullring. The bullring will be finished in October 2010 and will be inaugurated with two bullfights. From 2011, they want to organize 16 bullfights a year, 4 in June, 4 in July, 4 in August and 4 in September.

Wow. Where to start on this one?

It’s worth remembering that China has toyed with this idea before. In 2004, Beijing almost allowed the city’s Wild Animal Park to hold a fight, but eventually scrapped the idea. City council members complained that bullfighting was cruel and had “the potential to tarnish Beijing’s and China’s image” ahead of the Olympics.

However, that same year in October, Shanghai successfully held two days of bullfights. Organizers imported bulls from Mexico, matadors from Spain, and converted a city stadium into a bullring, spending US$605,000. Bulls were taunted and stabbed with spears, but not killed.

Not all fell under the spell of “a bullfight with a truly Spanish flavor.” The editorial board of China Daily called the event a “mistake.”

While animal protection and anti-violence is becoming more fashionable in society, Shanghai’s “bravery” in staging this kind of bloodsport betrays itself as one of China’s most modern cities.

Rather than a milestone in its bid to become a much-coveted international metropolis status – indeed, the bullfighting episode is more like a slap in the face.

Will this time be any different?

Worldwide, times are tough for the industry. Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region recently banned the sport, and other regions may soon follow suit. In Latin America, bullfighting can be found in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela and may survive there a bit longer. Still, anti-bullfighting sentiment is on the rise in Latin America too. Many people see exporting the sport to China and other foreign countries as a last-ditch strategy to save a dying industry. Pro-fighting optimists may believe China to be bullfighting’s last great hope.

But don’t count on it. Organizations like CAS International are already circulating petitions and mobilizing efforts to stop the sport from coming to China. On top of that, it will only take one top cadre deciding there is something decidedly “uncivilized” about the bloodsport before this plan gets scuttled like the last. Don’t get me wrong, I think most Chinese could stomach the blood to watch for the “mystery” and “passion,” as this account can attest.

My guess is this project becomes something much more benign and tourism-friendly – more “Spanish amusement park” and less bullfighting. Bloodless “bullfighting demonstrations,” perhaps. Tourists dressed up as matadors. Tours of the stables and photos with the bulls. Chinese copies of Death in the Afternoon, plastic banderillas, magnets and other tchotchkes – these all seem likely.

An authentic bullfight in Huairou? Not so much.

Image: China Daily

Last November, just before 2008’s APEC conference in Lima, Peru, China made news by releasing its first policy white paper describing its overall strategy for engagement with Latin American and the Caribbean. It’s a lengthy and far-ranging document, with sections devoted to political visits, trade cooperation and even sports exchanges. One finishes this document thinking: China’s top priority in Latin America may be procuring natural resources, but it has much more planned than that.

What about the reverse? Does, say, Brazil have an overall strategy for engaging with China? Has it been codified in its own white paper? Are Brazilian students flocking to Chinese language programs in Sao Paulo to gain a leg-up for the explosion of Chinese investment that’s to come over the next twenty years? The answers are all no. From Reuters:

China and Latin American specialists speaking at a conference in Sao Paulo said China sees Latin America as vital to its own future energy, food and economic security, but that the region had been slow to develop China policies.

“Latin America is acting toward China’s expansion in the world in a reactive, disorganized or ad hoc fashion,” said David Shambaugh, professor of political science at The George Washington University.

“When I asked Itamaraty (Brazil’s foreign ministry) about its strategy on China, I got blank stares. There is no strategy.”

Shambaugh, who is very well-respected on China-Latin American relations, has talked about Latin America’s unpreparedness for China before. Countries like Brazil and Argentina granted China market economy status years ago, which has created problems as Chinese manufactuers undercut local producers. “It’s almost as if these (countries) didn’t do their homework,” said Shambaugh. “The United States, Europe, Japan and Australia did not grant China market economy status.”

This alleged lack of strategy includes language. The article notes there are only two serious Chinese language studies programs in all of Latin America, one in Mexico City, the other in Buenos Aires. It is telling that in Latin America, the biggest development in Chinese language learning has come from China itself, in the form of its promoting Confucius Institutes abroad. These centers, which promote Chinese language learning and culture, are springing up throughout Latin America and the rest of the world. As of May, 328 institutes had been established, including a new one at Catolica University in Santiago, Chile.

I’ll add tourism to this list as well. Traveling in Peru, Chile and Argentina, I often asked tour operators about the prospect of Chinese tourists. Many of their eyes lit up at the prospect of a billion customers. Like many countries, Latin American countries are anticipating a wave of newly monied Chinese tourists to arrive in the coming years.

Yet, aside from some enterprising Chinese and Taiwanese businessmen I met in Lima, no one I spoke to was prepared to handle Chinese-speaking tour groups. Nearly no one in these tourism industries speak the language or understand the, um, unique demands of the Chinese tourist (hot water thermoses, slippers, casinos, shopping). It seems that when the tourism wave hits Latin America, it will be Chinese-owned (or ethnically Chinese-owned) tourism companies that will cash in.

So, how long will Latin American countries wait before they formulate their own China strategy?

There was one other agreement signed during Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to Latin America last week not related to energy or commodities. China named Colombia an official tourism destination, the 9th country in Latin America secure such status. Other countries officially sanctioned by Beijing include: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Costa Rica.

There are lots of impressive projections about China’s number of overseas tourists. From the Latin American Herald Tribune article linked above:

China is the fourth largest tourist-sending country in the world, surpassing Germany, Britain and the United States, and projections are that some 47 million Chinese will travel abroad as tourists in 2009 and 65 million in 2012.

Less impressive, however, is that the only direct flight between China and Latin America I’ve heard about was launched last year: Shanghai-Mexico City. And without direct connections, Chinese travelers to Latin America end up flying far out of their way to avoid layovers in the US and European countries that require transit visas. A friend of mine told me he spent 30 hours flying from Beijing to Lima, with a ten-hour layover in Amsterdam.

Asking Chinese tourists to spend 60 hours in airports and planes for perhaps a week-long vacation is a tall order. And for those who do endure the transit time, jet lag and foreignness of Colombia, I can already imagine their tour bus pulling up to the beach in Cartegena:

“It’s okay, but not as nice as Hainan.”

Image: francescamichael.dk

*A pinyinization of 哥伦比亚欢迎你! or “Welcome to Colombia!”