Bye-bye, China!

Whenever overseas businessmen and bankers talk of India, their glowing references to the possibilities offered by the home-grown economic story are invariably tempered by unflattering allusions to the limitations imposed by the state of the physical infrastructure.

Everything from the unavailability of hotel rooms at less-than-exorbitant rates to the frequent impositions of power cuts to the nightmarish experience of navigating city roads is invoked in justification of their contention that India, for all its endearing charms and oddities, still counts as a “‘hardship posting”’ for many expatriates.

And inevitably, these limitations are compared unfavourably with China’s infrastructural strengths and the sheer ease of setting up and running businesses and getting things done. 

China’s famed advantage in this regard isn’t really overstated. China’s manufacturing cluster phenomenon and wholesale markets literally grease the tracks for importers looking to source from China. There is plentiful availability of hotel accommodation (with broadband Internet and — ahem! — karaoke bars and massage parlours) across budget ranges, and not just in the big cities either.

And China’s enormous investments in high-speed inter-city rail and road networks have slashed commute times and made for ease of travel. Indicatively, when the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway link is completed in a few years, it will reduce travel time between the two cities — which are about as far apart as Mumbai and Delhi — to just four hours! During peak hours there is expected to be a train every five minutes, and unlike with Indian Railways, you won’t have to file applications in triplicate or book tickets in advance.

Additionally, vibrant night-life options in the big cities make China in most cases a pleasurable posting for fun-seeking expats.

But in recent weeks and months, a silent rage has been building up among the expat community in China over the widespread and artless censorship of the Internet by paranoid Chinese officials in the run-up to the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Video sharing website YouTube has been blocked since March; other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have been blocked for over a month. No official reason has been cited for the crude attempt at censorship, but it mirrors similar efforts following last year’s uprising in Tibet and in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. The latest instance also comes in the wake of the riots in Xinjiang in early July, which saw the bloodiest street violence in China in decades.

Sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter aren’t just used for social networking to “throw sheep” at your friends or watching favourite sit-com episodes for free; increasingly, they are being used by small and medium enterprises as platforms for marketing and communication, and even multinationals have woken up to the potential of these platforms.
Some of them have begun to use Twitter, for instance, as a frontline interface with customers to redress their grievances.  In a recent poll on a popular media website in China, 84 per cent of those who responded said China’s Internet blocks made their work more difficult; 90 per cent said it made their personal life and entertainment access more difficult. And strikingly, about 60 per cent said they would consider leaving China because of the Internet blocks!

Even given the small sample size and a bias in favour of heavy Internet users among the respondents, the poll results reflect a growing frustration among expat communities at being subjected to the unsolicited ministrations of China’s Net Nanny. What’s the point of having zippy broadband Internet access if you’re only going to be allowed to navigate in an intranet approved by the Communist Party of China?

The frustration is heightened by the realisation that traditional methods of using technology to get around the Great Firewall of China — by using virtual private networks, for instance — are increasingly being blocked, given the increasing sophistication of China’s Internet censorship technology.

This hurts China at several levels, and reflects poorly on it. Web commentators have noted that the main driver of international trade in the 21st century will not be containers packed with manufactured goods (as it was in the 20th century); the future is about the power of ideas. And with its crude censorship of the Internet, China is in effect choking the flow of ideas.

By drawing up its moat and cutting itself off from the online world, China is showing itself up to be a paranoid power that lacks the self-confidence to deal with the free flow of information — to the point where it is beginning to neutralise, slowly but steadily, its other advantages as a place that’s open for business.