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1、Chinas Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijings Image.By Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Arajo. Translated by Catherine Mansfield.Crown; 350 pages; $26.Buy fromA,Amazon.co.ukChina Goes Global: The Partial Power.By David Shambaugh.Oxford Universi

2、ty Press; 409 pages; $29.95 and 20.AandIn this section Toasting the world （or not） Brothers in arms The joy of stats Complex persecution Where fingers do the walking Diplomatic whirlReprintsRelated topics ChinaA CHANGING China has long been a mirror in which visitors can see their expectations and t

3、heir own character reflected. Glass-half-full people argue that hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty and millions are now being empowered by their use of the internet and their increased spending power. The less positive point out that human rights are routinely abused, freedom of sp

4、eech is restricted and corruption endemic. Both are right. It just depends where you look and what you want to see.The same, it turns out, is true of Chinas engagement with the world, according to two new books. In “Chinas Silent Army” Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Arajo, both Spanish journalist

5、s, claim that China is at the height of its expansion across the world and that its long-term vocation is global. The world, they argue, faces a slow but steady conquest that is already laying the foundations for the new world order of the 21st century: “a world under Chinas leadership”.The two repo

6、rters set out to show, in a highly readable fashion, the growing Chinese impact on every corner of the globe. From the gasfields of Turkmenistan to the bazaars of Dubai and the mines of Congo, they find Chinese workers trying to extract what they can from foreign customers and the earths crust. The

7、arrival of goods and people from China is changing how business is done. Chinese traders have taken over the main thoroughfare of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, which is now known as Boulevard Mao. They are plundering Burmas forests and jade mines. “The Chinese overseas community is like a giant Mas

8、onic lodge,” complains one Argentinian. “We feel like were living in a Chinese colony,” adds a Peruvian miner, whose mine （and town） were bought by a state-owned Chinese company.Certainly there is plenty to complain about. Many Chinese companies bring their own workers to Africa, or treat local work

9、ers badly when they do hire them. Environmental damage is widespread. The unaccountability of Chinese companies at home is extended abroad as they team up with rapacious local elites.This is an important summary of some of the worst Chinese behaviour around the world, but hyperbole weakens its argum

10、ent. The authors claim that all the jobs created, infrastructure built and cheap goods provided are “undoubtedly eclipsed by its approach to labour conditions”, ignoring the fact that Chinese investment brings positive change as well as problems. They indicate that the “Chinese miracle” at home has

11、been a miracle mainly for political elites, a claim that is easy to disprove simply by walking around any Chinese city. Most improbably, they claim that the world is becoming “sinicised”.“China Goes Global” tells the other side of the story. The author, David Shambaugh, a China specialist at George

12、Washington University, says it is wrong even to suggest that the world is, or will be, “under Chinas leadership”. The country is not nearly as powerful as people think, he argues. Its footprint is “broad, but not deep”. Mr Shambaugh takes issue with the idea that China is trying to lock up internati

13、onal mineral production and provides statistics to back up his argument. “Buy up, yes,” he writes. “Lock up, no.” Chinese companies share of global mining investments was less than 6% of global transactions in 2010. Few Chinese mergers and acquisitions abroad have been successful, and Chinas oversea

14、s direct investment is on a par with Denmarks.The author goes on to look at the countrys global security and cultural presence. He concludes that China has either not tried （in the case of a military presence）, or has tried and failed （in pushing its soft power） to expand its influence globally. He

15、believes the notion that China will rule the world to be “profoundly overstated and incorrect”. And he adds that the nation has a “very long way to go before it becomesif it ever becomesa true global power”.Mr Shambaugh also investigates Chinas global economic expansion. Exports, he says, are still

16、dominated by low-end consumer products and there is almost no Chinese brand recognition. “Merely having a global presence does not equal having global power,” he writes. Chinese people and companies may have gone global, but China is not influencing world affairs beyond the realm of trade and the en

17、ergy markets. It is not influential in addressing and solving global problems because its leaders are too busy trying to address domestic problems. The fact that China does not really have a civil society of its own means it is less likely to engage in civil society abroad. It is a narrowly self-int

18、erested power that ventures overseas to support its own economic growth and little else.The author admits that he was surprised by his findings. He had expected to come to a very different conclusion. However, in one example after another he provides solid quantitative evidence for his argument. “Ch

19、ina Goes Global” is a fascinating and scholarly challenge to the received wisdom about Chinas rise, and an important critique of the accepted narrative of Chinese expansionism.Africa and ChinaMore than mineralsChinese trade with Africa keeps growing; fears of neocolonialism are overdone|NAIROBIA GRO

20、UP of five tourists from Beijing passes low over Mount Kenya and into the Rift Valley in their private plane before landing on a dusty airstrip surrounded by the yellow trunks and mist-like branches of fever trees. They walk across a grassy opening where zebras and giraffes roam, snapping pictures w

21、hile keeping an eye out for charging buffaloes. When they sit down at a table, they seem hungry but at ease. “Last year I went to the South Pole with some friends,” says one of two housewives, showing off iPhone pictures of a gaggle of penguins on permafrost.Chinese are coming to Africa in ever grea

22、ter numbers and finding it a comfortable place to visit, work in and trade. An estimated 1m are now resident in Africa, up from a few thousand a decade ago, and more keep arriving. Chinese are the fourth-most-numerous visitors to South Africa. Among them will be Chinas new president, Xi Jinping, who

23、 is also going to Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo on his first foreign outing as leader. More than minerals Addled in Addis On to the polls Lets try a less awkward embrace What happened to reform? Asia-Pacific politics Nigeria Africa African politics Chinese politicsThe origin of China

24、s fascination with Africa is easy to see. Between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts lie many of the raw materials desired by its industries. China recently overtook America as the worlds largest net importer of oil. Almost 80% of Chinese imports from Africa are mineral products. China is Africas t

25、op business partner, with trade exceeding $166 billion. But it is not all minerals. Exports to Africa are a mixed bag （see chart）. Machinery makes up 29%.The size of Chinas direct investment in Africa is harder to measure than trade. Last summer Chinas commerce minister, Chen Deming, said the number

26、 “exceeded $14.7 billion, up 60% from 2009”. Around the same time the Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Tian Xuejun, said: “Chinas investment in Africa of various kinds exceeds $40 billion.” Apparently, the first figure is for African investments reported to the government. The second includes est

27、imates of Chinese funds flowing in from tax shelters around the world.Sino-African links have broadened in the past few years. The relationship is now almost as diverse as Africa itself. But Mr Xi will search in vain for the e-mail address of a single African leader who can speak for the rest, rathe

28、r as Henry Kissinger legendarily struggled to find a single phone number for Europe.Until recently China concentrated on a few big resource-rich countries, including Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Zambia. But places like Ethiopia and Congo, where minerals are scarce or hard to extract, ar

29、e now getting more attention, not least as more Chinese businesses branch out into non-resource sectors. State-owned companies compete with private firmsboth tempted by margins often far higher than at home. Young Chinese private-equity funds are also coming to Africa.Africans are far from being ste

30、amrollered. Their governments have shown a surprising assertiveness. The first person to be expelled from Africas youngest country, South Sudan, was a Chinese: Liu Yingcai, the local head of Petrodar, a Chinese-Malaysian oil company and the governments biggest customer, in connection with an alleged

31、 $815m oil “theft”. Congo kicked out two rogue commodities traders in the Kivu region. Algerian courts have banned two Chinese firms from participating in a public tender, alleging corruption. Gabonese officials ditched an unfavourable resource deal. Kenyan and South African conservationists are asking China to stop the trade in ivory and rhino horn.African elites see China as their biggest partner among emerging countries, but by no means the only one. Brazil, Russia and India （also in the BRICS club）, as well as Turkey, Sou