Last week I spotted a sign in Beijing’s metro trying to convince harried commuters to visit Turkey. “Not the same as Europe. Not the same as Asia” ran the advertisements.
They aren’t the only country pinning their hopes in Chinese tourists.
Morocco’s tourist agency has just set up an office in Beijing, after Morocco was added to China’s approved destination status last year, alone with Syria and Oman.
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The Middle East is plastered with posters of the region’s Kings, Presidents, and Prime Ministers. They are everywhere, from shops to street corners. So, it seems like a nice business to be printing them. At least, that’s what two Chinese entrepreneurs must have thought until they ended up in a Moroccan court last week. They’ve been lucky to escape with a $650 fine, according to this report, rather than going to prison. Their crime? Printing pictures of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in China, only to be caught bringing them into Morocco.
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You sometimes have to shake a bottle to see what’s inside. In 2006, Israeli warplanes struck at Lebanese infrastructure. Suddenly there were stories of Chinese construction companies packing up and leaving Lebanon, and it was only then did it become obvious how many were operating in the country.
Much the same is true today. The recent unrest in China’s western provinces has underscored the extent of China’s presence in North Africa.
There are 20,000 Chinese nationals in Algeria alone, not to mention Libya and Morocco. Their numbers hadn’t attracted much attention until last week when local extremists threatened to target them with reprisals. The Chinese Embassy in Algeria went so far as to issue a warning to its nationals.
The events underscore an important point about China’s engagement with the Middle East―you won’t always read about it on the front pages of the Financial Times or New York Times. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. And a quick shake of the bottle can produce often unexpected results.
I’ve spent the last week speaking at events in Beijing and Shanghai. I have to admit surprise at the number of people I’ve met who are exploring commercial opportunities between China and the Middle East. It’s still early days. But interest is growing.
However, it was a comment by a reporter from a Moroccan news agency that caught me by surprise. He spoke of large numbers of Chinese traders swamping markets in Morocco. I haven’t seen the same in the rest of the region. Most of the Middle East’s governments impose strict limits on the ability of foreign traders to sell direct to locals.
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“China cheat sheet helps investors survive”, Bloomberg, September 1, 2010
“No more silver bullets for Beijing”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010
“China’s historic return to the Gulf”, Foreign Policy, April 2, 2010
'The New Silk Road' is published by Palgrave Macmillan and is available in all good bookstores and through online retailers.
