This article in the Financial Times tells how cheap Chinese exports are threatening traditional Palestinian manufacturing. It explains how Chinese-made keffiyahs, traditional Palestinian headscarves, are selling for half the price of the locally manufactured version. The secretary of Hebron’s chamber of commerce, and a shoe manufacturer, worries that the local shoe industry employs just 5,000 workers versus 15,000 a decade ago.
read more
Tag Archives: Palestine
Made-in-China keffiyahs cause problems for the West Bank
The Gaza Spotlight
Ahmed Mussa speaks good Chinese. He should. He’s the Palestinian Authority’s envoy in Beijing. I watched his interview on Xinhua, China’s state news agency, earlier this week. For thirty minutes he argued the Palestinian case in front of his Chinese host. He criticized Israel. But also opposed the rocket attacks by Hamas. He talked of the links between Arab Jews and Arab Muslims. He also worried that the Arab states would fail to unite in opposition.
The fighting in Gaza shines a spotlight on relations between China and the Arab world. No surprise, but the state of relations has changed rapidly over the past decade.
Silk Road Gallery
Canton Trade Fair
August 12th, 2010
August 12th, 2010
“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
