Last Monday, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) published its annual report on the nation’s internet usage and infrastructure. According to the report, the Chinese internet continues to boom, with usage swelling 10% to 564 million users in 2012. But the report also shows that the country’s internet use – much like its economy – is highly uneven.

While web penetration in Beijing surpassed 72% in 2012, fewer than 30% of residents in the interior province of Jiangxi are internet users. To put those figures in perspective, Beijing’s internet usage is comparable to that of Hong Kong or Israel. Jiangxi, on the other hand, lags behind Uzbekistan, Bolivia, and Tuvalu.

In terms of the production of online content, the gap is even wider. Beijing-based websites host over 38 billion web pages, or an average of 1,890 pages per city resident. Tibetan-based sites host fewer than 3.5 million pages, or just over one page per person.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gini coefficient, income gap, Internet proliferation, urban rural divide
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The Chinese ambassador to Sudan, Luo Xiaoguang, told China Central Television in an interview in Khartoum that anti-government rebels attacked the road project the Chinese were working on.

“There are still Chinese workers missing. Some others are still being held by the anti-government armed forces,” Luo said.

Xinhua said 47 Chinese workers were caught in the attack in the South Kordofan region of Sudan. It said 29 were captured and the other 18 fled, and that one of those who fled remains missing.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing had no immediate comment Tuesday. A statement from the workers’ company, Sinohydro Corp., said that it and the Chinese Embassy would “spare no effort in ensuring the personal safety of those abducted and rescuing them.”

More details have emerged about the incident, which occurred amid a fight between the Sudanese army and SPLM-N rebels after the rebels attacked the work camp operated by Power Construction Corp of China. While the rebels claim they took the 29 missing workers and held then for their own safety, Reuters reported that 17 other Chinese nationals fled the scene and were taken to safety by the Sudanese army. 34 Chinese workers, including the 17 that had successfully escaped, were safely transported to Khartoum on Monday, according to China Daily.

Chinese in Africa are on alert, according to The Global Times, as the incident has exposed the potential dangers of China’s business activities in emerging markets:

Jiang Yong, a director of the Center for Economic Security Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that although some Chinese institutions provide crisis evaluation services for investment destinations, results of the evaluation do not keep pace with the fast changing situation in those unstable regions.

“We need more sufficient and detailed analysis for those regions, and should have precautionary plans in place for all kinds of emergencies,” Jiang said Monday.

…

Yao Guimei, a researcher with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that huge risks and interests coexist for investment in Africa.

“The security situation in Sudan is unstable. But that doesn’t mean Chinese enterprises should stop their investments there. They should be fully prepared for uncertainties. That said, the Sudanese authorities should also protect Chinese workers as they are involved in infrastructure projects to improve the local livelihood,” according to Yao.

Update: Sudanese officials have amended statements from Monday that it had freed nearly half of the 29 Chinese workers, statements which China has denied. From The Wall Street Journal:

The Sudan state news agency said early Tuesday that Sudanese forces had freed 13 Chinese workers kidnapped from a road-construction camp Saturday but that 29 remained in captivity. That was at odds with official statements Monday from the Sudanese news agency, which said 14 of the 29 had been rescued.

Still, many details of the incident remained unclear Tuesday. Sudan said there were 65 Chinese nationals in the camp at the time of the attack. The 13 freed and 23 who weren’t taken hostage were flown to Khartoum on Monday, the Sudanese military said.

In a statement Tuesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said there were 47 Chinese workers at the camp when it was attacked, with 29 abducted while 18 others fled to neighboring areas.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Chinese officials departed for Sudan on Monday night to assist in securing the release of the workers.

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Post tags: Africa, Internet proliferation, Power Construction Corp of China, rebels, Sudan
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The army has been fighting rebels of the SPLM-N in South Kordofan bordering newly independent South Sudan since June. Fighting spread to the northern Blue Nile state in September.

“We are holding 29 Chinese workers after a battle with the army yesterday,” a spokesman for the SPLM-N said. “They are in good health. We are holding them for their own safety because the army was trying to strike again.”

The army said rebels had attacked the compound of a Chinese construction company operating in the area between the towns of Abbasiya and Rashad in the north of the state and captured 70 civilians.

“Most of them are Chinese. They (the rebels) are targeting civilians,” said army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad.

Chinese state media reported on Monday that all contact had been lost with the workers, while Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party condemned the attack and a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry confirmed that the two sides had begun emergency procedures. Power Construction Corp of China, the employer of the abducted Chinese nationals, told Xinhua News that it had launched its own emergency response:

Wang Zhiping, a senior executive of the company, told Xinhua that the company had set up an emergency work group at its headquarters in order to closely monitor the latest development of the case.

Wang said the company had been in touch with the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Embassy to Sudan, and Sudan’s government about rescuing the missing workers.

The company had also ordered its overseas branches to upgrade security to prevent similar cases from happening, Wang said.

The attack occurred the same day that a top Chinese political advisor met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir at the African Union Summit in Ethiopia, where the two sides spoke of their friendly cooperation. China is the largest foreign investor in Sudan, according to The Global Times, and Sudan attracts the largest slice of Chinese investment in Africa:

“A large part of Chinese overseas investments is still concentrated in undeveloped and developing areas. The problem is that Chinese companies rely too much on the protection of host nations while lacking up-to-date risk analysis and response mechanisms,” said He Wenping, deputy director of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Besides increasing alertness and strengthening coordination with local governments, it’s time for Chinese companies to consider inviting private security companies to guarantee the safety of their overseas investments,” He said.

China has sent work crews to unstable parts of the world for decades, says The New York Times, but Internet proliferation and the increased availability of information from abroad have given the Chinese public a better glimpse into the dangers faced by such workers:

Neil Ashdown, an Asia and Pacific analyst based in London for IHS Global Insight, a consulting firm, said that Chinese firms tend to send more people to work on projects abroad than Western companies do, and that the workers are more likely to be joined by their families, putting even more Chinese in dangerous locations.

At the same time, in the last three years Chinese Internet users have become much more vociferous in demanding that their government protect Chinese citizens in danger around the world, comparing Beijing’s efforts unfavorably with rescues mounted by Western nations.

“The Chinese government and the military should send in our commandos to infiltrate deeply into Sudan and rescue the kidnapped 29 Chinese workers, should talks fail,” wrote one Chinese blogger using the tag line, “Good luck to our military guys.”

Update: Sudanese troops have freed 14 of the workers, according to Sudanese officials. From BBC News:

State media quoted South Kordofan governor Ahmed Mohamed Haroun as saying that the military “liberated” the workers, who were in good health.

The search for the remaining Chinese workers – who were involved in the construction of a road – is continuing.

A Sudanese government spokesman called the abductions “a crime against humanity,” according to The New York Times:

On Monday, Mr. Rabie said that the kidnapping of the Chinese workers was “supported by the South Sudan government,” while at the same time, officials in South Sudan blamed Khartoum for backing recent militia attacks in South Sudan. It was not clear why Sudanese rebels would have kidnapped Chinese workers.

On Sunday, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group operating in Kordofan and allied to South Sudan, said it “has nothing against China and the Chinese.”

“The leadership of the S.P.L.M.-N.,” said a statement from the group, is “exerting the maximum effort to obtain accurate information from our forces in the field regarding the Chinese who were detained in Southern Kordofan.”

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abduction, Africa, Internet proliferation, Power Construction Corp of China, rebels, Sudan
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