The capitalists are threatened by China’s rise as an economic power

Feb 14, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Americans have resorted to scare and alarmist tactics in response to the entry of Chinese telecommunications and communications companies into western markets. They feel threatened by China’s rise as a global power.
After a major Chinese firm, linked to the Chinese military acquired controlling interest in a US telecommunications entity, concerns were expressed about the possible effects this takeover could have on the national security of the United States.
With typical mimicry, the same concern was expressed locally when it was discovered that one of the major Chinese firms which has secured contracts in Guyana was also linked to the Chinese military. Alarm bells were sounded without anyone trying to understand that the military in China has financial interests in many companies and that this is a model that has been in existence for a very long time and one in fact we should be studying.
Then when two Chinese communications companies began to penetrate the US market and in other markets in which US companies had interests, there were claims that these companies could be used to spy on the United States. Things went as far as there being an investigation by a Senate Intelligence committee hearing.
The global rise of China as an economic power is creating nervousness within the western capitalist system. They are scared stiff about the competition they are receiving from Chinese firms and therefore they are resorting to their old tricks to restrict the access of Chinese firms into markets in which they have a presence.
Ironically, it is the Chinese adaptation of capitalist methods to their State-owned companies that have led to the expansion and success of Chinese firms. These firms are not just spreading but they are dominating markets. The capitalists have decided that this trend must be reversed.
Instead of trying to out-compete the Chinese, they are resorting to scare and alarmist tactics. Guyana has to be wary of the same old scare and alarmist tactics that is employed by capitalists in other parts of the world being used here to try to convince us that the presence of Chinese communications firms in Guyana is not in Guyana’s interest.
Recently, the state-owned Chinese firm was granted a frequency to broadcast in Guyana. The argument is now being made that it is not in Guyana’s public interest to have a channel in our finite broadcast spectrum handed to a foreign power. But what is it not in Guyana’s interest to have something other than western channels beamed here? The Russians have an international channel that is seen on cable in Guyana.
CNN, an American newscast can be had twenty-four hours a day by cable subscribers. So what is so wrong with Guyanese having the option of seeing what the Chinese have to say?
The problem is not with granting a Chinese company a frequency. The problem is lack of clarity as how and when this license was issued. This is related to the concern that there are local companies which have been waiting a long time for their licenses to be considered.
However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that State-owned Chinese television is operating a frequency in Guyana. It is in the public interest that this happens.
Even if it is Chinese propaganda, it at least offsets the propaganda of the western networks, many of which try to portray China in a negative light. At least the Guyanese public will get to see things from a Chinese perspective and will be able to make up their own minds about the truth.
There is a large and growing Chinese community in Guyana and those persons are entitled to see news about their homeland. When Chinese programmes from the same State -owned Chinese company were aired each day on NCN, there were no complaints about the public interest being affected or about Chinese propaganda being aired using the State media.
There could not be any complaints because the same facilities were afforded on radio to the Voice of the America and the BBC and still are today. The BBC is owned by the British government and the Voice of America broadcasts American government propaganda.
What Guyana needs is not just a liberalized communications spectrum but one that appeals to diverse interests and groups in the country, including the growing Chinese and Indian expatriate communities.
We have growing numbers of non-residents in Guyana and they should be allowed some means of watching their own programmes, in their own language. There is absolutely nothing wrong with frequencies and channels being dedicated to immigrant or minority communities.
This happens even in the West where there are channels dedicated to such communities. There are also religious channels in the West. So what is so objectionable to there being a channel in Guyana that airs Chinese programmes. Is the objections because it is State-owned? Are there private Chinese television companies that will be willing to cater for the local Chinese community?
What is worrying is not the fact that the Chinese State-owned TV is transmitting locally. What is worrying are the circumstances surrounding the grant of this license considering that there was at one time a hold on the issuance of new licenses pending broadcast legislation and secondly, the fact that persons who had applied for broadcast licenses many years ago were recently told to reapply for their broadcast licenses.
The Chinese are not the issue; the issue is the process of granting broadcasting licenses.

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