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A View from Afar: How Colombia Sees China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2012

Ariel C. Armony
Ariel C. Armony
Affiliation:
University of Miami. Email: armony@miami.edu
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Abstract

The fast-paced landing of China in Latin America raises the question of how such a complex relationship is being built from little previous contact. Focusing on Colombia's printed media, the article examines the construction of China's public image. A Janus-faced view of China is initially revealed: a growing power perceived as an auspicious trade partner on the one hand; a troubling new actor in the international context on the other. Further analysis shows shades of grey that reveal a multifaceted, continuously evolving image of China that tells us much about both countries. The depiction of China's rising power, whose direction and purpose suggest a paradigm of “modernity without enlightment,” brings light to Colombia's unsettled accounts with democracy and development. The article sets a launching pad for further research on such mutually constitutive relationships.

Keywords

China's imageLatin AmericaColombiaJapannews mediahuman rightsdemocracy
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 209 , March 2012 , pp. 178 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2012

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References

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6 Ibid.

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8 A preliminary examination of leading newspapers in Argentina and Chile indicates that the Colombian case is not unique.

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18 China views Latin America as the “backyard” of the United States and designs its policy towards the region according to that assumption.

19 Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, expressed in a June 2011 interview that his bank would consider financing a “dry canal” in Colombia, highlighting the importance of investing in infrastructure for trade diversification. Figari, Luciano, “BID financiaría un canal alternativo al de Panamá,” El Nuevo Herald, 25 June 2011, p. 14AGoogle Scholar.

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22 See Armony, Ariel C. and Armony, Victor, “Indictments, myths, and citizen mobilization in Argentina: a discourse analysis,” Latin American Politics and Society, Vol. 47, No. 4 (2005), pp. 27–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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25 See Yan, Yunxiang, “The changing moral landscape,” in Kleinman, Arthur, Yan, Yunxiang, Jun, Jing, Lee, Sing and Zhang, Everett (eds.), Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), pp. 36–77Google Scholar.

26 El Tiempo presents slightly more positive coverage of China than El Espectador, but this difference is not significant.

27 “Zapatos chinos, los enemigos.”

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29 Maldonado, Juan Camilo, “Copenhague es obsoleto,” El Espectador, 12 October 2009Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/internacional/articuloimpreso166303-copenhague-obsoleto, accessed 10 May 2011; “Cambio climático: la cumbre del fin del mundo,” El Tiempo, 29 October 2009Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-6463989, accessed 10 May 2011; Hennessey, Manuel Guzmán, “Hacia un G-2 del clima,” El Tiempo, 10 September 2010Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-4135564, accessed 10 July 2010. El Espectador published an op-ed piece written by the Chinese ambassador to Colombia in which he argued that China was willing to support cooperation to establish transparent mechanisms to monitor compliance with the reduction of emissions. Gao Zhengyue, , “Un nuevo punto de partida,” El Espectador, 6 January 2010Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/print/180766, accessed 10 May 2011.

30 Valencia, Fanny Lucía Pedraza, “Bonos de carbón: negocio ambiental para países industrializados,” UNPeriódico, 11 September 2011Google Scholar, http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co/dper/article/bonos-de-carbono-negocio-ambiental-para-paises-industrializados.html, accessed 16 September 2011.

31 See Lampton, Three Faces, p. 260.

32 Both newspapers resort to international NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders as well as democratic governments and prominent human rights activists and leaders as sources of authority when criticizing China's human rights record. “Liu Xiaobo, el tercer Nobel de la Paz que está tras las rejas,” El Tiempo, 8 October 2010Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-8103362, accessed 10 May 2011; “Este viernes se conmemora el Día Internacional contra la Tortura,” El Espectador, 25 June 2009Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/print/147659, accessed 10 May 2011. El Espectador is much more demanding with China when it comes to its human rights record. El Tiempo covers this subject in a more neutral manner and does not tend to follow up on stories. While El Tiempo concentrates any criticisms in its op-ed section, El Espectador displays its negative portrayal of China throughout the news section as well.

33 “Hu admite faltas de China en DD.HH.,” El Espectador, 19 January 2011Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/print/245943, accessed May 10 2011.

34 See e.g. “Heroína del pueblo uigur,” El Espectador, 12 July 2009, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/internacional/articuloimpreso150328-heroina-del-pueblo-uigur, accessed 11 July 2010. Both newspapers paid attention to the racial tensions in the province between the Uygurs and the Han migration encouraged by Beijing. El Espectador depicted the Uygurs as an oppressed minority (which the paper compared to the Tibetan resistance) while El Tiempo adopted a more neutral stance, less controversial, and with a more sympathetic approach to the Chinese institutions, particularly as it highlighted the connections between the Uygur elites and extremist Islamic groups, and the challenges that these connections posed for the Chinese government. “Aumenta a 12 número de muertos por atentado y tiroteo en la ciudad de Kuqa, China,” El Tiempo, 11 August 2008Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-4439701, accessed 7 May 2011; “Nuevo ataque de separatistas en China aumenta a 31 el total de muertos en una semana,” El Tiempo, 12 August 2008Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-4443902, accessed 7 May 2011; Reinoso, José, “Corre, que vienen los chinos,” El Espectador, 7 July 2009Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/internacional/articuloimpreso149476-corre-vienen-los-chinos, accessed 7 May 2011; Mayorga, David, “La lucha y la tragedia uigur,” El Espectador, 7 July 2009Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/articuloimpreso149473-lucha-y-tragedia-uigur, accessed 7 May 2011.

35 The debate had different dimensions. One of the most controversial aspects was whether the decision actually meant that Colombia's government was supporting the boycott against the Nobel committee promoted by the Chinese authorities. The Colombian Foreign Ministry made an effort to minimize the decision and asserted that a consular delegate would attend the event. “Colombia enviará un representante a entrega de Nobel de Paz,” El Espectador, 9 December 2010Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/articulo-239488-colombia-enviara-un-representante-entrega-de-nobel-de-paz, accessed 10 May 2011.

36 “Colombia y otros 18 países no irán a entrega del Nobel a Liu Xiaobo,” El Tiempo, 7 December 2010Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-8538860, accessed 10 May 2011.

37 “Nobel de Paz para un ausente,” El Espectador, 12 October 2010Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/internacional/articuloimpreso-239776-nobel-de-paz-un-ausente, accessed 10 July 2011.

38 “El Nobel de la discordia,” El Espectador, 8 December 2010Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/articuloimpreso-239317-el-nobel-de-discordia, accessed 10 July 2011; “Desliz diplomático,” El Espectador, 9 December 2010Google Scholar, http://www.elespectador.com/articulo-239629-desliz-diplomatico, accessed 10 May 2011.

39 See Yinghong Cheng, “The ‘socialist other’: Cuba in Chinese ideological discussions since the 1990s.”

40 Colombia continues to struggle with the challenge to control human rights violations. The government has been denounced as having been unable or unwilling to dismantle the country's “police state.” See e.g. Stanton, Kimberly, “Colombia's halting progress on human rights,” The Guardian, 5 June 2011Google Scholar, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/05/colombia-human-rights, accessed 16 June 2011.

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42 These violations have been widely documented. See e.g. the work undertaken by WOLA, http://www.wola.org/search/node/colombia.

43 Shihab, Laila Abu, “Tiananmen, herida abierta,” El Tiempo, 31 May 2009Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-3464987, accessed 10 May 2011.

44 Samper, Daniel, “El chino de los tanques,” El Tiempo, 7 June 2009Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-3475243, accessed 10 May 2011.

45 Rotta, Adriana La, “Valores: ¿universales?” El Tiempo, 16 October 2010Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-8133295, accessed 10 May 2011.

46 “Y otro tras las rejas,” El Tiempo, 9 October 2010Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-8109681, accessed 5 October 2011. Interestingly, corruption (a serious problem in both China and Latin America) is given no more than passing attention in Colombia's news coverage on the East Asian country.

47 La Rotta, “Valores.”

48 See Johnston, Alastair Iain and Stockman, Daniela, “Chinese attitudes toward the United States and Americans,” in Katzenstein, Peter J. and Keohane, Robert O. (eds.), Anti-Americanisms in World Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), pp. 160–61Google Scholar.

49 “China, United States, and hegemonic challenge (HC) in Latin America: an overview and some lessons from previous instances of hegemonic challenge in the region.”

50 This analysis was conducted at the archives of both newspapers in Colombia during the summer of 2011. These archives are incomplete so it was necessary to develop an alternative methodology (which included the decision to examine news on Japan every ten issues) in order to canvass the necessary information in a systematic manner.

51 Paz, “China, United States, and hegemonic challenge.”

52 “Suzuki promete protección naval,” El Tiempo, 10 May 1981, p. 6-AGoogle Scholar.

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54 “Informe del Comité de Ensambladoras de motos japonesas: la motocicleta mueve la economía,” El Tiempo – Revista Motor, 29 August 2008Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-4489411, accessed 6 August 2011.

55 “Ahora sí, el Pacífico,” El Tiempo, 24 August 1992Google Scholar, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-185914, accessed 5 August 2011.

56 Duque, Carmenza, “Impresiones de una becaria. ¿Cómo es Japón?” El Tiempo, 3 May 1980, p. 9-EGoogle Scholar.

57 “Cumbre de los Siete Grandes estudiará prestamos a pobres,” El Espectador, 6 June 1987, p. 7-AGoogle Scholar.

58 Data for this type of analysis were available only for the period 1990 to 2010. Similar data for El Espectador were not available.

59 Comments by Yunxiang Yan at the conference “From the Great Wall to the New World.”

60 Yan, Yunxiang, “The Good Samaritan's new trouble: a study of the changing moral landscape in contemporary China,” Social Anthropology, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2009), pp. 9–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the relationship between wealth creation and its impact on China's social interactions, see Zang, Xiaowei, “Market transition, wealth, and status claims,” in Goodman, David S.G. (ed.), The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives (London: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar.

61 Ridao, José María, “Occidente ya no es Occidente,” El País, 19 September 2011Google Scholar, http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Occidente/Occidente/elpepisoc/20110919elpepisoc_1/Tes, accessed 21 September 2011.

62 Mawdsley, “Fu Manchu,” p. 525.

63 “Framing and claiming: contemporary globalization and ‘going out’ in China's rhetoric towards Latin America.”

64 See Ríos, Xulio, “Libia y la abstención de China,” El País, 11 April 2011, p. 23Google Scholar.

65 See Yunxiang Yan, “The changing moral landscape.”

66 Some news articles presented more than one dimension of China (e.g. they referred to its human rights record and its economic development). Accordingly, the sample generated a total of 524 observations.