GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
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#1 CHINA COMMITS TO LARGE SCALE IRRIGATION
INTERNET GEOGRAPHY PLUS
#2 THE SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION
PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS
#3 CHINA AND JACK PERRY. PART 11
JACK GETS DOWN TO WORK
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#1 CHINA AND LARGE SCALE IRRIGATION
SOUTH NORTH WATER TRANSFER PROJECT
INTERNET GEOGRAPHY PLUS
Internet Geography is a teaching tool used widely in education. It is a useful source of information about China It has been following the development of the South-North Water Transfer Project in China (SNWTPC) and reports as follows;-
“The US$62 billion scheme, designed to move 12 trillion gallons of water over more than 1000 kilometres, was launched in 2002. The scheme moves water along three distinct routes from the Yangtze River basin in the south to the Yellow River basin in the north.
Q? Why was the South-North water transfer project introduced?
A Northern China has long been a centre of population, industry and agriculture. With all three growing apace, the per capita share of the region’s limited water resources has inevitably kept falling.
The South-North Water Transfer Project is one of the world’s most ambitious and expensive water transfer projects. The project was introduced because:
- there is a significant demand for water for economic growth in the more arid north of China.
- population density is high, so there is considerable demand for domestic water.
- water is needed for irrigating farmland
- there is a water deficit in the country’s north.
- the water table below Beijing is falling at a rate of 5m per year due to over-abstraction.
Q? What are the advantages of the South-North water transfer project?
- The advantages of the South-North water transfer project include:
- reducing water insecurity in the north and supporting economic development
- food security is improving as more water is available for irrigation
- health benefits from improved water quality
- improved water supply for the industry
- additional water will help China cope with climate change
- groundwater withdrawal is reducing”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
There are some “Maybe’s”. There may be people displacement due to the construction of dams and resevoirs. There may be ecological damage to the natural environment. Some antiquities may be lost and there is the possibility of evaporation from canals and reservoirs. But China has a track record of achievement when it comes to large scale changes. A Billion people removed from poverty can only be achieved with the wholehearted support of the people as it involves the construction and refurbishment of towns, cities, roads and the countryside on a very large scale.
And there is also the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. When construction of the dam officially began in 1994, it was the largest engineering project in China. At the time of its completion in 2006, it was the largest dam structure in the world. The dam and accompanying hydroelectric plant were built in phases and over the course of many years. It reached its full generating capacity in 2012. The dam allows the navigation of oceangoing freighters and generates hydroelectric power. It was also intended to provide protection from floods, although it is too soon to conclude how successful this has been.
China is on the move. Today we are witnessing history as it happens and onlookers need to re-assess their vision and begin to appreciate the scale and significance of the change that is happening around us. In 1976 China put the chaos and brutality of the Cultural Revolution behind it. There was a new vision – less politics and more economics; fewer slogans and more enterprise; more de-centralisation of the economy and more focus on party discipline; nil tolerance of corruption (in all its guises) and more attention paid to the views of the people.
China has achieved and without civic society and without western democratic procedures. The West is slow to understand the essence of China today and there is a reason. The West thinks there is only one way – the cycle of regular elections – but democracy has become too complicated, too multi-faceted, too short-term, too politically trivial. In the meantime, China pursues a quite different path that increasingly challenges the basics of the Western system. We always live in interesting times but the here and now of today pinpoints the unique position of the world as it wrestles with the old represented by the U.S. and the new represented by China.
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#2 THE SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION – SCO
PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS
“The sight of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin, before the two walked over hand in hand to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the three leaders then sharing a conversation marked by smiles, laughter and general bonhomie, will be one haunting many Western leaders.
That episode took place at the just completed Summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, held in Tianjin, China, on 31 August and 1 September.
What began in 2001 as a modest security forum among six nations — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — the SCO has evolved into a powerful platform for regional co-operation, this summit being its largest.
The SCO, comprising nearly 80% of the Eurasian landmass, is the world’s largest contiguous organisation, stretching from Southeast Asia to the edge of Europe. While the organisation’s initial focus was on counterterrorism and regional stability, economics is now core in binding its members. Infrastructure development is central, with highways, railways and energy pipelines bringing together economies, frequently neglected by Western capital, often doing so by making use of national currencies in mutual settlements.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
As Pearls and Irritations point out, what began in 2001 as a modest security forum among six nations — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — has now evolved into a powerful platform for regional co-operation.
The accession of India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in 2023, and Belarus in 2024, has seen the SCO grow to 10 full members, representing nearly half the world’s population, with 23% of global GDP, though that rises to 36% when GDP is based on Purchasing Power Parity.
Along with the 10 member states there are two partner countries, Afghanistan (inactive since the Taliban came to power in 2021) and Mongolia, with another 15 nations as “dialogue partners”: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, with this summit admitting Laos as the 15th dialogue partner.
The SCO, comprising nearly 80% of the Eurasian landmass, is the world’s largest contiguous organisation, stretching from Southeast Asia to the edge of Europe, providing great advantage for work on a range of areas from economic connectivity, to environment and security.
The SCO has formed a Development Bank that will trigger a yuan-denominated trade and digital payment systems which will operate to circumvent the US dollar, and the danger of US sanctions. The SCO together with BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative present a big challenge to the Western-led global order which is being replaced by a more multipolar global order – that received the warm endorsement from the UN General-Secretary Antonio Gutterres.
Crucial at the meeting was the rapprochement between China and India, with this being Indian Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to China in seven years.
This warming of relations was confirmed in Modi’s opening remarks, in which he noted, relations with China have moved in “a meaningful direction”, assisted, of course, by the recent actions of the Trump regime in placing a 50% tariff on Indian imports. But the China-India entente has greater geo-political significance than just tariffs. Modi said, “India and China both pursue strategic autonomy, and their relations should not be seen through a third country lens.”
Another relationship that has annoyed the US, is that between India and Russia. Modi said that he had an “excellent meeting” with Putin, in which they explored further co-operation “in all sectors”, Modi said of Russia, “our special and privileged strategic partnership remains a vital pillar of regional and global stability”.
The week in Beijing was significant for two events – first the meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation but also for the 80th anniversary of the end of the War against Japan which will be the focus of comment in #589 of Good Morning from London
GRAHAM PERRY
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#3 CHINA AND JACK PERRY. PART 11
JACK GETS DOWN TO WORK.
Jack got busy. He formed a company – London Export Corporation (LEC). He bought in staff with experience in trading commodities. He took a crash course in banking, currencies, letters of credit, bills of lading and learned quickly how to conduct trade and how to organise his company which was so different from the dress business. He grasped the essential role of the banks in the conduct of international trade. He took premises above Boosey and Hawkes in Regent Street, London W1. and opened accounts with the Bank of China and with the Brown Shipley Merchant Bank.
His first venture was to visit Bradford in the north of England and the centre of the U.K. wool trade. Why? Because he received an enquiry from the CNIEC (the China National Import-Export Corporation) for wool tops. Jack was taken aback. What are wool tops? – he enquired. He learned quickly – wool that has been combed so the fibres all run in the same direction. It comes in long, smooth strands and is used in felting techniques.
The world centre for the production of wool tops was Yorkshire and CNIEC wanted to buy £500,000 of product with further quantities to follow. Jack wrote a letter to twenty of the leading wool producers informing them that he would be at the Midland Hotel Bradford, the following Monday to discuss the purchase of wool tops for China. At 11.am in walked a Mr Kenneth Parkinson, Managing Director of B Parkinson & Co, Chairman of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and the following year’s Mayor of Bradford. He was Mr Big.
Parkinson took a liking to Jack and peppered him with questions about China. He sensed Jack’s enthusiasm and his understanding of the long term future for the newly established Communist regime.
He made clear that if he was persuaded to transact business with LEC for destination China the rest of the Yorkshire wool trade would follow suit. Business discussions started and Parkinson quickly focused on payment terms and specifically the role of the letter of credit which he required to be confirmed by a first class London bank. He made clear that the Bank of China could not rank for this purpose Jack went onto the offensive ;-
“I have no wish to waste your time but under no circumstances will any self-respecting bank allow itself to be subjected to another bank’s endorsement. The Bank of China’s position is not negotiable. It is a state bank with unimpeachable standards whose creditability is beyond reproach. If Bradford wishes to absent itself from potentially its largest export market then it is committing hara-kiri. Before you take it upon yourself to make that decision – which the Chinese government will regard as an attack on its integrity – I suggest you retire to another room and telephone your high street bank right now. Parkinson returned fifteen minutes later and said “It seems you are quite right. I cannot speak for other suppliers but I am prepared for B. Parkinson to accept payment on your terms.” The deal was done. The contract was signed. It was the first for my new company. It was also the most important contract of my China business career.”
The door was open. Jack had made the breakthrough. LEC was up and running.
Jack records “Our decision to form a new company to concentrate on China trade was based on our belief that the most heavily populated nation in the world was facing a huge economic upheaval resulting from the ending of the feudal regime that had ruled China for centuries. We lived in a world of great political and economic change, and this was an opportunity not to be missed. My personal future would now depend on the degree of success the company would develop. China is about to move down a new and successful economic road and I want to share in this very remarkable development.”
Business in wool imports into China was followed by contracts for the export of a widening range of Chinese goods including tea, rice, peanuts, soyabeans, hog-casings, carpet wool, cashew nuts, apricot kernels, animal feedstuffs, hog bristles, furs, skins and essential oils
China was on the move – slow, faltering, and with much trial and error. But the country and its leaders were possessed of a confidence that they would win through and that confidence was sourced in the achievement in winning the battle against the KMT and the invading Japanese military machine.
China embarked on its new economic path buoyed by the significant victory that the people of China led by an astute Communist Party had achieved. Now was the time for consolidation and the construction of a new society based on the writings of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tsetung. Something very new was taking place and Jack was stirred by the opportunity to play a role in the creation of the New China.
Today in 2025 as Xi Jinping announces to the world the arrival of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) it is difficult to appreciate the tension and anxiety of those early days some seventy-three years ago when China set out on this new path of development.
GRAHAM PERRY
PART 12 – JACK PREPARES FOR HIS EPOCH MAKING FIRST VISIT TO CHINA.
