One year living outside China

Before we know it, the year passed after we arrived at the Netherlands on September 19, 2020. A year we grant ourselves not much time to think or contemplate since my new professional challenge started 2 days later. We hired a temporary house at a holiday park for 6 months which allowed us to “land” properly. We had to wait for our container but more importantly find a place more permanent. After living in China for almost 13 years we noticed that we have changed. The 2 worlds (East and West) are so different in all senses and angels. We were blessed to share with many people that we never left China for a negative reason. We just arrived at a new moment at our life and ready for it. With special benefits like being closer to our granddaughters, growing up so fast.?

Pausing for a moment to let the year pass, the world is changing faster and certainly not always for the best. COVID is the important factor dealing with us at work, privately and in our hearts and minds. Politically and economically COVID leaves its scars. We could witness how many countries dealt with COVID. Some smart, some ignorant, some overreacting and some na?f. China chooses to go all the way and certainly with the help of the Chinese people who are rightfully careful of catching any decease. Zero tolerance and keeping COVID, in any form, variant and shape outside. This certainly brought China to a system where the moment you need to visit you are treated as an hazard. The many flogs and blogs about this topic doesn’t make you want to go to China only when you truly need to be there. The question is certainly valid how long will China maintain this with the Winter Olympics approaching rapidly.

They say when you take a step back you can have a better view on any challenge or topic you want to address. Exactly after one year it seems to give me a more distant view and to be honest I’m not pleased what I see. The foreigners living and making money in China, more and more start to complain. Realising that China allows them to visit at China’s terms. Tourism is dead, and at the slipstream of “he who doesn’t be named” more and more Western countries on a political and economical level start dig themselves in. The latest deal between the US. Australia and Great Britain to join forces on a military level is a sign we shouldn’t take easily.

Driven by the fact that China after the last 40 years + allowed the world, for its own benefit, on any possible subject share knowledge, technology, investments etc. over the last 2 decades 800 million people left poverty behind and certainly also because of their work ethos. Now China proofs after the outbreak of COVID that they don’t need the Westerners to sustain. China is capable of feeding, running, care, transport, energise and much more, over 1.4 billion, in China living people themselves.?The question is not how China is going to deal with the rest of the world, trying to lock them out of technical developments (A.I., communication, technology, internet, etc) but how the rest of the world is going to deal with China.

An interesting exmple is how China dealt and deals with Hong Kong. One country and 2 systems worked for some time after the handover of Great Britain of Hong Kong to China. China chooses to develop the Greater Bay Area with Guangzhou and Shenzhen rapidly with all the needed financial support. When Hong Kong and Western entrepreneurs noticed that this jeopardise their future possible profits it was time to bring politics on board. The cat is out of the bag and although for many years Hong Kong was the diving board for many Westerners and Hong Kong to earn a lot of money from mainland China. These years seems to be over now. Closing down the illegal routes of goods from HK to the mainland is a signal we cannot deny.

Another example is the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative, or the involvement of China at the development of the continent Africa. To secure the supply off iron ore for the fast-growing building economy in China.?By this China showed the world that you don't need to colonise a country to obtain their resources. And yes China borrowed money to these countries to organise the needed logistics to transport products to China and yes they created a new way of colonising countries by "buying" them. The West has proven not to be a good housefather as colonist to many countries. By this we left the back door wide open to bring in China with more favourable deals.

For many years and during many public presentations I have suggested the world to alter the tone of communication with China and to find a lesser colonist’s way of communication. Certainly now it is the moment to do so and maybe now it is time to ask China what they need and how we can help each-other for the future on environmental, human rights, technical and many more important topics. Setting up alliances with USA, Australia, and GB to “fight” the giant China will result in a very destroying argument which nobody will or can win! It is never too late to alter our means and tone of communication and please allow me to be naif enough to ask the world to try it for a change. This appeal is not only for the West and certainly also for China. If it doesn't work you can always try by fighting.

#chinable #china #COVID #future