General impressions

                                                                         By Ajoa Yeboah Afari, From Beijing

China is described as a communist country, but apparently to them that status is yet to be attained. The Vice Director of the Research Office on the History of the Chinese Communist Party, Mr. Li Zhongjie, speaking through an interpreter, put it this way:"Communism is the ideal and final objective, but we haven't reached there. We're now in the early stages of socialist development. We continue to aim for equality of the society."

Explaining their current economic system to our group of visiting journalists, he said:"Our market economy is different from that of the West. We take measures to help the poor. Ours is a socialist market economy. We take advantage of capitalism to some extent, but it can't be equaled with capitalism."

From what we saw, the drive of the market economy is quite strong.

Aggressive traders waylay tourists, trying to sell them craft items and all sorts of other goods, notably imitations of famous brand names. A particular favourite in Shanghai, the second city, was "Rolex" watches.

Prices of goods and services in the shops and markets popular with tourists are quoted astronomically high and bargaining is usually expected. An item priced at 600 yuan, for example, may eventually come down to 150 yuan. (One US dollar is a little over 8 yuan.)

Needless to say, although the bargaining may be very vigorous, with much gesticulating and drama, it is more or less a silent trade since not much speech is involved. As the buyer does not speak Chinese and the seller does not speak English, the happy compromise, the mode of communications the calculator. The seller punches a price and then gives the calculator to the prospective buyer to punch his or her offer. In the true spirit of bargaining, sometimes a buyer who tries to walk away may be dragged back, playfully, to continue. This goes on until a deal is struck.

While the vast majority of traders and people offering services we came across were honest, a few bad nuts were clearly people whose specialty is taking advantage of foreigners. And I suppose it is a feature of the practice of a market economy that there are also illegal service providers, such as pirate or unlicensed taxis. A colleague from Zimbabwe was charged US $60 from the Beijing Airport to his hotel, instead of the standard fare of about US $10.

However, as we found out, the Chinese are very strict about checking such acts of indiscipline, especially those that go to tarnish the image of the country. When the officials in charge of our group found out about it, there were profuse apologies to the victim and immediate action was taken to find the pirate taxi. With the help of the hotel's closed circuit TV tape, the cab was traced and the driver is now serving a jail sentence.

Apart from a few such minor incidents, Chinese hospitality is great and the people have been very friendly although shy. It is also evident that to many, seeing Africans in the flesh was a complete novelty. Hair braiding the African way appeared to hold a special fascination for people. In some of the shops in Shanghai, some of the shop assistants took advantage of my seeking help from them to touch my hair and skin in a very polite and friendly way, and asking in sign language how the braiding was done, as other shoppers stopped to gaze and join in the fun.

Given the amount of assistance China has been giving African countries, and the long ties, it is surprising that there has been so little contact among the peoples. For African visitors it is noteworthy that the teeming crowds in China's cities and towns do not include blacks-unlike the experience in other countries. On the other hand, the explanation can be ascribed to the language barrier and the distance between Africa and China.

And Chinese officials have been quick to point out that their country's assistance to Africa is out of genuine friendship, without any conditions."It is sincere, unlike western countries support to Africa. For example we have not imposed good governance on any country." Above all, they emphasize, China will never forget the role Africa played in getting China back into the United Nations.

(The writer, Editor of the Ghanaian Times, is among a group of 22 journalists from English speaking Africa who are currently visiting China at the invitation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China).

Sources: the Ghanaian Times