If China uses its admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) to give its good relations with Africa a historical underpinning, the West sees this as propaganda and manipulation. In contrast, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, who reached the same African coasts a generation later, is widely recognized as a great explorer. Yet he has long been disputed for his acts of violence against civilians.
Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor rejects such double standards. In an interview with Fabian Peltsch, she defends China’s activities in Africa. As a latecomer to the world stage, she sees China as a good partner. Owuor also recognizes China as a role model – for economic policy, but also for the development of a more confident East African identity.
In Africa, too, there is a huge demand for an unburdened alternative to the dominance of the former colonial powers. This is also reflected in the sympathy for the BRICS as a counter-model to the G7. Owuor’s prediction: Future generations will turn away from the West even more consistently.
This is highly relevant. Africa’s population has been growing rapidly, and so has the continent’s importance for us in Europe. For example, its countries play a role in Germany’s de-risking strategy and as migration countries. That is why we should listen carefully to voices like Owuor and scrutinize our illusions about how Africans perceive Europeans.
Your novel “The Dragonfly Sea” is about a young Kenyan woman who is identified as the descendant of a 15th-century Chinese sailor from the fleet of the famous Admiral Zheng He – a story based on a true incident. It also highlights the growing economic and cultural involvement of the Chinese in Africa. What interested you about the material?
The history of the East African Swahili coast is a deep history of trade, encounters, wars, desires and ownerships. A site of global visitations whether from the Persians, Chinese, other Africans, Arabs or the Mamluks. The present ‘re-emergence’ of the Chinese in our worlds, including their memory-bearing of Admiral Zheng He, restores a spotlight on the reality of a globalized East Africa long before the Europeans also show up on the scene. There are so many in the Global North who persist in the delusion that the history of Africa starts when the Europeans rock up, which, of course, is hubris and insanity. “Dragonfly Sea” was also a private inquiry into looking to our seas to explore the stories of our belonging in time past, present and future.
How do you personally perceive the growing presence of Chinese nationals and Chinese companies in your home country of Kenya?
Nothing surprising, nothing new. You know, the Chinese presence in East Africa is only just now being noticed and made a big deal by those of the Western world. It became a thing following the global financial crisis in 2007-8 that by-passed China and the countries it had re-established an economic connection within Africa. I don’t understand Western hysteria about the presence of non-Western others in Africa, given the reality of the presence of so many of those same Westerners in Africa. I recognize that the world is in an epoch of incredible historical shifts. History is evolving before our gaze. The Western frenzy overexpanded Chinese influence and its impact on the world is somewhat understandable. No culture can be at ease when it experiences the receding of its power.
The Chinese government attempts to emphasize the continuity of relations between East Africa and China by highlighting Zheng He’s peaceful visits. It even carried out DNA tests on Pate Island to prove that Chinese from his fleet mixed with the indigenous population in the early 15th century.
Good for them. They are refining the global story. We, the Africans, also ought to have already been drawing out the strings of our impact on the world and history and projecting these for ourselves and the world. It would restore the depth, complexity, diversity and wealth of the grander story of humanity. Think about it: If the Germans are busy emphasizing a history of their interactions with Africa and are trying to retrieve shared histories, it is treated as a leap forward. Why do so many Westerners – let me emphasize this – have a problem when the Chinese who actually have older and greater connections do the same?
China is known for selling one-sided stories, such as the portrayal of Admiral Zheng He as a purely peaceful diplomat …
The people of the coast in Kenya have a more complex picture of the Admiral. Those are the stories that interest me the most; the memory of our people. They are aware that the Middle Kingdom, is one among others. But, really, as East Africans, having been inundated with stories about wandering Europeans like Vasco Da Gama, David Livingston, Albert Schweitzer, Karen Blixen-an array of white-washed wretches repackaged as heroic and transformative figures, isn’t it strange that people, and let me reiterate this, mainly from the western world, suddenly have a problem with the version of the great Admiral that the Chinese state is projecting?
So, do you believe that China’s presence offers Africans the chance to rewrite their history because China shows how to counter Western narratives?
It’s an example of what a once-devastated and conquered country can realize for itself. A profound challenge, really. What excuse can we now present for not rewriting our role in the world, and acting out a vision for ourselves when we have so much more available? You know, when I was a school kid in Kenya, and there was a devastating earthquake in China, our teachers had arranged a fundraising process so we could ‘make contributions for the children of China.’ This was just in the seventies. What China has achieved in just 30 years, despite the awful years of colonization and wars, and this without having to resort to bullying, genocide and plunder, is a historical feat for our humanity. As a Kenyan and East African, I am compelled to ask, What would it take to realize the best of and from ourselves?
Your novel is expected to be published in China this year. What were your experiences with Chinese readers and their perception of Africa and African literature?
A few scholars, including artists and I held some zoom-mediated lectures with students from an institution in China last year. The students had not yet interacted with African thinkers before. That in itself was a novel experience for them -and for us. After the ice was broken, the young students asked fascinating questions. What became apparent to both sides was the extent to which we had drawn insights about one another from sources that do not necessarily hold our interests at heart; from social development books, anthropological or nature documentaries, travel memoirs, World Bank statistics, foreign correspondents who subtly and not-so-subtly, underline negative stereotypes.
Like the image of Africa as a continent of despair, safaris and poverty?
Exactly. A continent locked in perpetual crisis and helplessness, of a people who require others to think for them. My own process was to ask the students to reflect on where they got the information from. Such an exploration opens up room for other kinds of conversations, of how it is important, for example, to translate our works directly for one another, to direct our exchange to one another without mediators. I don’t say: Africa is this or Africa is that. I tell the students: Do your own research and then, if you can, visit. There is no better education than a visit.
Do you believe that relations with China will become even closer in the coming years?
We tend to forget that it is not only China that is influencing East Africa, East Africans are also influencing China. There are African students in China, there are Chinese scholars in Africa, and there are now young Chinese students who make annual visits to immerse themselves in nature and to evolve their own relationship with wilderness and the environment. In December 2017, China banned the trade in elephant products and ivory. That decision was partly informed by East Africa engagements.
What about racism against Africans? I remember a state spring festival gala in 2021, where there was a dance choreography to celebrate Sino-African relations, with Chinese dancers dressed up as African Bushmen, with black painted faces and banana skirts.
Discrimination that is born out of ignorance is one thing that can always be adjusted. It is not like intentional and ideological racism created by the insecure to prop up imagined cultural superiority. As you remember, the lessons were very quickly learned. The subsequent galas have been better curated. Although the film sector probably needs some lessons. I am thinking of that truly awful film called “Wolf Warrior,” which sought to replicate the tedious white savior complex trope but with Chinese characters.
There is a perception in the West that China is exploiting African resources and treating the environment and workers irresponsibly. Is this a false narrative?
There are points of conflict; that cannot be denied. Cultural clashes are inevitable. For example, the slaughterhouses for donkey meat to cater to the Chinese market. In East Africa, Donkeys are companions, field workers and part of the domestic scene. We do not slaughter donkeys…or horses, for that matter. I hate the opportunism that changes the values that we, as Kenyans, hold dear. But then again, I am confused by Western ‘concerns,’ also given how Africa is still portrayed in Western mainstream media. These are nations that have done everything to avoid even just one apology for their ancestors’ roles in the worst of historical human atrocities; the Atlantic slave trade. We all know that Western ‘concerns’ are not for our benefit. This is mostly panic about the threat of loss of cheap and easy access to African resources. I wish people would just drop the fakery and state their interests honestly. It would make everything so much simpler, wouldn’t it?
What is your opinion of the current government? President Ruto seems to be less inclined towards China than his predecessor.
He seems to have swung the pendulum fully Westward. We were building a good middle-ground, a space for self-interested neutrality. And given the age we now live in, the emergence of future-building alliances like BRICS+, the shifting winds of history, and the generational shifts, this swing to the occident hearkens to a fantasy of the return of the cold-war sixties, and the Bretton-Woods institutions’ dominated eighties.
What do you expect for the further development of relations with China?
It has unfortunately made Kenya a private joke among global south nations now moving towards multipolarity. I do sense from the conversations on the ground that, for better or worse, there will be an over-compensatory backlash. A generation will emerge that will be less open to the West. But this type of swinging left, right, wherever, occurs when a people and nation have not taken time to define for themselves their origin myth, and what they dream for the future, or defined its stance of being in history and the world. They become like a reed bending this way and that depending on which wind blows strongest. I feel that we need to be far more devoted to Kenyan self-love and self-interest, to always ask whoever we meet, ‘Yes, but what’s in this for the benefit of all our people and for a thousand generations of future Kenyans?’
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor was born in Nairobi in 1968. In her novels, the author focuses on the recent history of Kenya. In 2003, she was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her novels include “Dust” (2014) and “The Dragonfly Sea” (2019). After writing residencies in Berlin and Iowa, Owuor now lives and works in Nairobi.
Global maritime shipping is responsible for around three percent of global carbon emissions – in other words, around one billion tons per year. Shipping companies need to switch to greener propulsion systems to reduce this figure. Methanol and ammonia are in the lead here – with various advantages and disadvantages. As the world’s largest shipbuilder and largest export nation, China has a unique role to play here.
This January marks the start of the green transformation in the maritime industry. China will christen a methanol-powered container giant. The 350-meter-long ship will then enter regular service between Ningbo in China and European ports, including Hamburg. The vessel, owned by Danish shipping company Maersk, is 350 meters long and carries 16,000 containers. Although this is significantly less than the Megamax-class freighters with 24,000 containers, the ship nevertheless represents the future of shipping.
This is because it not only runs on methanol but can also be refueled with conventional heavy fuel oil or biodiesel. This is urgently needed, given the very limited availability of methanol. However, it is precisely the bridging technology of dual-fuel engines that enables a gradual switch to greener energy sources. The shipyard’s performance shows container ships can be equipped with comparatively little effort.
And that is urgently necessary. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulates ocean shipping. And it is also pushing for an energy transition in the maritime sector. The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from maritime shipping by 20 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2040. Climate neutrality is to be achieved by 2050.
Shipping companies rely on three technologies with different advantages and disadvantages:
In view of the carbon reduction plans, however, it is crucial that both ammonia and methanol can be produced in a climate-neutral way.
The People’s Republic is the world’s largest ship producer. In the first half of the year, orders for new ships increased by 73 percent. According to Clarkson Research, China currently has a market share of 58.5 percent. South Korea (29 percent) and Japan (7.9 percent) follow in second and third place.
However, this market dominance has a flaw. The ships are mainly conventional models that run on diesel and heavy fuel oil. Chinese shipbuilders dominate the market thanks to large capacities, local supply chains and cheap financing options. The future technologies mentioned come primarily from South Korea. This is also where Laura Maersk, the current showcase vessel for methanol technology, was built.
The transition will come quickly. As of 2024, maritime transport will be included in EU emissions trading. On the one hand, this will make transport by conventional ships more expensive. On the other hand, companies will be obliged to disclose their carbon reduction efforts in their sustainability reports. The supply chain – and therefore shipping, as around 90 percent of global trade is carried by sea – plays a key role.
However, China has already reacted to the changing conditions. The China Waterborne Transportation Research Institute (CWRTI) – a think tank of the Ministry of Transport – already identified the advantages of methanol in shipping in 2020.
“China is the largest producer and consumer of methanol globally and it has been used safely in the country for many years, not only as a building block for the manufacturing of chemicals but also as a clean fuel in industrial boilers, passenger vehicles, and heavy-duty trucks,” Chris Chatterton summarized the findings in the trade magazine THB (Daily Port Report) at the time. He is Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Methanol Institute, an international association of methanol producers.
In April 2023, methanol was also discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to China. In the presence of the presidents of both countries, the logistics group CMA-CGM (Marseille), the shipping company Cosco and the Shanghai International Port Group signed an agreement. It involved the delivery of carbon-neutral methanol.
Maersk, whose methanol ship will be sailing its routes from China starting January 2024, has already secured the fuel locally. The shipping company has signed a contract with wind turbine producer Xinjiang Goldwind to supply 500,000 tons of CO2-neutral methanol annually. Production is set to begin in 2026, and Maersk intends to use the fuel for twelve container ships that will be sailing to China by then.
“Seek the truth in the facts 实事求是.” This was the guiding principle 45 years ago, which Deng Xiaoping followed in December 1978 to bring China back on its feet after Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Two years after the death of the Great Chairman, Deng and his equally persecuted and now rehabilitated like-minded comrades were inspired by this motto of pragmatism. They abandoned the ideology of class struggle and concentrated on market reforms and economic development. Despite zigzags, China rose to become the economic powerhouse it is today.
The Beijing financial weekly Caixin (财新周刊) has now taken up the cudgels for this pragmatism, which is increasingly being challenged by Xi Jinping’s re-ideologized and nationalistic policies. Caixin, a publication popular for its courageous investigations, which also enjoys international recognition thanks to its English online edition, sang the praises of the 实事求是 slogan. The editorial, which appeared on December 25 under the title: “Revisiting the Ideological Line of Seeking Truth from Facts,” repeated it 22 times. 重温实事求是思想路线.
It’s a tedious read for foreign readers. The editorial must have gotten under the skin of Beijing’s party leaders, especially Xi Jinping. It is packed with allusions, questions Xi’s past achievements both internally and externally, and calls for a return to the guiding principle of Deng’s reform policy. It was only with this maxim that China managed to escape the “absolute poverty trap,” correct its foreign policy, and “catch up with the world.”
Beijing authorities banned the magazine’s sale on December 25, just hours after it went out. For most subscribers who only read Caixin online, the editorial was blocked in the online edition. It did not even appear on the English website.
I got hold of one of the magazines by accident. It happened like this: Friends traveling to Europe had bought Chinese newspapers in Beijing just before their departure on December 25 as a gift. Among them was the Caixin magazine. Little did they or I know that China’s censors would stop its distribution a short time later.
I only learned about it when bloggers posted that they could no longer access the online version of the editorial. The page was frozen and covered with the number 404, a warning from the cyber authority that it “no longer exists” or “has been deleted.” Only barely legible photos of screenshots of the editorial made the rounds online.
Caixins’ editorial is a textbook example of the art of allusion and a manifesto of the frustration of intellectual elites who do not consider themselves dissidents. Even the opening sentence uses a line from Mao’s poem about the “turbulent years 峥嵘岁月稠” as a reminder of the successful but difficult 45 years of China’s reform policy, which celebrated its anniversary in December. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, now considered historic, was held from December 18 to 22, 1978. It ushered in the end of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and marked the start of China’s reforms.
Of course, this begs the question of why Xi, who celebrates every political anniversary, eulogized Mao’s 130th birthday on December 26, but skipped the commemoration of the 3rd Plenum in 1978 of all days. He probably would have had to explain why – apparently due to the difficult economic situation – he had not yet convened the 3rd CCP Plenum of the 20th Party Congress, which was overdue for weeks and is required every five years.
The editorial is a public demand to Xi to jump over his shadow and restart China’s reform engine. To protect itself against Beijing’s retaliation for the editorial, Caixin cites Deng Xiaoping: The success of China’s reforms is not based on “textbook dogma 本本主義,” but on a “practice that seeks the truth in the facts.” Xi himself is quoted: “History has repeatedly proven that the state and the party flourished when we sought the truth in the facts and that they fell when we violated them.” However, this quote dates back to the early years of Xi’s reign, when he still pretended to be a radical market reformer at the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Party Congress in 2013.
Caixin had already reminded readers of Xi’s earlier reform promises in a previous editorial on November 6 entitled “China’s reforms urgently need a new playbook.” It called them “unprecedented in scope and ambition,” such as Xi’s pledge that China wanted “the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation in the economy.” But that was in 2013, writes Caixin. The People’s Republic “faces different challenges today than it did a decade ago.” Its economic growth is under pressure and social stability is in danger. There are imbalances everywhere, from demographics to business problems, local finances, municipal debt, the real estate sector and the “worrying” labor market.
The November 6 editorial remains uncensored to this day. But now Beijing has had enough. Because Caixin chose even sharper words to describe China’s plight in its latest editorial. It said that the private sector lacked the strength to grow, social expectations were weakening and fiscal and financial risks were coming to light. The social security problems are growing more and more serious 当前，民营经济增长乏力，社会预期转弱，财政金融风险显露，社会保障问题日益严峻等等.”
Alluding to Beijing’s current rallying cries and its whitewashing of data and statistics, the editorial refers to the Cultural Revolution: When China’s economy was on the verge of collapse, its officials spoke of an “excellent situation” that was “getting better and better 形 勢大好且越來越好.”
Xi Jinping gave an example for today in his recent New Year’s speech, when he admitted in two hidden half-sentences that some companies and workers are facing difficulties, but spoke of an overall successful development: “This year, we have marched forward with robust steps 这一年的步伐，我们走得很有力量.”
During my time as a correspondent in China, I often witnessed how the authorities censored China’s media when they didn’t like their content. Although most of the editorial offices concerned avoided talking about it directly, they made it clear in other ways what had happened to them. When the newspapers were still sent out as print products, as a subscriber, I sometimes received what appeared to be the same issue twice on two consecutive days. It wasn’t an oversight, but a deliberate indication that the censors had stopped the first printed edition and had to be reprinted from scratch. By comparing the two copies, I quickly discovered which article or paragraph the censor took offense at.
With Caixin, still called Caijing then, it was easy in 2007. I also received two copies of their weekly magazine on March 5, but with different covers. One was about China’s new property law, and the other was about the situation on the stock market.
The entire first print run was confiscated and destroyed in a cloak-and-dagger operation in Beijing, and the editorial team had to rush to produce a completely new edition. China’s party leadership took issue with a ten-page exposé by Caijing about the difficulties of China’s first property law and the associated power struggle within the party. The editorial by then editor-in-chief Hu Shuli was censored. Hu Shuli still has a lot to say at Caixin today. Many fear that she could get into trouble later on because of the current incident.
However, Beijing’s censorship is not much of a deterrent. The internet is full of mockery and caricatures about the actual state of China’s economy. And on January 3, the renowned China Business News 第一财经 echoed Caixin’s words. Its editorial called on Xi and the Beijing party leadership to finally let private companies do their business in peace and with proper legal protection. The government should finally “let go and decentralize 最好的承诺是放手和放权.” This, China Business News wrote, is the foundation of the success of the past 45 years of reform and opening-up (since the 3rd Plenum in 1978) – 45年的改革开放展示，中国经济的腾飞史，就是政府放权、权利独立拓展的历.
So far, the editorial in China Business News remains uncensored. Despite all the censorship, the pressure on Beijing’s leadership to reform is growing.
Chinese paleontologists discovered this crystallized dinosaur egg while restoring a nest found last year on Qinglong Mountain in Hubei Province. Crystallized egg fossils are extremely rare due to the harsh environmental conditions required for their formation. Fossil dinosaur eggs dating back to the mid-Cretaceous period 60 to 80 million years ago were first discovered on Qinglong Mountain in 1995. To date, researchers have found about 3000 mostly well-preserved dinosaur eggs on the surface.
If China uses its admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) to give its good relations with Africa a historical underpinning, the West sees this as propaganda and manipulation. In contrast, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, who reached the same African coasts a generation later, is widely recognized as a great explorer. Yet he has long been disputed for his acts of violence against civilians.
Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor rejects such double standards. In an interview with Fabian Peltsch, she defends China’s activities in Africa. As a latecomer to the world stage, she sees China as a good partner. Owuor also recognizes China as a role model – for economic policy, but also for the development of a more confident East African identity.
In Africa, too, there is a huge demand for an unburdened alternative to the dominance of the former colonial powers. This is also reflected in the sympathy for the BRICS as a counter-model to the G7. Owuor’s prediction: Future generations will turn away from the West even more consistently.
This is highly relevant. Africa’s population has been growing rapidly, and so has the continent’s importance for us in Europe. For example, its countries play a role in Germany’s de-risking strategy and as migration countries. That is why we should listen carefully to voices like Owuor and scrutinize our illusions about how Africans perceive Europeans.
Your novel “The Dragonfly Sea” is about a young Kenyan woman who is identified as the descendant of a 15th-century Chinese sailor from the fleet of the famous Admiral Zheng He – a story based on a true incident. It also highlights the growing economic and cultural involvement of the Chinese in Africa. What interested you about the material?
The history of the East African Swahili coast is a deep history of trade, encounters, wars, desires and ownerships. A site of global visitations whether from the Persians, Chinese, other Africans, Arabs or the Mamluks. The present ‘re-emergence’ of the Chinese in our worlds, including their memory-bearing of Admiral Zheng He, restores a spotlight on the reality of a globalized East Africa long before the Europeans also show up on the scene. There are so many in the Global North who persist in the delusion that the history of Africa starts when the Europeans rock up, which, of course, is hubris and insanity. “Dragonfly Sea” was also a private inquiry into looking to our seas to explore the stories of our belonging in time past, present and future.
How do you personally perceive the growing presence of Chinese nationals and Chinese companies in your home country of Kenya?
Nothing surprising, nothing new. You know, the Chinese presence in East Africa is only just now being noticed and made a big deal by those of the Western world. It became a thing following the global financial crisis in 2007-8 that by-passed China and the countries it had re-established an economic connection within Africa. I don’t understand Western hysteria about the presence of non-Western others in Africa, given the reality of the presence of so many of those same Westerners in Africa. I recognize that the world is in an epoch of incredible historical shifts. History is evolving before our gaze. The Western frenzy overexpanded Chinese influence and its impact on the world is somewhat understandable. No culture can be at ease when it experiences the receding of its power.
The Chinese government attempts to emphasize the continuity of relations between East Africa and China by highlighting Zheng He’s peaceful visits. It even carried out DNA tests on Pate Island to prove that Chinese from his fleet mixed with the indigenous population in the early 15th century.
Good for them. They are refining the global story. We, the Africans, also ought to have already been drawing out the strings of our impact on the world and history and projecting these for ourselves and the world. It would restore the depth, complexity, diversity and wealth of the grander story of humanity. Think about it: If the Germans are busy emphasizing a history of their interactions with Africa and are trying to retrieve shared histories, it is treated as a leap forward. Why do so many Westerners – let me emphasize this – have a problem when the Chinese who actually have older and greater connections do the same?
China is known for selling one-sided stories, such as the portrayal of Admiral Zheng He as a purely peaceful diplomat …
The people of the coast in Kenya have a more complex picture of the Admiral. Those are the stories that interest me the most; the memory of our people. They are aware that the Middle Kingdom, is one among others. But, really, as East Africans, having been inundated with stories about wandering Europeans like Vasco Da Gama, David Livingston, Albert Schweitzer, Karen Blixen-an array of white-washed wretches repackaged as heroic and transformative figures, isn’t it strange that people, and let me reiterate this, mainly from the western world, suddenly have a problem with the version of the great Admiral that the Chinese state is projecting?
So, do you believe that China’s presence offers Africans the chance to rewrite their history because China shows how to counter Western narratives?
It’s an example of what a once-devastated and conquered country can realize for itself. A profound challenge, really. What excuse can we now present for not rewriting our role in the world, and acting out a vision for ourselves when we have so much more available? You know, when I was a school kid in Kenya, and there was a devastating earthquake in China, our teachers had arranged a fundraising process so we could ‘make contributions for the children of China.’ This was just in the seventies. What China has achieved in just 30 years, despite the awful years of colonization and wars, and this without having to resort to bullying, genocide and plunder, is a historical feat for our humanity. As a Kenyan and East African, I am compelled to ask, What would it take to realize the best of and from ourselves?
Your novel is expected to be published in China this year. What were your experiences with Chinese readers and their perception of Africa and African literature?
A few scholars, including artists and I held some zoom-mediated lectures with students from an institution in China last year. The students had not yet interacted with African thinkers before. That in itself was a novel experience for them -and for us. After the ice was broken, the young students asked fascinating questions. What became apparent to both sides was the extent to which we had drawn insights about one another from sources that do not necessarily hold our interests at heart; from social development books, anthropological or nature documentaries, travel memoirs, World Bank statistics, foreign correspondents who subtly and not-so-subtly, underline negative stereotypes.
Like the image of Africa as a continent of despair, safaris and poverty?
Exactly. A continent locked in perpetual crisis and helplessness, of a people who require others to think for them. My own process was to ask the students to reflect on where they got the information from. Such an exploration opens up room for other kinds of conversations, of how it is important, for example, to translate our works directly for one another, to direct our exchange to one another without mediators. I don’t say: Africa is this or Africa is that. I tell the students: Do your own research and then, if you can, visit. There is no better education than a visit.
Do you believe that relations with China will become even closer in the coming years?
We tend to forget that it is not only China that is influencing East Africa, East Africans are also influencing China. There are African students in China, there are Chinese scholars in Africa, and there are now young Chinese students who make annual visits to immerse themselves in nature and to evolve their own relationship with wilderness and the environment. In December 2017, China banned the trade in elephant products and ivory. That decision was partly informed by East Africa engagements.
What about racism against Africans? I remember a state spring festival gala in 2021, where there was a dance choreography to celebrate Sino-African relations, with Chinese dancers dressed up as African Bushmen, with black painted faces and banana skirts.
Discrimination that is born out of ignorance is one thing that can always be adjusted. It is not like intentional and ideological racism created by the insecure to prop up imagined cultural superiority. As you remember, the lessons were very quickly learned. The subsequent galas have been better curated. Although the film sector probably needs some lessons. I am thinking of that truly awful film called “Wolf Warrior,” which sought to replicate the tedious white savior complex trope but with Chinese characters.
There is a perception in the West that China is exploiting African resources and treating the environment and workers irresponsibly. Is this a false narrative?
There are points of conflict; that cannot be denied. Cultural clashes are inevitable. For example, the slaughterhouses for donkey meat to cater to the Chinese market. In East Africa, Donkeys are companions, field workers and part of the domestic scene. We do not slaughter donkeys…or horses, for that matter. I hate the opportunism that changes the values that we, as Kenyans, hold dear. But then again, I am confused by Western ‘concerns,’ also given how Africa is still portrayed in Western mainstream media. These are nations that have done everything to avoid even just one apology for their ancestors’ roles in the worst of historical human atrocities; the Atlantic slave trade. We all know that Western ‘concerns’ are not for our benefit. This is mostly panic about the threat of loss of cheap and easy access to African resources. I wish people would just drop the fakery and state their interests honestly. It would make everything so much simpler, wouldn’t it?
What is your opinion of the current government? President Ruto seems to be less inclined towards China than his predecessor.
He seems to have swung the pendulum fully Westward. We were building a good middle-ground, a space for self-interested neutrality. And given the age we now live in, the emergence of future-building alliances like BRICS+, the shifting winds of history, and the generational shifts, this swing to the occident hearkens to a fantasy of the return of the cold-war sixties, and the Bretton-Woods institutions’ dominated eighties.
What do you expect for the further development of relations with China?
It has unfortunately made Kenya a private joke among global south nations now moving towards multipolarity. I do sense from the conversations on the ground that, for better or worse, there will be an over-compensatory backlash. A generation will emerge that will be less open to the West. But this type of swinging left, right, wherever, occurs when a people and nation have not taken time to define for themselves their origin myth, and what they dream for the future, or defined its stance of being in history and the world. They become like a reed bending this way and that depending on which wind blows strongest. I feel that we need to be far more devoted to Kenyan self-love and self-interest, to always ask whoever we meet, ‘Yes, but what’s in this for the benefit of all our people and for a thousand generations of future Kenyans?’
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor was born in Nairobi in 1968. In her novels, the author focuses on the recent history of Kenya. In 2003, she was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her novels include “Dust” (2014) and “The Dragonfly Sea” (2019). After writing residencies in Berlin and Iowa, Owuor now lives and works in Nairobi.
Global maritime shipping is responsible for around three percent of global carbon emissions – in other words, around one billion tons per year. Shipping companies need to switch to greener propulsion systems to reduce this figure. Methanol and ammonia are in the lead here – with various advantages and disadvantages. As the world’s largest shipbuilder and largest export nation, China has a unique role to play here.
This January marks the start of the green transformation in the maritime industry. China will christen a methanol-powered container giant. The 350-meter-long ship will then enter regular service between Ningbo in China and European ports, including Hamburg. The vessel, owned by Danish shipping company Maersk, is 350 meters long and carries 16,000 containers. Although this is significantly less than the Megamax-class freighters with 24,000 containers, the ship nevertheless represents the future of shipping.
This is because it not only runs on methanol but can also be refueled with conventional heavy fuel oil or biodiesel. This is urgently needed, given the very limited availability of methanol. However, it is precisely the bridging technology of dual-fuel engines that enables a gradual switch to greener energy sources. The shipyard’s performance shows container ships can be equipped with comparatively little effort.
And that is urgently necessary. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulates ocean shipping. And it is also pushing for an energy transition in the maritime sector. The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from maritime shipping by 20 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2040. Climate neutrality is to be achieved by 2050.
Shipping companies rely on three technologies with different advantages and disadvantages:
In view of the carbon reduction plans, however, it is crucial that both ammonia and methanol can be produced in a climate-neutral way.
The People’s Republic is the world’s largest ship producer. In the first half of the year, orders for new ships increased by 73 percent. According to Clarkson Research, China currently has a market share of 58.5 percent. South Korea (29 percent) and Japan (7.9 percent) follow in second and third place.
However, this market dominance has a flaw. The ships are mainly conventional models that run on diesel and heavy fuel oil. Chinese shipbuilders dominate the market thanks to large capacities, local supply chains and cheap financing options. The future technologies mentioned come primarily from South Korea. This is also where Laura Maersk, the current showcase vessel for methanol technology, was built.
The transition will come quickly. As of 2024, maritime transport will be included in EU emissions trading. On the one hand, this will make transport by conventional ships more expensive. On the other hand, companies will be obliged to disclose their carbon reduction efforts in their sustainability reports. The supply chain – and therefore shipping, as around 90 percent of global trade is carried by sea – plays a key role.
However, China has already reacted to the changing conditions. The China Waterborne Transportation Research Institute (CWRTI) – a think tank of the Ministry of Transport – already identified the advantages of methanol in shipping in 2020.
“China is the largest producer and consumer of methanol globally and it has been used safely in the country for many years, not only as a building block for the manufacturing of chemicals but also as a clean fuel in industrial boilers, passenger vehicles, and heavy-duty trucks,” Chris Chatterton summarized the findings in the trade magazine THB (Daily Port Report) at the time. He is Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Methanol Institute, an international association of methanol producers.
In April 2023, methanol was also discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to China. In the presence of the presidents of both countries, the logistics group CMA-CGM (Marseille), the shipping company Cosco and the Shanghai International Port Group signed an agreement. It involved the delivery of carbon-neutral methanol.
Maersk, whose methanol ship will be sailing its routes from China starting January 2024, has already secured the fuel locally. The shipping company has signed a contract with wind turbine producer Xinjiang Goldwind to supply 500,000 tons of CO2-neutral methanol annually. Production is set to begin in 2026, and Maersk intends to use the fuel for twelve container ships that will be sailing to China by then.
“Seek the truth in the facts 实事求是.” This was the guiding principle 45 years ago, which Deng Xiaoping followed in December 1978 to bring China back on its feet after Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Two years after the death of the Great Chairman, Deng and his equally persecuted and now rehabilitated like-minded comrades were inspired by this motto of pragmatism. They abandoned the ideology of class struggle and concentrated on market reforms and economic development. Despite zigzags, China rose to become the economic powerhouse it is today.
The Beijing financial weekly Caixin (财新周刊) has now taken up the cudgels for this pragmatism, which is increasingly being challenged by Xi Jinping’s re-ideologized and nationalistic policies. Caixin, a publication popular for its courageous investigations, which also enjoys international recognition thanks to its English online edition, sang the praises of the 实事求是 slogan. The editorial, which appeared on December 25 under the title: “Revisiting the Ideological Line of Seeking Truth from Facts,” repeated it 22 times. 重温实事求是思想路线.
It’s a tedious read for foreign readers. The editorial must have gotten under the skin of Beijing’s party leaders, especially Xi Jinping. It is packed with allusions, questions Xi’s past achievements both internally and externally, and calls for a return to the guiding principle of Deng’s reform policy. It was only with this maxim that China managed to escape the “absolute poverty trap,” correct its foreign policy, and “catch up with the world.”
Beijing authorities banned the magazine’s sale on December 25, just hours after it went out. For most subscribers who only read Caixin online, the editorial was blocked in the online edition. It did not even appear on the English website.
I got hold of one of the magazines by accident. It happened like this: Friends traveling to Europe had bought Chinese newspapers in Beijing just before their departure on December 25 as a gift. Among them was the Caixin magazine. Little did they or I know that China’s censors would stop its distribution a short time later.
I only learned about it when bloggers posted that they could no longer access the online version of the editorial. The page was frozen and covered with the number 404, a warning from the cyber authority that it “no longer exists” or “has been deleted.” Only barely legible photos of screenshots of the editorial made the rounds online.
Caixins’ editorial is a textbook example of the art of allusion and a manifesto of the frustration of intellectual elites who do not consider themselves dissidents. Even the opening sentence uses a line from Mao’s poem about the “turbulent years 峥嵘岁月稠” as a reminder of the successful but difficult 45 years of China’s reform policy, which celebrated its anniversary in December. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, now considered historic, was held from December 18 to 22, 1978. It ushered in the end of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and marked the start of China’s reforms.
Of course, this begs the question of why Xi, who celebrates every political anniversary, eulogized Mao’s 130th birthday on December 26, but skipped the commemoration of the 3rd Plenum in 1978 of all days. He probably would have had to explain why – apparently due to the difficult economic situation – he had not yet convened the 3rd CCP Plenum of the 20th Party Congress, which was overdue for weeks and is required every five years.
The editorial is a public demand to Xi to jump over his shadow and restart China’s reform engine. To protect itself against Beijing’s retaliation for the editorial, Caixin cites Deng Xiaoping: The success of China’s reforms is not based on “textbook dogma 本本主義,” but on a “practice that seeks the truth in the facts.” Xi himself is quoted: “History has repeatedly proven that the state and the party flourished when we sought the truth in the facts and that they fell when we violated them.” However, this quote dates back to the early years of Xi’s reign, when he still pretended to be a radical market reformer at the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Party Congress in 2013.
Caixin had already reminded readers of Xi’s earlier reform promises in a previous editorial on November 6 entitled “China’s reforms urgently need a new playbook.” It called them “unprecedented in scope and ambition,” such as Xi’s pledge that China wanted “the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation in the economy.” But that was in 2013, writes Caixin. The People’s Republic “faces different challenges today than it did a decade ago.” Its economic growth is under pressure and social stability is in danger. There are imbalances everywhere, from demographics to business problems, local finances, municipal debt, the real estate sector and the “worrying” labor market.
The November 6 editorial remains uncensored to this day. But now Beijing has had enough. Because Caixin chose even sharper words to describe China’s plight in its latest editorial. It said that the private sector lacked the strength to grow, social expectations were weakening and fiscal and financial risks were coming to light. The social security problems are growing more and more serious 当前，民营经济增长乏力，社会预期转弱，财政金融风险显露，社会保障问题日益严峻等等.”
Alluding to Beijing’s current rallying cries and its whitewashing of data and statistics, the editorial refers to the Cultural Revolution: When China’s economy was on the verge of collapse, its officials spoke of an “excellent situation” that was “getting better and better 形 勢大好且越來越好.”
Xi Jinping gave an example for today in his recent New Year’s speech, when he admitted in two hidden half-sentences that some companies and workers are facing difficulties, but spoke of an overall successful development: “This year, we have marched forward with robust steps 这一年的步伐，我们走得很有力量.”
During my time as a correspondent in China, I often witnessed how the authorities censored China’s media when they didn’t like their content. Although most of the editorial offices concerned avoided talking about it directly, they made it clear in other ways what had happened to them. When the newspapers were still sent out as print products, as a subscriber, I sometimes received what appeared to be the same issue twice on two consecutive days. It wasn’t an oversight, but a deliberate indication that the censors had stopped the first printed edition and had to be reprinted from scratch. By comparing the two copies, I quickly discovered which article or paragraph the censor took offense at.
With Caixin, still called Caijing then, it was easy in 2007. I also received two copies of their weekly magazine on March 5, but with different covers. One was about China’s new property law, and the other was about the situation on the stock market.
The entire first print run was confiscated and destroyed in a cloak-and-dagger operation in Beijing, and the editorial team had to rush to produce a completely new edition. China’s party leadership took issue with a ten-page exposé by Caijing about the difficulties of China’s first property law and the associated power struggle within the party. The editorial by then editor-in-chief Hu Shuli was censored. Hu Shuli still has a lot to say at Caixin today. Many fear that she could get into trouble later on because of the current incident.
However, Beijing’s censorship is not much of a deterrent. The internet is full of mockery and caricatures about the actual state of China’s economy. And on January 3, the renowned China Business News 第一财经 echoed Caixin’s words. Its editorial called on Xi and the Beijing party leadership to finally let private companies do their business in peace and with proper legal protection. The government should finally “let go and decentralize 最好的承诺是放手和放权.” This, China Business News wrote, is the foundation of the success of the past 45 years of reform and opening-up (since the 3rd Plenum in 1978) – 45年的改革开放展示，中国经济的腾飞史，就是政府放权、权利独立拓展的历.
So far, the editorial in China Business News remains uncensored. Despite all the censorship, the pressure on Beijing’s leadership to reform is growing.
Chinese paleontologists discovered this crystallized dinosaur egg while restoring a nest found last year on Qinglong Mountain in Hubei Province. Crystallized egg fossils are extremely rare due to the harsh environmental conditions required for their formation. Fossil dinosaur eggs dating back to the mid-Cretaceous period 60 to 80 million years ago were first discovered on Qinglong Mountain in 1995. To date, researchers have found about 3000 mostly well-preserved dinosaur eggs on the surface.
