China's Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who are Remaking the World in Beijing's Image, was put out two years ago in Spanish by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araujo both who are Spanish reporters with extensive experience in mainland China. Initially I was expecting a different view on China than the current American view, I later learned that China has bought a great deal of Spain's debt too.

Growing up in the mid 1960s and 1970s, I learned America feared two countries: The Soviet Union and Japan. The Soviets were out to take over the world and threatened us militarily and politically. Japan threatened us economically with cheap, low priced goods and trade deficit. Much later in graduate school I learned there are three things that make a superpower: Military, economic, and political power. The Soviet Union had two and faked the economic power. Japan had only economic power. Now in a new century, the world faces the rise of what could be a new superpower in the world, China. China does have the economic power and growing political power as seen in its head to head meetings with the US over Taiwan and the 2001 mid air collision and forced US landing in China of a US Navy EP-3 plane which lead to an apology from the US. Militarily, China is growing; it released pictures of its first aircraft carrier which did not alarm the US military as much as the anti-aircraft carrier missile it has developed. Although China does not have the blue water navy that was a sign of power in the last century, this is a new century with new signs of power.

The causal look into China's growing world wide power may seem benign. China comes to a developing country and builds infrastructure. Railroads, highways, power plants, and even stadiums are built to improve the lives of the people lin the developing country. In return China gains rights to minerals, oil, and agriculture. It appears to be a win-win situation, or at least better than the conquest, enslavement (of the natives), rape of the land conducted by European nations in the Americas and Africa. In Argentina, China will help/fund the cultivation previously unfarmed land in return for a portion of the land. Costa Rica will get a new stadium and aid in return it will break relations with Taiwan. African nations receive roads and railways in return for raw materials (which are hauled out of the country on the roads and railways China built).

China needs oil to fuel its growth and has been very successful in getting it from America's and the West's enemies. Iran has oil and need nuclear technology and imports that are currently banned by Western embargoes. China did not and does not support the embargoes and trades, although rather quietly in banned goods. When approached on the issue China has enough political clout to ignore the concerns of other nations or when the material is too sensitive, it uses North Korea to transport goods. China is now Iran's largest trading partner. China also befriended Venezuela's Hugo Chavez (who was still alive at the writing of this book) and is the second largest importer of Venezuelan oil. Sudan has oil but needs to get it out of the ground and transport it. China is Sudan's only choice. The west does not want to invest the unstable country. Russia has the technology, but not the money. China has the money and the need for oil. China has other ways of getting what it wants too. It made loans to Angola to build an airport. The loan money disappeared within the corrupt Angolan government. A second loan was made with similar results. Now it is time to repay the loan and the money is gone and the infrastructure not built, so Angola must pay back the loan with oil. Through trade or corruption China will get want it wants.


China also exports its people. The Soviet Union used to keep immigration tightly controlled, but China sees an advantage in letting its people emigrate. Chinese emigrate to developing countries because they see opportunity that they don't have in their rapidly developing homeland. People move to countries live Egypt where even low paying jobs are more than they made in China. By hard work, under cutting the competition they can monopolize sections of the economy, like the textile industry in Egypt. Unlike other groups of immigrants who generally want to blend into the new country the Chinese remain very loyal to China. The Chinese also enjoy something Westerner's do not: China does not have a history of colonization and the Chinese who come to build the infrastructure keep to themselves. They remain almost invisible. They live on company compounds in nicer housing than they had in China. They have little reason to go out into the city because their goal is to save money, they have everything they need on the compound, and they have no understanding of the local language.

Problems do exist. Local recognize the higher pay, better food, and conditions the Chinese workers receive. In several countries this has lead to strikes and even riots. Chinese companies avoid legal problems with bribes.

China is on its way to becoming a superpower. Looking out for its interests it finds countries that need its help or money and slowly move in. It moves not with colonial ambition, but under the guise of friendship and mutual benefit. It's methods are not the export of revolution, but rather a no holds barred, all out capitalism. Cardenal and Araujo present a well written and thoroughly documented work on China in the twenty-first century. A very worthwhile read for anyone interested in economics, trade, and foreign affairs.
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This book about China's global economic strategy displays how extensive and intricate China's influence in developing economies. The authors discuss Chinese impact in several African, Asian, and South American countries. As an American, this book was eye-opening, especially to see the lack of references to the United States. As China becomes more powerful, I imagine I'll think of this book often and how it mapped out exactly how China built a global economic power base. ( )

I will start this review by going against established tradition: Typically a reviewer does not lead off with a flaw, unless the product being reviewed is hopeless. This product is not - it simply suffers from one main flaw: a writing approach that lends itself to easy Sinophobia or anti-Chinese prejudice. This manifests in, among other things, an excessive concern with the individual Chinese worker, where I believe a better area of focus would have been the connection between Chinese state-owned businesses and corrupt local elites in a variety of countries (Russia, Burma, various parts of Africa). A related but somewhat less obvious flaw is a lack of overall emphasis on the ties between the Chinese state and certain companies and projects abroad, as could be distinguished from Chinese businessmen and capitalists who, like anyone else on the planet, want to go make money.

These apart, the book is fascinating. It is a compilation of anecdotes, travelogues and personal experiences from across the Third World - Latin American, African and Asian countries, as well as Russian Siberia, are all featured - in which the authors interact, or at least attempt to interact, with Chinese business leaders and occasionally their employees. Sometimes the quality of the book suffers because certain individuals decided not to speak with reporters, but the writers can hardly be faulted for not having sufficient clout in, say, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to force citizens of a third country to answer their questions.

The tone is more than slightly catastrophic and apocalyptic - Chinese businesses (frequently controlled by the Chinese state/government, a point that I felt was underemphasized at times) are shown as not caring a whit for environmental, labor or legal concerns while attempting to loot every last dime of value from a wide variety of resources and markets worldwide. Russian timber and African minerals, among many other things, are shown in this book.

Just by nature of the material covered, it is a somewhat intense read - and this is before the reader considers the plight of maltreated workers in parts of Africa, or the reputation some Chinese businesses have for corruption and total disregard for laws or what Westerners might consider ethical business practice.

I have not read the footnote section (yet), but from what I have skimmed they appear to be a source of serious additional clarification and data. ( )

This book about Cardenal and Araujo is the result of a long period of interviews, research, and investigation. While some of the typical Pro-Western critique can be found throughout text, the vast majority of the work is very well presented and supported with numerous 1st and 2nd hand sources. The authors' travel through the Chinese-influenced world reveals several themes which are expertly dissected and analyzed. Credit goes to Mansfield perhaps for the translation but the work itself is solid no matter the language. The book examines the expansion of the Chinese power internationally through the efforts of the individual Chinese citizens sent abroad by the government or through their own volition. The common ties that bind the Chinese together as well as the teaching of the last 60 years have created a tensile web that has gradually expanded Chinese interests and influence throughout the developing world. It conducts numerous interviews with people on all sides and thus presents a very broad and thought-provoking look at the changing nature of international relations and how China has managed to involve itself on multiple levels of foreign policy around the world. A solid work that overcomes any negatives which arise from the authors' occasional blatant biases or desire for tension. Highly recommended. ( )

It took me awhile to read this book and give it the attention it deserved. There are years of reporting that went into writing this book, and the authors stated upfront that they funded their own research. And, I learned more from this book than I have from many others put together.

The silent army is about Chinese citizens who have not found success or livable wages in their small, rural towns and have moved all across the world and taken their work ethic with them, while leaving their families at home. With their money in Chinese banks that the government can leverage for its own projects as well as their pride for China, they are building China's global power through hard (and often unethical) work in many countries and many industries.

The book takes us to the places that they have settled in: Kazakhstan, DRC, Ecuador, Cairo, Argentina, and special economic zones in places like Laos. Readers get a glimpse of what's happening in these countries. We read about the real cost of business in these countries with this model. Some examples include the construction of airports & stadiums that aren't used, millions of dollars worth of road construction, tax evasion & cutting out of local competitors. Then there's the actual business itself: dirty & dangerous mining practices, inhumane work environments and racism, unsustainable and illegal tree harvesting, and so on.

The global politics that are supporting China's global dominance in these industries using their citizens in foreign countries is eye-opening. Cardenal & Araujo have done a great job of providing such an in-depth and readable book. After finishing it, I'm still trying to digest all of the implications of China's rising dominance and how we all are contributing to it, and often without realizing it.