This is China! BLOG

Tequila and Chopsticks

My group recently finished supporting the University of Notre Dame’s International Executive Education Program in China for Fall 2006. The participants this time were from three Latin American countries: Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Mexico was represented in the form of the administrative and translation staff I enlisted for the job.

As a faculty member of the University’s International Executive Education program I had to make the China market materials I lecture on relevant to the goings-on in Latin America. I learned several things about China and Latin America in my research and during the week-long program of lectures and cultural tours: Latin America has awoken in the last six months to China; China is aggressively investing in and encouraging trade with Latin America; there is a lot of money in South America that is not being re-invested in the respective countries.

The Washington Post just a couple weeks ago had an article about the explosion in Chinese language study requests by young Latinos. The article threw out various statistics about the increasing trade between the regions, the upshot of which was that Latinos are beginning to feel the impact China is having on their lives. One of the things I came away from the program feeling was that Latin America is where North America was vis a vis its knowledge of and interest in China. That is quickly changing now: whereas two years ago I had to struggle to find a Latin American “community” in China for a Mexican General Manager (of an American company) with which to connect; now I am hearing Spanish spoken once or twice a week here in Suzhou. Indeed, the resources I tapped for translation and administrative support are themselves Mexican students of Chinese language at Suzhou University.

China has pledged billions of US dollars to improve the infrastructure of many Latin American countries. As one Colombian executive said to me as our dinner cruise plied the Wangpu River that fronts the Bundt in Shanghai: “How is it that all of this was farmland ten years ago?” He pointed at the skyscrapers on the Pudong side of the river. “In Colombia we have cities that are four hundred years old and do not have good roads or utilities.” The Chinese government knows that if it does not itself work closely with Latin America to develop its infrastructure, China will not be able to easily get the kinds of raw materials it needs from Latin America to develop China’s own economy. Latin America is a primary exporter to China of oil and agricultural goods.

Latinos are lovely people. They are even lovelier with money. And the folks on the tour had lots of it. They were the elite of their societies. Family-owned businesses valued in the billions of US dollars; decades-old franchises of multi-national brands, schooled in private schools, experienced working in North America and Europe. The entire group of 10 executives spoke and understood English (making translation of some of the lectures more a bother than it was worth). Granted they worked hard to build their companies and their fortunes in often hostile political and economic conditions; however, as long as there is an Elite in the traditional sense with few obvious opportunities for others in their society to reap the same benefits, then Latin America will continue to struggle to collectively become a world power.

I sat waiting for the morning train from Suzhou to Shanghai for only a few moments before I heard a group of Spanish speakers swarm up from behind me. There must have been a dozen of them, led by a Spanish-speaking Chinese fellow. Three Mexican ladies sat in front of me: I knew they were from Mexico because one of them had sewn onto the outside of her bag a large Mexican flag. I sent a text message to my General Manager friend in Suzhou, a Mexican national: “The Mexicans are coming!” I announced, “this is the beginning of a huge trend in China.
Tequila anyone?

William Dodson
Suzhou, China