You have to feel sorry for the Chinese. Their grand vision to replicate the annual Davos gathering of world economic leaders on Hainan island was such a flop that organizers apologized to attendees.
Instead of featuring substantive discussions and raising China's influence, last weekend's "Davos of Asia" will be remembered more for conspicuous absence of the economic glitterati that visits the Swiss town each year. And for its mishaps and faux pas.
Chinese delegates used the occasion to vent frustration at the competition they're facing from foreign firms as China enters the WTO. Not exactly the impression Beijing hoped to give a world skeptical about China's ability to conform to global standards anytime soon.
A far racier subject was broached by another attendee -- one who runs a Beijing escort agency. The delegate tried to lobby Premier Zhu Rongji to follow Thailand's sex industry and legalize transvestites in China. An unimpressed Zhu dismissed the question as inappropriate. Translation: Transvestites, your time in Beijing hasn't come.
Adding insult to injury was a Taiwan delegate identifying himself as hailing from The Republic of China. The comment raised heckles and embarrassed the forum's organizers.
"We'll have to keep the riff-raff out next year. How dare he flaunt his politics here," Li Qiang, a security guard at the forum held in Boao, said.
Perhaps organizers jinxed themselves by trumpeting the event as a success before it ended. The International Finance Daily, a Beijing-based newspaper, declared that the forum had already surpassed Davos. Too bad the article spelled Davos as "Dawas." Other signs organizers need to work on their English -- the lingua franca for international conference-goers -- gave attendees a chuckle. A China Unicom advertisement for a new mobile-phone network, displayed above the conference media center, said: "May the Boao Forum for Asia Consummate." Another sign said the forum "is for evildoing of all the country in Asia." Speeches by the president of Kazakhstan and the former prime minister of Mongolia, meanwhile, weren't translated. Anyone around here speak Kazakh or Mongol? On a far more serious note, however, China's Davos-wannabe confab seemed a sobering blow to a nation that wants more influence on the geopolitical stage. Given its booming economy and geographic size and location, Beijing figures it deserves a leading role in Asia, if not the world. Last weekend's forum was meant to spotlight China's rising star.
The world's most populous nation had a taste of the recognition it craves last October, when it hosted an APEC meeting in Shanghai. Just as China hoped, the city's booming growth wowed visitors like US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Journalists were equally seduced.
Since then, questions about whether China's economic miracle is for real have eclipsed the positive spin coming from Beijing.
So much so that Zhu found himself having to defend China's growth statistics to conferees in Boao.
"No one should doubt that China's growth is not below 7 percent per year," Zhu told delegates.
But they do indeed, and doubters are becoming more vocal these days. Even if China is growing at 7 percent, the sources of that output are also being scrutinized as never before. Economists the world over worry that government spending -- deficit spending, actually -- and little else is propelling the nation's 7 percent-plus growth.
To officials in Beijing, the "Boao Forum for Asia" seemed the perfect opportunity to change the subject -- and showcase Chinese hospitality. Organizers flew in usher girls from Beijing, an orchestra from Vienna and a troupe of synchronized swimmers from Ukraine.
But Beijing didn't get a chance to raise its stature. None of the 10 members of ASEAN sent officials with a mandate to commit governments to any trade pacts. Of the 29 ministerial-level delegates at the Boao conference, 11 were former ministers who are already out of active politics.
The whole episode served as a reminder that China has come a long way toward opening its economy and stabilizing it, but much remains to be done. Until China can convince the world that its economy will be a stable and productive force in Asia, it will remain off center stage in the region.
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