Brendan Keenan: Great haul of China: visit could bring new jobs here
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping watches a gaelic football match during a tour of Croke Park over the weekend
PERHAPS the most remarkable thing about the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is that he came at all, and stayed so long.
Ireland is the only EU country on his trip. One can see why the US and Turkey would be included but Ireland? As often with Chinese affairs, it is not clear what the answer might be.
The official focus of the visit was on trade and investment. But there was a distinctly relaxed air, with visits to the Cliffs of Moher, Croke Park and a special request performance of Riverdance.
That should be good for tourism. Such visits are covered in enormous detail by Chinese state television and the weather was on its best behaviour. Tourism is going to be one of the great "export" opportunities as millions more Chinese take foreign holidays for the first time.
There is a remarkable interest and knowledge of Ireland among sophisticated Chinese. The Chieftains did their first gig when Chairman Mao was still in the ascendant. The aforesaid Riverdance is hugely popular.
Some informed commentators think there could also be something in this for Mr Xi. He is widely expected to become China's next leader, but it is not confirmed as yet and he has to show that he is up to the task.
Visiting President Obama is a test of his mettle. Visiting Ireland may be a more subtle test -- as to how he represents the ambitious, insecure new superpower in a wider context. He seems to have done rather well.
Irish business will hope there is more to it than that, and there probably is. It can make little difference to China how much Irish firms sell to them. It will make a big difference, to them and us, where Chinese firms locate as they increase their presence in the EU.
Politics may play a part. China still smarts over its treatment by the European powers in the 19th century. Almost every large EU-15 country, and a couple of small ones, were involved. Ireland, of course, was not, even if many Irishmen were.
Bertie Ahern began cultivating China early in his term as taoiseach. Presidential visits reportedly went down well. There is little bad blood between China and Ireland, and a bit more water under the bridge than one might imagine.
There is an unexpected photograph among the serried ranks of past visiting dignitaries displayed at Shannon Airport. This is of Jiang Zemin, then trade minister but later president of China, on a visit he chose to make to study the Shannon Free Zone.
It is believed to have influenced China's creation of special enterprise zones, which were its first tentative steps into global capitalism.
And it can hardly have gone unnoticed that there was very little about China's human rights record during the visit.
This has upset socialist TD Joe Higgins. He is correct about the scale of the abuses, but the ritual protests from such as David Cameron or Mr Obama are rank hypocrisy, intended for domestic consumption.
They have no intention of letting human rights interfere with the huge business opportunities presented by China, so it would be more honest to say nothing.
For Ireland, the benefits are more likely to be from inward Chinese investment than outward sales. The Taoiseach hit on one other Irish advantage when he mentioned the English language, the first choice foreign language for Chinese.
That recalls the scandalously inept way in which Ireland squandered opportunities to be a really serious centre for studying the language. Ireland made nothing of its invention of the free zone concept, and has missed other opportunities in the past. It has a chance to do better with China.
It is not an easy country in which to do business and a very easy one to come a cropper. The Chinese may well come here, as investors and visitors. Improving the Irish presence in China will be a test as to whether the complacency, dishonesty and idleness of the 2000s has really been put behind us.
- Brendan Keenan
Irish Independent
