When we were in Beijing, the news broke that Russia’s military chief, Yuri Baluyevsky, was in China to finalise plans for the forthcoming military exercises between the two countries. Nevertheless, both countries sought to play down any concerns that the two countries’ first ever war games could exacerbate rising regional tensions.

The Chinese state media made it clear that although the joint exercises reflected a shared desire between both China and Russia to develop closer strategic military ties, these were not to be targeted at any third country. The Chinese were also prompt to deny reports in the international press that China hoped to use this operation as a training exercise for possible military action against Taiwan.

The official Russian reaction to the anti-secession law through its Beijing-based ambassador was that his country welcomed the law as a tool to maintain peace.

While much has been written in the past about the possibility of a property bubble in China, while we were there the Chinese central bank announced measures to tighten property loans while reducing the interest rate on banks’ excessive reserves – a move that analysts say is aimed at alleviating liquidity difficulties among businesses. It is hoped that the Chinese CB’s decision will not only help commercial banks further improve their efficiency in fund use and liquidity management but that it will also promote the liberalisation of the interest rate regime.

In our discussions with the Foreign Affairs Committee I received very clear and unequivocal replies to my queries about their anti corruption drive. While we were in China, it was announced that a former top communications and highways official had been sentenced to death for corruption, with the understanding that the court will review his sentence in two years to allow him the possibility of surviving if his behaviour in prison has been good.

While at the time of writing Southern China seems to be the main economic driver of the People’s Republic’s economic and export growth, plans were afoot to develop Central China, to the extent that this move was described as the “front and centre” on the government’s agenda.

This has in fact been identified as one of the six major economic tasks for 2005, thus allowing the nation’s leaders to help materialise their hope that they can succeed in narrowing a widening prosperity gap between the country’s coastal areas and its hinterlands.

While feasibility studies have long been the order of the day in the West, in China unfeasibility studies are also being conducted. This suggestion arose during the 10th National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at its annual conference. The reason behind this thinking is that although government bodies at various levels usually carry out studies on the feasibility of issues, incorrect decisions continue to be made, causing great losses to the nation.

They argued that this is closely linked to the fact that importance is only attached to the study on “feasibility elements” and the “unfeasible elements” always tend to be ignored. The aim of such unfeasibility studies is to find out what possible risks and bad results might be caused, and to propose corresponding counter-measures to make decisions more practicable so that losses can be reduced or prevented.

The cherry on the cake of our China visit was our visit to Guangdong, which has very strong relations with the EU to the extent that its exports to the EU exceeded $4.49 billion in the first two months of the year, – a year on year growth of 29.9 per cent.

The southern Chinese province’s main exports to the EU are machinery and electronic products. Guangdong also imports heavily from the EU, with the EU currently the province’s third largest trading partner after the Hong Hong SAR and the US. But it was the mounting pace of Guangdong’s foreign trade with the EU that has sparked such interest. Expanding Sino-European economic ties have greatly benefited Guangdong’s foreign trade.

When I left for China, I was under the impression that everything revolved around Beijing. However, although this might be the case politically and administratively, it is not necessarily the case as far as economics and competitiveness are concerned.

In fact, Beijing slid down to fourth place among the mainland’s most competitive cities this year, being surpassed by Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. This annual city-by-city ranking of competitiveness is published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Nevertheless, Beijing’s overall competitiveness is expected to climb in the near term.

The need for the sustainability of the Chinese economy can also be felt in the editorials of such dailies as China Daily, which is likely to run such editorials as the following on consecutive days: Northern cities need wider market access and Cleaner environment as important as growth.

The liberal approach to political discussions on foreign policy issues is also reflected in such CCTV English language programmes as Dialogue, which regularly has top-notch guests in the studio, such as former US Ambassador to the UN Richard Hallbrook.

One of the major economic problems facing the country, and about which they openly speak, is that of water – or rather safe water – in the thirsty countryside. Nevertheless, government is planning well ahead, targeting the objective of having some 360 million rural people likely to have access to clean drinking water supplies by 2020. This represents about one third of the whole rural population. One of the problems regarding water pollution is the state of certain rivers.

Less than 40 per cent of the sections of China’s seven major rivers monitored in 2003 reach the standard for drinking, while a mere quarter of the 28 key lakes and reservoirs that were checked were up to the criteria. One particular country that is helping overcome such a problem is Italy, so much so that it is among a series of Sino-Italian cooperative programmes in environmental protection.

In Guangdong we were told that the authorities planned to combat drought by the use of artificial rain, which can be induced by the spraying of particular chemicals courtesy of jet aeroplanes.

While China’s commercial lenders will charge a flexible interest rate on consumer housing loans according to their judgment of business risks and the debtors’ situation, the banking regulators have been calling for beefed up internal controls and risk management, particularly following a spate of media reports exposing corruption at some banks.

While we were in China it was revealed that some branches of the “big four” banks had sacrificed discipline and internal management in pursuit of a greater market share and fatter profits.

A China Development Forum examined in depth the impact of growth on the country, particularly since this was expected to increase at an annual rate of eight per cent during the period of the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010). Meanwhile the country’s officials are planning to further stimulate growth by pledging further tax reforms.

The opening up of Chinese society can be felt across the whole spectrum of society itself, with the party in government committed to open up to the world through news briefings to tell the public about its “open minded” and “progressive” policies.

In addition, the Beijing People’s Congress plans to hold a series of public hearings to gather public views as part of their legislative process.

Now that China is a member of the WTO, one can gain comfort from the fact that, even as its economy grows, it is bound to observe the rules based on the institution’s norms and criteria in future.

I am quite sure that China’s present leadership will take up responsibilities in line with its rising prominence, particularly since the Chinese have always been well known for their strategic thinking and long-term planning.

The global leader

The most difficult task ahead of the College of Cardinals is not merely that of electing a pope but that of choosing as the new leader of the Catholic Church a cardinal who has the same charisma, depth, vision and strategic thinking of Pope John Paul II.

Although I intend to write about the papacy in the future, I have refrained from doing so today since my main article had been filed ahead of the Pope’s demise.

I am no expert on the papacy, but as an ordinary layman I have been fascinated by the Vatican and the papacy ever since my youth.

Pope John Paul II intrigued me even more in the sense that even when I sometimes found it hard to fathom some of his policies and pronouncements, rather than growing distant from him I felt his influence and moral strength growing year after year.

He was a telling lesson in true leadership – a man constantly in charge of his faithful flock. Somebody once described him as a pope who saw the Church as a pyramid rather than a group of communities, carrying out his role as that of a CEO running the branch offices from the apex.

But to reach such a conclusion is, to my mind, over simplistic and one-dimensional. Possibly it also does a disservice to John Paul II to dismiss him in such archaic terms. John Paul II was a man of peace who, at the same time, did not embrace the notion of what was termed an anti-Islamic war on terrorism.

On one hand sympathetic in his declarations for the American victims of the 9/11 attacks, he was nevertheless adamantly against an invasion of Iraq, considering it to be both a disastrous and wrong strategic decision.

It is worth remembering that he adopted the same stance when Bush Snr and the coalition invaded Iraq 12 years earlier, as well as when Afghanistan was attacked in 2001.

Bearing in mind his understandable resistance to abortion, one can safely conclude that the man who injected so much life into the Roman Catholic Church was totally against the culture of death.

He once contrasted forgiveness with violence by stating that while forgiveness always involves an apparent short-term loss for a real long-term gain, violence is the exact opposite. Opting as it does for an apparent short-term gain, it involved a real and permanent loss.

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Leo Brincat is opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs and IT