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‘Vasco da Gama’ revisited

By Paulo Casaca

The most pleasant surprise I had upon disembarking in Goa last year was to discover the warm and positive attitudes of the Indian people towards the old local coloniser, including its historical symbols such as ‘Vasco da Gama’, the first Portuguese navigator reaching the Indian sub-continent (whose name was given to the biggest city in Goa). Vasco da Gama, like many of his successors, and undoubtedly also like many of his predecessors such as the Islamic colonisers, did negative as well as positive things. At the end of the day one can always see any one reality through many different angles; what is crucial is to be able to put all said angles within a global positive perspective. This is what I found more fascinating about people from Goa (and I think it is generally true about Indians): a capacity to take the best out of dire situations and to face the future with an optimistic attitude.

‘Vasco da Gama’ was fundamental in the making of the new modern age also described as the ‘Modern World System’ by Immanuel Wallerstein, as much as he gave a decisive impetus to globalization. Contrarily to the widespread perception, the most thrilling issue of the time was not to ‘discover’ unknown lands but to discover new ways of getting access to wealth. Asia – fundamentally its two big human centres, India and China – was the most developed part of the World. European markets priced very highly the textiles, porcelains, metal crafts, and spices originating by the most performing industrial producers of the time. In contrast, America was not an interesting colonising objective. The only way for Columbus to get financial support from the Catholic Kings for his journey was convincing them there would be a shorter route from Spain to India through the West instead of around Africa. The subsequent support for his voyages was only possible by making the Spanish crown to believe that Cuba was actually Japan (Cipango) and that the continental American inhabitants were ‘Indians’. By the time the truth eventually emerged, silver and gold became a good alternative as the main motor of colonisation in this part of the world.

‘Vasco da Gama’, therefore, symbolises the replacement of the traditional spice routes spreading through the Gulf or the Red Sea and the Mediterranean as well as the old Silk Road through which, for instance, the Romans had been in contact with China. As we know, since the industrial revolution, Europe was able to reverse the terms of the relation it had with the main Asian centres, and for over a quarter of millennium, Western industrial goods (and some agricultural products as well) dominated. The rapid growth of Asia (and most in particular, China since 1978) we now witness, ended this period and we are now experiencing a new era where Chinese fabric – and Chinese companies, products, standards and business models as well – are dominating globalisation flows. This is a tremendous challenge to the whole World, namely the old western centres and other Asian emerging realities.

One of the most important symbols of the new times is the so-called OBOR, One Belt One Road. The slogan should actually be interpreted by reversing the meaning of its terms: countless ways instead of one (and definitely more seaways and railways than roads) and in every direction instead of a precise band, as one could infer from the word ‘belt’. In line with these paradoxes, the OBOR is subdivided between ‘the belt’ – which brings together transport and industrial infra-structure by land – and ‘the road’, that is ‘the Maritime Silk Road’. This is historically yet another oxymoron, for the seaway first opened by Vasco da Gama is actually defined as the alternative to the then existing ‘silk road’ to Europe. If we look a bit more carefully to OBOR, we will see six distinct ‘economic corridors’, one of them termed the ‘New Eurasian Land Bridge (NELB)’ and covering land connections with Europe. Last year, there were already over thirty rail lines linking China to Europe, largely surpassing conventional understandings of the expression ‘land bridge’. OBOR is supposed to cover 65 countries, representing 70% of humanity. It excludes fundamentally America, Western Europe, most of Africa and Japan. Yet again, we cannot look at this OBOR description at face value.

Portugal, for instance, is one of the most strategic Chinese gateways to Europe, although it does not appear as such in OBOR. The former national air company and member of the world’s biggest air-alliance, TAP, is now partially privatised and 20% owned by a Chinese group, HNA, which already dominates 14 other airlines, mostly in China. In the end of 2016, the Portuguese and the Chinese authorities signed an agreement for an enormous industrial development in the area of the most important Portuguese harbour, Sines, incidentally, the native town of ‘Vasco da Gama’. In the last few months the Portuguese press has brought up news on the potential interests of the Chinese authorities of Ningbo harbour in acquiring a position in Sines harbour.

Chinese investors also have a crucial stake in various other former Portuguese ‘strategic national companies’: the former national electricity network EDP is now 20% owned by Three Gorges; Chinese interests have gained an important indirect role in the former national oil company, GALP; Fosun, a Chinese investment Fund, has a sizeable chunk in the most important Portuguese commercial bank, it owns 80% of the Portuguese biggest insurer and controls the biggest private health company. Following the US announcement under President Obama of the withdrawal of its presence in the Lajes Air basis in the strategic mid-Atlantic archipelago of Azores, the Chinese authorities declared their interest in investing in the air and maritime infra-structure of the islands.

If one looks at the overall logic of the Chinese interests in Portugal, we will see that the main interest is to access Europe, through transport infrastructure as well as through a presence in key strategic sectors such as defence, banking, insurance, energy and health. Felix F. Seidler, a fellow in the Institute for Security Policy, University of Kiel, has been one of the European academics writing on the Chinese interest for Portugal, with a particular concern about the military basis in the Azores. In his opinion, the pressing Portuguese debt will be the key element in deciding the fate of the strategic battle for the control of the country.

Contrarily to what Mr Seidler apparently thinks, a giant credit position may cause similar risks as the reverse does. The massive German economic surplus confronts its banking system with the challenge of finding profitable destinations for its funds. This was ultimately the reason for Deutsche Bank’s risky investments and the critical situation it went through last year. China just gained a considerable strategic leverage in Germany through the newly acquired position in Deutsche Bank by the HNA (almost 10%), which turned the Chinese group into its largest single share-holder. From ‘Vasco da Gama’ times to our day, there is a lot in common in the different types of globalisation; but definitely, methods have changed dramatically. The European Union should try to understand them while it still had time to do it.

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of New Delhi Times (NDT)

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