Tomorrow, Manchester Disabled People Against The Cuts (MDPAC) are one of the organisations that have called a demonstration against the visit to Manchester and the Town Hall lunch date of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne...
"Apparently we were not clear enough when we told the Tories to get out of Manchester at their conference" MDPAC states "So let's show the visiting dignitaries how despised Cameron and Osborne are in Manchester. And that all human rights abusers are not welcome."
While the Chinese knackering of Britain's steel industry, its human rights violations, its nuclear fiddling and its ivory trade have been well documented, a new academic paper by Jon Silver, a fellow at Durham University, puts Salford centre stage in the new Far Eastern economic suck-up.
Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart, has been slavering in virtually every speech he makes about Salford having economic growth `comparative to China', as he runs his own one-party, democracy-deficit city, but Silver looks further at the Chinese investment into Salford and its implications.
The Scarborough Group, which is creating the massive Middlewood Locks development around the Manchester, Bolton, Bury Canal, on the border between Salford and Manchester, has secured investment from the region of Xinjiang, which has seen the Chinese state forcibly displace the Uyghur people for thirty years.
The Middlewood Locks proposal is for 32 storey high apartment blocks, a hotel, loads of shops, a park, a car park and no discernable affordable housing…plus avoidance of £6million in planning fees (see previous Salford Star article – click here). But it's more than this...
"Through this investment Middlewood Locks has thus become an early, visible symbol of these aspirations to extend China's trade influence as part of its $40 billion Silk Road Fund" writes Silver "Understanding Chinese motivations behind the reshaping of both its own and the UK's infrastructure space also generates some important questions about this apparently blooming relationship, particularly in regards to an ongoing concern with human rights, but also in terms of the economic futures of the UK and the Manchester city-region that seem to emerge from this infrastructural alignment."
In other words, in the same way that Britain's new nuclear facility will be in the hands of China, so will everything else it invests in locally.
"This new infrastructure space is not just interesting financially" argues Silver "It generates important political questions about the future orientation of the controlling Labour Party across the city-region. As it very publicly aligns to Osborne's attempt at a shift in the UK's economic basis through allowing new Chinese infrastructure space to emerge while remaining at the heart of the Chancellor's devolution agenda, it provides a city that will either suffer the consequences of Osborne's political-economic manoeuvres or reap many of the early benefits."
The decisions on this "wave of political economic change for the city-region" he insists "should be opened up to those living in Greater Manchester who might value human rights or alternative economic strategies more than another multi-million speculative development with no social housing, which pegs its future to a state-building project by an authoritarian regime.
"It is disingenuous to argue that this alignment with China is the only feasible option and that to take a stand against human rights in which certain disinvestment would follow is not of the 'real world'" Silver adds "For a city-region that celebrates its radical past now might be a time to show the world the values of social justice and freedom that are supposedly cherished.
"Whether the appetite and will to draw back from this emerging infrastructure space across Xinjiang and Manchester city region exists" he concludes "remains another thing entirely."**
Tomorrow, the local Labour Party, the Tories and the authoritarian Chinese will all be lunching together, while, outside, Manchester and Salford people will be making their feelings known...
To read the full paper, Silk Road 2.0, Manchester city-region and the new global infrastructure space – click here
See also Salford Star's China On The Irwell article for the Electoral Reform Society from 2013 – click here
Protest against the Chinese President, British Prime Minister and Chancellor
Friday 23rd October
Manchester Town Hall
Albert Square
12:30-2:30pm
Rally point: side of Central Library opposite Midland Hotel.
See also the Facebook event page – click here
* Also happening tomorrow across town at noon, at All Saints Park, is a protest against the forced displacement of homeless people at The Ark 2 Manchester Camp, organised by Socialist Students Manchester SASH (Student Action in Solidarity with the Homeless) and Youth Fight for Jobs Manchester - further details click here or see the Facebook event page - click here
**Update: 23rd October 2015
Scarborough Group has today announced that it has appointed Beijing Construction and Engineering Group (BCEGI) as its preferred contractor for Middlewood Locks.
"We are delighted to be selected as preferred contractor for Middlewood Locks and have very much enjoyed working alongside the Scarborough team" says Xing Yan of BCEGI "We are now looking forward to delivering the first phases of development of this significant and strategic regeneration project."
Lee Savage, Development Director of Scarborough, adds: "Middlewood Locks is a unique site with the potential to deliver thousands of new homes, jobs and a first-class business destination", while Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart insists "This is another exciting development for Salford...."
Update:23rd October: Manchester Gets A Whiff of China During Cameron and Xi Jinping Visit - click here
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