US/China Economic Colonization of Iraq/Tibet

Upon first reading the assignment and seeing the term economic colonization, I immediately thought, “well, what does that term even mean?” Colonization made me think of Pilgrims, the first settlers, and the 13 original colonies. Basically, colonization is when people from somewhere else come and settle down in new land and start living there similar to the way they lived in their previous location. Now, throw in the term economic, I immediately thought money, economy, globalization, and supply and demand. So tying the two terms together, economic colonization to me meant the foundations of an economic system of a different country. I found an article about China and Tibet and in the article describes China’s influence over Tibet and how Tibet is seen as a better life for Chinese, and some Chinese government campaigns have even encouraged the relocation. A new railroad has recently linked Tibet and China and sparked what seems to be a process of China influencing Tibet to act as China would and mimic a lot of their culture and government.

A lot of companies have been moving to Tibet and building offices to try and be a powerhouse in their newly forming economy. “As companies open their factories and offices in Tibet, opportunities are provided for local ethnic Tibetans to obtain jobs and higher levels of income than would previously been possible. Unfortunately, most Tibetans have received lower levels of education and training than their Chinese counterparts and, with a lack of local skilled workers Chinese are being brought in to Tibet to take the new jobs available.” With the influx of Chinese and foreigners, the Tibetan culture and how people live there is sure to change. New businesses will however bring new opportunity, however for whom? Who will reap the benefits? Surely not the Tibetan people if they are not able to work for these new companies because they are losing their jobs to the Chinese. In a sense, Tibetan is being colonized by other countries, mainly China, with so many Chinese run businesses, the economic system of China is sure to be imposed in Tibet, one business at a time and I’m sure eventually China and Tibet will be very similar. I do think it is wrong though. Tibet is not a big, powerful country like China is. China saw opportunity for economic expansion and growth in Tibet and took full advantage of that and is trying to impose a different culture and way of life in Tibet. http://china.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_chinese_domination_of_tibet

What China is doing to Tibet is similar to what the United States is doing in the Middle East today. I found an article dealing with this and in it states, “in direct conflict with its obligations under international law, the Bush Administration is fundamentally altering Iraq's economic laws to U.S. corporate advantage and is not adequately restoring and providing Iraqis with fundamental necessities such as water and electricity.” The US is imposing economic laws that will reap benefits in our advantage. The article said that U.S. corporations are already reaping staggering revenues from their Iraqi operations, however due to certain restriction the US is not allowed to reinvest that money back into Iraq. We are economically colonizing Iraq to have a similar economy to the US. The entire way of life for the people of Iraq is going to change because there way of life is not going to coincide with the type of economic market that the US is trying to set up over there, which just doesn’t seem fair to me. http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=5443

Although the last article dealt mainly with the Bush Administration and is a few years old, it will be interesting to see in the years to come what the major effects will be. I also look forward to seeing what Obama and plans to do about the situation in Iraq. The effects of Economic Colonization depend on which side you look at. In Tibet and Iraq’s case, the effects are not going to be great- other countries are coming in and reaping benefits at their expenses. Granted, Tibet and Iraq’s cases are a little different, in general that is what going on. The US/Iraq article said that hundreds of US companies are already operating out of Iraq, which is beneficial to them, but not really to Iraq.