By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Last month I was in china attending the 2nd international convention on Rural Roads. It was held in Jinan city, Shandong Province in the eastern part of the gigantic country. The convention brought together participants from almost all countries in the world including Uganda. We went on a guided tour of Shandong province to learn more about China’s performance in terms of rural road construction and maintenance. Participants especially from Africa and other poor Asian countries were amazed that what is referred to rural roads in china are actually first class urban roads in the developing countries. The hallmark of Chinese development hinges on the fact. The Chinese are meticulous and can never leave anything to chance. They have taken extra care to plan for years to come. The roads are well designed in accordance with the setting of an area. Human settlement is also adequately catered for. People do not settle anywhere like in the case of Uganda. As a result the Chinese people although many, optimally utilize their spaces which leaves them with large tracts of land for both current and future use. The places designated for settlement are supplied with amenities like water and electricity. Most free sp[ace is used for modern agriculture which is done on a large scale. We were told that Shandong province alone has up to 3 million kilometers of bituminized roads. This is incomparable to Uganda’s only 4, 000 kilometers of tarmac.
The government of China has made infrastructure development especially roads as one of the quickest means to achieve human development. Their transport system, though still with a few challenges has greatly improved during the last decade thanks to their planning skills. The Chinese government is expecting an urban boom as millions of young people leave rural areas into urban areas in search of better services. In fact it is expected that in the next fifteen years, more than 90 percent of Chinese people will be living in urban areas. This is putting the government on pressure as they plan for this “exodus”. Both the Chinese central and provincial governments are working hand in hand with a shared vision of having well planned cities for the future generations. They both recognize the importance of planning in the development of their society. Old and poorly planned structures in urban areas are razed down almost on a daily basis to pave way for modern buildings and highways. As would be expected, some people normally resist to be resettled. In such case4s government uses force to evict them. Indeed during the time of our visit, the China Daily, the largest best selling English newspaper in China, had a front page photograph of a poor man’s home that had resisted eviction. He went on a strike vowing never to leave his house. He said he would rather be killed. He had brought enough food supplies to last some time. Tractors were used to dig deep trenches around his three storied house while he remained holed inside. It was the only hose still standing in the whole neighborhood. The China Highway and Transportation Society (CHTS) which is an equivalent of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), is fully in charge of the Chinese national roads.
Something special I witnessed in china is that local especially provincial and national leaders are highly respected by all citizens. The citizens believe that every action these leaders do is for the common good. People in china have a very high sense of nationalism and patriotism. It is unthinkable that a leader let alone government can initiate an idea that will not benefit the people. It was therefore not surprising that the Chinese government considers the 2010 Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo as a criminal and a traitor that should be hanged because he criticized the Chinese way of doing things.
** The writer is a Human Rights Defender
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