Contact between Chinese and Timorese dates
back to the early 15th century when the ships of the legendary Chinese explorer
Admiral Zheng He arrived on the island in search of the famed sandalwood highly
valued in Ming China for incense and medicinal purposes. The first ever known
maps of the island are believed to be from 1412 by Ming dynasty cartographers.
In the late 19th century several thousand Chinese began to settle in the then
Portuguese-controlled Timor. By the early 1970s the Chinese population in
Timor-Leste had reached 45,000, accounting for 2.5 percent of the population.
The Chinese Timorese assumed a prominent role in the territory’s economy,
dominating the retail and agricultural trade
The Chinese population was particularly targeted by the
Indonesian military following Indonesia’s invasion of Timor-Leste in December
1975. During the country’s 24 years of struggle for independence, the Chinese
Timorese, many of whom had become wealthy businessmen in Australia and Asia
after fleeing their country, contributed generously to the cause of
independence. After the 1999 United Nations intervention that led to the
independence of Timor two years later, the Chinese community responded to the
young state’s appeal and returned in large numbers. Indeed, the largest private
investor in Timor-Leste is the Chinese Timorese Gape family. They invested in
construction, shopping centres and the retail sector, creating thousands of
jobs.
The People’s Republic of China was the first country to
recognise the independence of the newly created Democratic Republic of
Timor-Leste in May 2002. In the 1970s China was a strong supporter of Timorese
independence, providing both diplomatic and financial support. Since 2002 China
has given significant assistance to the new nation, donating badly needed
infrastructure such as the buildings for the Presidential Palace, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, the Defence Force Headquarters, the Secretariat of Defence
and 100 houses for military officers.
Chinese companies have also won some lucrative contracts in
Timor, such as the US$ 430 million contract to build two power plants and a US$
30 million contract to supply two naval patrol boats to the Timorese military.
Several Timorese students have graduated from Chinese universities. As of
November 2013, 32 Timorese students were attending Chinese universities,
including PhD students.
The Chinese government has also organised short courses for
public servants, ranging from two weeks to three months. In 2013 more than 600
Timorese public servants attended such courses. Since 2003 an estimated 1,236
Timorese have studied in China – a significant number in light of Timor’s small
population of one million.
Bilateral trade reached US$ 43 million in 2013 and has been
growing at an average rate of 30 percent for the past five years. China is
currently Timor-Leste’s fourth largest trading partner. In November 2013 the
Chinese government announced an increase of 20 percent on its aid to Timor from
83 million yuan to 100 million yuan a year. Since Timor’s independence, China
has sent large medical teams and agricultural experts to assist the country’s
struggling health and agricultural sectors. An estimated 2,000 Chinese citizens
reside in Timor, although the number could be much higher. The Chinese are
mainly small-scale businessmen, often finding themselves the only ones willing
to go to the most remote villages on the mountainous island where the quality
of the roads would challenge the most hardened explorers.
These Chinese traders bring consumer goods to populations
settling in these areas and some even marry local women. The Chinese quickly
learn the local lingua franca, Tetun, which facilitates their economic
activities. Chinese traders have also forced the greedier and prouder of the
local and foreign traders to reduce their prices, thereby benefitting the
general population. Affordable Chinese cars and motorcycles have enabled large
numbers of Timorese to own their own mode of transportation. This is a
particularly welcome development in a country where a significant proportion of
people’s income goes to pay for the micrulet – the privately operated and
packed minibuses that make up for the country’s lack of public transport.
Timor remains highly dependent on imports from Indonesia,
which supplies about 95 percent of the consumer goods sold locally. Indonesia
traders benefit greatly from the commerce, as they buy from China and then sell
to Timor at a profit that could be as much as ten times what they pay to
Chinese exporters.
If Timor-Leste can strengthen ties between local businessmen
and Chinese suppliers, the price of commodities to Timorese consumers will
decrease significantly. Some Timorese companies have begun buying directly from
China. In October 2013, a Timorese company purchased $300,000 worth of solar
panels, after visiting factories producing such items in Hubei. More such sales
are expected.
Some Chinese companies have expressed interest in investing
in Timor. Timorese construction companies have also begun considering buying
building materials and machinery from China. A Timorese businessman said during
a visit to Beijing, “ If I buy cob houses directly from China, it’s eight times
cheaper than buying them from Indonesia which is buying them from China anyway.
We must stop being lazy and be more clever.”
Closer links between private businesses from both sides
maybe the solution for Timor to address the current sluggish Sino-Timorese
ties.
In Timor more than 80 percent of the labour force involved
in Chinese projects is made up of Timorese workers, making Chinese projects an
important factor in tackling the high levels of unemployment on the island. The
Chinese are usually found occupying the more technical and risky positions on
such projects. During the erection of hundreds of electric towers for the
national power grid, for example, three Chinese workers died from work-related
accidents whilst not a single Timorese labourer suffered any serious injury.
China’s presence in Timor-Leste remains rather small when
compared to its presence in other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia
or Cambodia, and considerably smaller than China’s presence in other Lusophone
nations such as Angola and Mozambique. Indeed, with the exception of Guinea
Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe, the Chinese presence in Timor is far less
pronounced than in the remainder of the Lusophone countries.
As noted by Vicky Tchong, the Timorese Ambassador to
Beijing: “We can get almost anything we want from China; all we need to do is
to ask.”
Timor-Leste has yet to fully reap the benefits from the
incredible opportunities that China offers. In November 2010, for instance,
during the Macao Forum meeting, former Timorese President Ramos Horta requested
a $3 billion loan for Timor-Leste from Premier Wen Jabao for several projects,
including infrastructure. A week after the meeting a delegation from China’s
Import Export Bank visited the island’s capital, Dili, to negotiate the terms
of the agreement. However, a deal has yet to be made.
Several Lusophone countries have received significant loans
from China on very generous terms. Angola received $15 billion and Cape Verde –
a much smaller country than Timor – received over $100 million. Even Portugal,
a modern Western democracy, has received substantial Chinese investment. In
Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde, Chinese loans have allowed for massive
expansion of infrastructure, including the building of roads, railways, ports,
dams, bridges, public housing, and numerous other projects. Thanks in large
part to Chinese financial and technical assistance, in the past decade these
countries have made great progress in improving their infrastructure – a
crucial prerequisite for future development.
Timor could benefit from Chinese help as well, to improve
areas such as transport links. For instance, it takes two and half hours to
drive from Dili to Baucau, a mere 122 kilometres away.
One area where bilateral cooperation could be improved is in
the reciprocal granting of travel visas. For over a year Beijing has been
awaiting a response from the Timorese side to sign a mutual visa exception
agreement.
In late June, to his merit, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao
recognised the management inefficiency in his government and promised serious
reforms. Perhaps if these reforms are implemented Timor–Leste could finally
begin to take full advantage of its ties with the rising dragon. (Loro
Horta/macauhub)
Loro Horta is a consultant with the United Nations Regional
Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. He was an advisor to
Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations’ national
project manager for the security-sector reform in Timor-Leste. He is a graduate
of the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University and the Chinese
Ministry of Commerce Central School.
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