Wang Jing: there’s ‘no turning back’ on Nicaragua canal | Nicaragua Dispatch

For a project that’s being billed as the “biggest infrastructure project in the history of humanity,” Monday’s groundbreaking of the great Chinese canal in Nicaragua was a pretty hum-drum affair.

First of all, it wasn’t really a canal groundbreaking — just the start of construction on a lonely access road. But mostly, it was an opportunity for Sandinista politicians and Chinese canal planners to put on hardhats and pose next to a dump truck, which is something they promised to do before Christmas.

Map showing the golf and tourism developments that HKND wants to build along canal route.

The only real excitement of the day was provided by anti-canal protesters who blocked highways and burned tires in Rivas and Nueva Guinea. The Sandinistas tried to manufacture some excitement of their own by sending identically dressed loyalists into the streets of Managua to wave flags and repeat the first lady’s talking points about God blessing the canal (#DiosBendigaElCanal). But it wasn’t a very convincing show.

Read more on canal here.

International journalists who came to Nicaragua seeking answers about the $50 billion canal project were left scratching their heads. Foreign press invited to Nicaragua to cover the groundbreaking weren’t allowed to cover the event. International journalists were told to wait in a Managua hotel for a van that would bring them to the inaugural ceremony, but their ride never showed up. Event organizers turned off their cellphones and journalists who went to the venue on their own were turned back by Sandinista police.

HKND chairman Wang Jing publicly apologized for the incident and held a press conference for foreign press today. But most of the big questions are still unanswered, such as who’s paying for the canal, and whether the Chinese government is ultimately involved — something Wang denies.

Here’s a quick rundown of the highlights and lowlights of yesterday’s canal thing, in chronological order, mas o menos.

Notes from Rivas “groundbreaking”

• The Rivas groundbreaking was scheduled to start at 4 p.m., but started five hours early, without prior notice. Around 11 a.m., state TV interrupted its normally scheduled daytime garbage for a surprise live broadcast of the groundbreaking event from Rivas. The event, which lasted less than 20 minutes, was probably done quickly and quietly to avoid protesters. It was the first time in Nicaragua’s recorded history that a government event started early.
• Wang Jing, Laureano Ortega, and other Sandinista functionaries arrived in Rivas by helicopter. They smiled and gripped each other’s arms earnestly. Then they put on hardhats and smiled some more in front of a row of dump trucks.
• On Facebook, Nicaraguans noted that the trucks already had alcaldia license plates, suggesting that maybe they weren’t new gifts at all, despite the cute gift-wrapping.
• 

  Jairo Cajina/CCC

  Wang Jing modestly called the canal project the “most important in the history of humanity” — a point that was emphasized with a flutter of confetti.  The Chinese businessman said, “I invite more Nicaraguans to participate in this historic process,” but didn’t elaborate on how.

• Wang Jing referred to Nicaragua as “our country,” suggesting he already feels at home here.
• Vice President Omar Halleslevens said a few words on behalf of the Sandinista government, mostly in praise of Ortega and Murillo. Halleslevens had to pause every few sentences so his words could be translated into Mandarin.
• In the front row were a bunch of unidentified worker/henchmen types looking hot in long-sleeve orange suits and yellow canal company hardhats. The men weren’t introduced, so it’s not clear if they are future canal workers, henchmen extras from Dr. Evil’s island, or prisoners out on a work release program.
• The confetti really was a nice touch — it kept it fun.

Notes from Ortega’s evening canal thang

• Ortega’s afternoon event was supposed to start at 4 p.m., but started after 8 (now that’s more like it!). It was held in the cozy confines of the Casa de los Pueblos, the former presidential palace paid for by Taiwan.
• Rosario Murillo warmed up the crowd with some words about stuff.  She said it was “the beginning of the beginning of the beginning,” and that’s when my eyes glazed over. I tuned in intermittently to catch phrases like “peace, love and progress,” “value and glory,” “dignity and fraternity,” and numerous mentions of the Virgin Mary, who’s reportedly tickled about the idea of a Chinese canal in Nicaragua.
• Murillo said that the spirits of Augusto Sandino, Ruben Dario and Carlos Fonseca were present, but didn’t channel their voices. At one point I think she said, “dreams, dreams, dreams, toward the horizon, that are horizontal,” but that could have been my mind in the heat.
• Daniel Ortega sat next to his wife, his face showing the exhausted patience of a man who has heard it all before. Next to him was COSEP president Jose Adan Aguirre, who stole furtive glances at his cellphone, and Wang Jing, who stared off into the middle distance, literally lost in translation.
• Murillo eventually stopped making noise and introduced the chairman of HKND as “Hermano Wang Jing.”
• Looking serious and pudgy, but not seriously pudgy, Wang talked about how the canal was the fulfillment of a centuries’ old dream, and one that will change the model of world trade. “This canal will bring a more brilliant and happy future to Nicaragua,” Wang said angrily (well, maybe not angrily, but it sounded that way to me; then again, I don’t understand Mandarin).
• Interestingly, Wang acknowledged that the project has a lot of skeptics and that there have been a lot of problems and concerns with the canal so far. “Over the past two years we have had difficulties in all aspects” of the project, he said through a translator. He said the canal will be the “biggest and most complicated project in the world” and the “biggest infrastructure project in the history of humanity.”
• Wang said the scope of the project will make it a global game changer. “This new route for the 21st century will contribute significantly to a new era in world development from China,” he said, again raising more questions about the role of the Chinese government in the Nicaragua canal project.
• Wang announced the timetable for construction in 2015. In short, land acquisition, environmental impact studies and design work in the first half of the year, and real construction starts at the end of the year.
• Wang defended all the Chinese who have flocked to Nicaragua in recent months. “The Chinese who are here are here to build a better future and a more brilliant country,” Wang said. “We will respect all the rights of the Nicaraguans.”
• Wang said land indemnification will be based on “market principals,” (which is not what the canal law says). He said no land will be expropriated without a “satisfactory agreement” with landowners. “No tricks or lies,” he said.
• Wang said there is “no turning back; we will finish this historic project.” And in doing so, he promised Nicaragua will “leave behind poverty and backwardness.”
• Ortega tried to make a case for the idea that the Chinese canal project is somehow a realization of the dreams of Sandino and Simon Bolivar. On several occasions Ortega referred to the project as the “Supreme Dream of Bolivar” — the same name given to the failed Venezuelan oil refinery in León that never happened.
• Ortega tried, somewhat quaintly, to justify the canal with a twisted anti-imperialist logic, saying the canal would “belong to Nicaragua, its people, America and the world.” (Law 840 clearly states that’s not the case; Wang Jing and HKND will own the canal for the next 50 years).
• The canal, Ortega said, “will open more possibilities to totally eradicate extreme poverty and poverty. And that’s our objective as Nicaraguans.” Nicaragua, Ortega said, will present the canal project to the world at next April’s Summit of the Americas in Panama.