Dawn Ritch, Columnist

Like the vast majority of Jamaicans who drive by the Chinese Embassy, I've never been inside. It's built like a fortress on Seymour Avenue in Seymour Lands. It covers the land area of the three grandest mansions in this, the most upscale of all areas in Jamaica - the Golden Triangle. The embassy effectively runs the length of the block.

They seem to have knocked down the most westerly mansion, and replaced it with their offices and an apartment block. This looms incongruous and large above the beautiful 30 foot fence. The most easterly mansion still exists, and has never looked grander since it was built.

The Chinese complex is large and elaborate. The walls are clad in either ceramic or porcelain tiles. The big double gate is made of stainless steel. Its opulence and magnitude clearly mean that the Chinese intend to conduct a vast amount of trade and commerce with Jamaica and the region.

Not long ago, I watched live, on television, the African Summit in Beijing being simultaneously translated by a magnificent female Chinese voice-over.

The entry of the African heads of state into what may have been the Great Hall of China, to greet President Hu Jintao standing in solitary splendour at its centre, would have had to be seen to be believed. This country of China can no longer be described as "The Sleeping Dragon".

The red carpet in China was used in the oddest way I've ever seen. It ran roughly the 40 foot width of the great double doors that were about 100 foot high. The carpet came about a third of the way up this vast hall, which was itself easily six or ten times the size of the Jamaica National Arena.

Strange part

Now here's the strange part. Instead of coming singly through the doors and walking up the centre of the red carpet, three or four of the African heads lined up at a time inside. They weren't even lining up in the centre of the red carpet, but directly on its edge.

With them was a Chinese man at a lectern who announced each to the president. One by one they stepped forward up the edge of this broad carpeted walkway, into the main area which was also carpeted, but this time wall to wall.

I don't know what it is the Chinese have with edges, but surely the African presidents and prime ministers could not have asked to stand on one. Nor pleaded to wait publicly in queue, as though they were boarding a bus. Imagine being invited to a red carpet affair, arguably the event of the century, but can't walk up the centre of the carpet, only its edge. This arrangement completely baffled me.

Over 50 African heads of state attended. The only ones absent were the five or six who support Taiwan. It was a spectacular and rare moment of public diplomacy by China. I was immediately transported back into the Victorian era. No slight to Indians then, when Queen Victoria was made empress of India, barring bloodshed, could have been as offensive to me as the Africans meekly standing on the edge.

It was unnecessarily cruel to make the point so obviously, and on global television. Nevertheless some of the African heads of state were so earnestly grateful, that they forgot to pose for the cameras. The president had to remind them that photographers were present.

Indeed the press corps was at least 400 strong, herded hard against the wall. Their flashbulbs glittered like massed diamonds. I've seen only two or three pictures anywhere since. The Africans could have picked their noses, and none but the Chinese would know. It would all have been the best kept secret on earth.

A couple months ago, I saw the Non-Aligned Summit in Havana live on the British Broadcasting Corporation's television world service.

Immediately after that it was reduced to mere pictorial insets on CNN, which unbelievably even for them, remained on local American news for the next 48 hours, no doubt hoping to kill the story. But most worryingly for freedom of the press, the BBC stopped carrying live coverage of the Non-Aligned Summit almost as soon as it began. Worst yet their television reports were ridiculously truncated.

The CNN anchors either hadn't the slightest idea of what they'd just seen, or were afraid to say. Indeed they began to talk about upcoming Christmas retail sales in the U.S., while on location in Havana. This was an expression of American banality at its worst. It was therefore sad to see the BBC follow suit, by quickly abandoning coverage.

A great deal to say

The representatives of the world's Non-Aligned Movement, who were milling about on camera, apparently had a great deal to say to each other. But what it was, we'll never know, because even bad coverage was denied them.

Much like the Chinese themselves. Their locally-manufactured planes and buses exported to Kenya and Nigeria, have been crashing in threes and fours at a time. I saw this in a British publication and was hugely relieved to read that it had nothing to do with the pilots or drivers, who were African. The slaughter is spectacular. Everybody on board dies.

But there has not been a single complaint to a Better Business Bureau of any kind. The African heads of state have bent over backwards on the subject. They have kept quiet about any disastrous economic and human rights consequences of Chinese investment in Africa, and there have been quite a few. There would have been howls of protest had it been European or American investment and equipment. Where the Chinese are in joint ventures however, with the Japanese for the manufacture of cars and trucks, nobody could want better product.

I realise therefore that the Non-Aligned Movement is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Everyone must remain mum about the economic rise and power of India and China. They're paying the pipers in Africa and the Caribbean, but the tune they'd prefer to hear is silence. On the other hand the silence of established and trusted media like the BBC and CNN is inexplicable and frankly inexcusable.

I welcome Chinese investment in Africa, Jamaica and the Caribbean. But if the Most Honourable Prime Minister Madame Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller ever lines up like those Africans, I'll be so over her, it won't be funny. I don't care how much they invest, how well they build, nor what economic boom they might spark in this country.

The etiquette of the Chinese nation to my western eyes was truly appalling. They may be a bus, but to ask us to line up to get on board was crude. Cruder still were the Africans who did so.

My advice to my African brethren therefore, if it's not too late already, is don't sell yourselves for a mess of pottage again. This buying and selling business only works if you get the highest price for your goods. It was true of slavery then, and it's true of wood, oil and other mineral resources today. You failed once. Don't do it again.