A series of reports by Felipe Santana comparing the cities of Shanghai and New York points to yet another step toward change in the global geopolitical landscape.
Felipe Santana has been a journalist and international correspondent for Rede Globo since 2019. Based in the United States, he has been responsible for reporting on and covering events in the country, particularly those of a political and social nature.
In his most recent project, a six-episode series titled Entre Dois Mundos (Between Two Worlds), which has been airing on the Brazilian television program Fantástico since late April. In it, the journalist travels to major cities in China (Shanghai and the United State New York) exploring the differences in urban mobility, technology, infrastructure, and quality of life between them.
INSIDE THE EPISODES
Right in the first episode, we see a comparison between trains and subways, where costs, travel time, and efficiency were evaluated side by side. In these categories, Shanghai emerged as the clear winner.
This series doesn’t just show us that China has succeeded in the area of public transportation: it shows us that this is yet another “medal” it has earned, one that is making it the champion if geopolitics were the Olympics. China, in fact, is winning over the world.
Since 1978, China has implemented a plan of economic reforms that have profoundly transformed its productive structure. After Mao Zedong’s death, the country initially sought to become an exporter of low-cost products and a supplier of cheap labor with the aim of industrializing itself and attracting countless foreign companies.
Added to this was the fact that the government remained closed off, allowing all plans and ideas to be designed and structured with quality rather than merely existing as speeches and campaign promises.
This culminated in leaders who, by offering multinationals cheap labor and raw materials as well as good infrastructure suited to their needs received in return all the technologies and innovations created by those companies.
With mass production, the prices of Chinese products became affordable compared to other markets, giving the country a ticket to competitiveness in the international market.
The government sought to further accelerate economic growth through heavy investment in the construction of ports, airports, bridges, railroads, and other infrastructure.
Currently, China’s new challenge is to reduce its dependence on foreign trade and multinational corporations and to strive to develop an economy similar to that of the West, based on domestic consumption, cutting-edge technology, and services.
All of this has gradually led China to occupy a very significant position in global power dynamics and is forcing the world to become increasingly multipolar.
WHY IS THE WORLD LOOKING TO CHINA?
The fact that correspondents from all over the world are moving there shows that China’s plans have been successful and have sparked the world’s curiosity to learn about new development models and understand different public policies.
The series goes beyond being merely informative. By showcasing the reality of China to the Brazilian public, it is also broadening our perspective to different places and providing a platform to expand the debate on the growing multipolarity of the international system.
I would even go so far as to say that all the news this year regarding international policy decisions made by the United States was simply their way of trying to contain and slow the decline of their empire. Doesn’t showing the world, through the media, that they are capable of dominating and controlling everything and everywhere also imply, between the lines, that they actually have no control over anything?
The question remains.
As a result, this series is not merely the creation of informative and cultural content for public consumption. In fact, it is a means of beginning to condition society to question whether the United States is the strongest country in the world. They are, they were, but they will not be.
To summarize everything I’ve said, I’d like to refer to Renato Marques, a former geography teacher of mine, who once explained this new geopolitical landscape to me. He used the following metaphor:
“Imagine there’s just one car driving peacefully down a road. That car represents the United States. When the driver looks in the rearview mirror, he sees a Ferrari far in the distance. The driver of the car then knows that, even though he’s in the lead, sooner or later he’ll be overtaken. The only question is when.”
I believe the Ferrari is already closer than we can imagine.
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The article above was edited by Camilly Vieira.
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