Summary
China’s Silent Army is a revealing and gripping piece of investigative journalism into the unknown extent of China’s global power by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araújo.
This book stems from the remarkable, determined work of these two China-based journalists who, frustrated by the facile, pro-business commentary of so much writing on China and the evasions of Beijing’s official pronouncements, took a drastic decision: to see for themselves just how rapidly China is spreading its influence around the world.
Many thousands of miles and twenty-five countries later, China’s Silent Army is the result: an unprecedented attempt to meet the many Chinese who, through hard work, ingenuity and ruthless business practices are rapidly moving much of the world into Beijing’s orbit. From Peruvian mines to Siberian forests, from Sudanese dams to Burmese jade mines – everywhere China’s ‘silent army’ is working to redirect enormous resources.
China’s Silent Army allows the reader to come face-to-face with extraordinary individuals working on China’s behalf, often in truly terrible conditions, to create what amounts to a new, informal empire.
Juan Pablo Cardenal has been reporting from and about China and the Asia-Pacific region since 2003, first, as the Shanghai correspondent for Spain’s daily El Mundo and, later, in Singapore and Beijing for Spain’s leading economic daily El Economista.
Heriberto Araújo arrived to Beijing in early 2007 and has focused in social and economic issues related to China and Asia. He initially worked for the AFP agency, as the Spanish correspondent in Beijing, and then started his career as a freelance, working for several French (M6, France 24, RFI) and Spanish (Notimex, Capital) media.
They have jointly published related articles in Foreign Policy, El País, The South China Morning Post, Radio France International (RFI) and in leading Japanese weekly Shukan Bunshun.