China Offers Aid to its Neighbors (A Think)

I'm currently working on a curricular unit for World History for Us All that considers the origins of communism in China, so I was particularly interested in a New York Times article entitled China Competes with West in Aid to its Neighbors, this morning. The article states:

Flush with nearly a trillion dollars in hard currency reserves and eager for stable friends in Southeast Asia, China is making big loans for big projects to countries that used to be the sole preserve of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United States and Japan.

China has the fastest growing economy in the world and it is reaching out to poorer neighbors. Like the United States, China recognizes that it also benefits when it supports other nations.

Lesson Ideas:
1. Too many of our students cannot even identify China on a map. First, ask students to identify China on a map. Then ask students if they think that it is important to be able to do this. You might ask them to do a quick-write or a quick-blog in which they first consider this question. Then reconvene the class and have a large group discussion. (If you are concerned that students might say it is not important to be able to identify China on a map, instead you might ask them to identify three reasons why it is important to be able to identify China on a map.)
2. The article explains that China provides funding without some of the restrictions that the West places on nations which it supports with funding. For example, China does not place the same restrictions for environmental protection or the safeguarding of human rights. First, ask students what they can learn about China from the fact that they don't place such restrictions on their loans. Then, ask students to develop a proposal of what environmental organizations or defenders of human rights might do in response to this situation. You might even ask studetns to develop wikis with ideas that they can then market to others, encouraging them to add their own ideas. (Actually, it might be fascinating to make this project one of integration between two courses, one being marketing.)
3. Ask students if they think that one nation really cares about another nation when they offer to provide them with financial support or if the nation really only cares about itself and feels that by offering this financial support it will benefit itself. Ask students if individual people ever really do anything good without consideration of what they might get back in return. You might have a debate in your class in which different students take different sides. One way to facilitate this debate might be to ask students who believe that people do act altruistically to go to one side of the room and students who do not believe this to go to the other side of the room.
4. Ask students to consider how Chinese support for their neighbors might effect the United States and its allies' standing in the world. You might ask them to develop a comic strip in which they depict their thoughts on what would happen to the United States and its allies if China continues to financially support its neighbors. Do students think that the United States should try and limit this financial support?

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