Pass-Ed's Living Textbook
Free Lesson Plans for Teachers
Alpha Stage
China Supports Neighbors
September 18, 2006








This morning the New York Times is running an article entitled "China
Competes with West in Aid to its Neighbors."  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.
Read a similar article!!


Discussion Starters

  • 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.)

  • 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.)

  • 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.

  • 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?
If you like these
lesson ideas
you'll love our
newsletter!!
Learn More!!
Google