IN DEFENDING Nigeria’s decision to close its land borders, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, has repeatedly claimed that China similarly shut its borders to international trading for decades and this somehow improved its economic fortunes. But this is not true.

Following a partial closure exercise two months earlier, the Customs Service announced in October that it had banned the importation and exportation of goods through the country’s land borders to ensure “total control over what comes in”.

Despite widespread criticism from many quarters, including from the Economic Community of West African States, President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this month approved the extension of the closure till the end of January 2020.

To justify the closure weeks ago while addressing the press, Ali said in a widely shared video that China also closed its borders “for 40 years to the whole world and today they are great China”.

“Don’t you want to be great Nigeria?” he then asked.

Last Friday, the Customs boss insisted the federal government will not bow to pressure from neighbouring countries to reopen the borders, again citing the Chinese example—only now halving the number of years.

“The Chinese closed their doors for over 20 years and now they are on top,” he said.

“We need to close our own. There is nothing that is being produced today that we cannot consume in Nigeria. Our industrialists do not have to look out to find the market; we have it right here. And we need to grow that market.”

No evidence this ever happened
The ICIR has found no record proving that China, on its way to becoming a global economic powerhouse, ever shut its frontiers totally to international trade. The contrary appears, in fact, to be the case.

Fatima-Zohra Er-Rafia, an independent researcher and PhD in Business Administration with a focus on China and Japan noted in a 2018 publication that the first of four major factors that made China become the World’s second economic power is “Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up-to-the-world policies and the 1979 Equity Joint Venture Law”. (Xiaoping was China’s paramount leader between 1978 and 1992.)

“Together they have allowed (among other things) foreign capital and Western companies to enter China, transforming the domestic economic landscape entirely from one that is traditional and obsolete to one that is dynamic and modern,” she wrote.

The Chinese, however, did put in place some measure of border closure in the 15th century in reaction to an influx of foreign merchants and settlers and in order to protect local traditions. The isolation of the empire started during the Ming dynasty and continued into Qing dynasty.

Through a series of isolationist policies known as the haijin (or sea ban), the empire ordered the restriction of private maritime trading. Trading still occurred during this period though through piracy and smuggling, and local authorities even disregarded the law by engaging in illicit trading. Nevertheless, the restrictions led to a loss of revenue from taxation, funding difficulties, and a rise in poverty levels.

‘Not in recent times,’ says expert
Hans van de Ven (FBA), a professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Cambridge, told The ICIR that China has not closed its borders “in recent times” as suggested by Ali.

“If your official is referring to the People’s Republic, China was subject to a US embargo until the 1970s, and hence couldn’t trade with US-allied countries, but that is rather different than China closing its door,” said Hans, who is also a Guest Professor at Nanjing University’s Department of History.

“In this period, China did trade with and exchange personnel with Communist countries. During the Qing dynasty, China did close its doors to foreign trade for a couple of decades, but it needed foreign trade and so opened them again.”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/fact-check-did-china-close-its-borders/

lol he got his fact from goolegoole, definitely not from our present Google.

This. is what happens when u allow old have to handle positions meant for young, vibrant and intelligent youngsters.

our brothers from the north won't stop disgracing us, both at federal, state, senatorial and security level.

Mods please FP

please comment wisely maka ora

You dey mind Ali?

noted

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See them..... Na them higher ups dey use foreign products pass

I laugh

This is a falacy. A very unintelligent white lie obtained primarily from hearsays in beer - parlours.

The kind of dumb statements these people utter leaves one wondering about the destination we're headed.

The guy is just dumb and is looking for any kind of justification for his dumbness.

Many were arguing with me when I say China never got rich after closing it's borders but only after joining the world trade org

OP. Who told you we close our borders totally. It's only the land borders that was closed, you can import through the ports and pay your due fee.

North are socialist in nature , you can see it in there policy ,in there thinking

We need regional government

The East Asians tigers closed their borders to western liberal market. They embarked on import substitute industrialization in the 1980s from where they learned how to produce virtually everything they need.
Read up on this and how the “Washington consensus” was used then

China did not close her borders but it restricted importation of foreign goods and services for decades. Even till this day some foreign goods and services are not allowed.

SimDan95:
lol he got his fact from goolegoole, definitely not from our present Google.

This. is what happens when u allow old have to handle positions meant for young, vibrant and intelligent youngsters.

our brothers from the north won't stop disgracing us, both at federal, state, senatorial and security level.

Mods please FP

please comment wisely maka ora

You this clown. You're here too

I don't care about what China did or did not do, those borders should remain shut until those tiny little villages around us decide to play by the rules.

Copy and paste ali

This man takes custom job too seriously oo kai, same job Atiku did and turned a billionaire

Are you surprise? it can only come from party of lairs they will refer to China, USA or Russia if they want to defend their stupid policy but they will never copy China in passing dead by hanging law for corrupt politicians because they will be the direct recipient of such law. that was how lia Muhammad fabricated nonexistence quote and lied that it was abacha quote "if insurgency last beyond 24 hours government known about"government of liars supported by zombies

What do Nigerians have against land border closure that some dont support it when it only has brought about smuggling, crime, terrorism etc.

- You have the population to produce and consume..
- You major trade partners (US/China) use the Sea for item you cant manufacture..
- You have Oil which gives a good margin of FX to stable your currency..

The custom controller might be right. See below from google

Customer boss taking Nigeria back to 15 century

Its good historians are debunking propaganda. This is why history is important since people will use it to justify bad policies. I do find it weird people are so ready to copy maoist China's policies. These sre the same people who think china 1 child policy was brilliant.

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