Africa will not put up with a colonialist China
A strategy of striking deals with corrupt leaders and seizing control
of African industries will ultimately backfire
China's sacred text is not a holy book like the Torah, the Bible, or
the Qur'an. Instead, it is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Sun's core
belief is that the "ultimate excellence lies not in winning every
battle but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting."
Nowadays, we are witnessing the application of Sun's ideas in Africa,
where China's prime objectives are to secure energy and mineral
supplies to fuel its breakneck economic expansion, open up new
markets, curtail Taiwan's influence on the continent, consolidate its
burgeoning global authority, and clinch for itself African-allocated
export quotas. (The Chinese takeovers of South African and Nigerian
textile industries are good examples of this strategy. The textiles
exported the world over by these industries are deemed African exports
when in reality they are now Chinese exports.)
Astutely, China has sought to place its African investments and
diplomacy within the context of the old non-aligned movement and
"Bandung spirit", an era when many Africans viewed China as a
brotherly oppressed nation, and thus supported efforts by the People's
Republic to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations security
council, to replace Taiwan. And, of course, China offered firm backing
for Africa's anticolonial struggles and efforts to end apartheid.
In trying to depict its current dealings with Africa as "win-win" co-
operation, China deliberately seeks to portray Africa's current
relations with the west as exploitative. Unlike China, its leaders
claim, the west continues to hold African countries hostage through a
combination of unequal trade deals, lack of access to capital markets,
aid dependency, financial deregulation and economic liberalisation,
budget austerity, crippling debt, political meddling and military
intervention.
What the Chinese are silent about is that their country's growing
engagement in Africa has created both opportunities and risks for
African development. Although China's trade, foreign direct investment
(FDI), and aid may broaden Africa's growth options, they also promote
what can only be called a win-lose situation. For, excluding oil,
Africa has a negative trade balance with China.
Making matters worse, African exports to China are even less
technology-intensive than its exports to the world. China's share of
Africa's unprocessed primary products was more than 80% of its total
imports from Africa. Equally, imports consist of cheap Chinese
products of appallingly poor quality.
The level of Chinese FDI flowing into Africa at present is staggering.
But this Chinese FDI is bundled together with concessional loans, and
there is much double-counting, with the same ventures being recorded
both as aid flows and as inflows of FDI. Given the heavy volume of
concessionary loans provided by China, concern about African
countries' future debt burden is growing. And no matter how much China
publicises its record in Africa, the greatest contributor of financial
inflows to the continent is the African diaspora. Indeed, South
Africa, not China, is the country making the largest investments in
the rest of Africa.
China's credo of "non-interference in domestic affairs" and
"separation of business and politics" is, not surprisingly, music to
the ears of African leaders, who fall over each other to sing the
praises of Chinese co-operation with their countries. These leaders'
attitudes recall the worst behaviour of their predecessors, many of
whom engaged centuries ago with the west's rising imperial powers to
halt the growth of indigenous industry. Instead, these potentates of
the past chose to import manufactured goods from Europe in exchange
for their own subjects, whom they exported as slaves.
When slavery was abolished, the terms of partnership with western
colonisers changed from trade in slaves to trade in commodities. After
independence in the early 1960s, during the cold war, they played the
west against the Soviet bloc for the same purpose.
Today, many African leaders pursue similar policies with China, which
has struck bargains across Africa to secure crude oil, minerals, and
metals in exchange for infrastructure built by Chinese companies.
Hence, the import of Chinese labour into a continent not lacking in
able-bodied workers. Indeed, within a mere decade, more Chinese have
come to live in Africa than there are Europeans on the continent, even
after many centuries of European colonial and neocolonial rule. With
apartheid-style practices - including the gunning down of local
workers by a Chinese manager in Zambia - Chinese managers impose
appalling working conditions on their African employees.
Today, China has seized control of a huge swath of local African
industries, in the process grabbing their allocated export quotas. As
China's global economic role increases, its labour costs will rise and
its currency will appreciate, eroding its competitiveness. Might
Chinese manufacturers then look to Africa as a base for production,
using the facilities they have built and the hordes of workers they
have been steadily exporting there?
Chinese leaders pride themselves on a keen sense of history, and on
taking a longterm view of China's development. Still, in perpetuating
a partnership with the same breed of corrupt leaders that colluded
with Africa's previous invaders and exploiters, the Chinese have
forgotten that Africans, albeit often their own worst enemies, have
nonetheless gained the upper hand over their foes in the end.
The descendants of slave traders and slave owners in the United States
now have a black man as their president; Africa's colonisers have all
been defeated and kicked out; and apartheid's proponents are now
governed by those they despised and abused for generations. Unless the
Chinese mend their ways, the same fate awaits them in Africa. Sun Tzu
would understand that.
On Aug 24 2010, 7:31 am, "Aidan Mwakanyamala"
<Aidan.Mwakanyam...@tz.sabmiller.com> wrote:
> Kweli kabisa katika siasa za nje hakuna wajomba, ukizingatia kua nao wanatuuzia bidhaa feki basi ujue rangi yoyote itakayopakwa mambo ni pesa mbele. La msingi tuamke, raslimali watu na vitu
>
> Tulivyo navyo vitukwamue. Marafiki ni wale ambao kwa umakini na ueleve tunaona kwamba tuna common interest. Lakini kama ni masuala ya kuchuma na kutuchuna waafrika hatuna rafiki. Raisi J F Kennedy wa Marekani aliwahi kusema what is good for business is good for America kwa hiyo hata misaada na mikopo inaweza kuwa njia yua kufungua biashara na biashara nyingine ni za vitu fake!
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: wanabidii@googlegroups.com [mailto:wanabidii@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gottifried Mutembei
> Sent: 18 August 2010 15:56
> To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Re: What Is China Doing In Africa?
>
> Na wao ni wanyonyaji tu, hakuna cha bure hapa, Kule kongo Coltan na vita, Hapa ujenzi wa barabara, vito toka TZ . Soko la bidhaa kama PIKI PIKI na bidhaa nyingine. Wote mtindo mmoja wanakula na vipofu (waafrika) hawatushiki mikono. Tusijidanyanye
>
> --- On Sun, 7/18/10, Rehema Kikwete <rehem...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Rehema Kikwete <rehem...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Re: What Is China Doing In Africa?
> To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com
> Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010, 9:11 AM
>
> Kuna tofauti kubwa kati ya china na nchi zilizoendelea haswa ulaya utakuta nchi hizo zimewekeza sana kwenye masuala ya afya haswa miradi ambayo kwa kiwango kikubwa wanatumika wataalamu wake au kutumia mambo yao kwa faida ya watu wao nyumbani tofauti na china angalia uwanja wa taifa kwa mfano kule zambia wanajenga kam ahuo huo angalia miradi ya barabara na miundombinu mingi inayojengwa na watu hawa
>
> On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 5:52 PM, herment mrema <hmr...@hotmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hmr...@hotmail.com> > wrote:
>
> I agree with you 100%. Africa is too reach to beg from anybody. We must make sure that time for slavery from either west, east, south or north is gone. The fall of the walls and the raise of the windows which has made the world flat has created opportunities for Africa to realize our wealth without help from anybody and anywhere. We must strive to stop this robbery in what they call aid.
>
> Cheers
>
> > Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:03:06 -0700
> > Subject: [wanabidii] Re: What Is China Doing In Africa?
> > From: rehem...@gmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=rehem...@gmail.com>
> > To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wanabidii@googlegroups.com>
>
> > Africa does not need Chinese aid. The aid resources Africa desperately
> > needs can be found in Africa itself. According to the African Union,
> > corruption alone costs Africa $148 billion a year. If African leaders
> > were to cut that in half, they would find more than enough resources
> > for development than the miserable $10 billion in low-interest loans
> > China pledged to offer African countries over the next three years, or
> > the $25 billion in aid Africa receives from the West, for that matter.
>
> > On Jul 17, 9:01 pm, Fatima Husenali <husena...@gmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=husena...@gmail.com> > wrote:
> > > Africa's salvation lies in returning to its roots and building upon
> > > its own indigenous heritage of free village markets, free enterprise,
> > > free trade and participatory democracy based upon consensus. Africa's
> > > future lies in its own hands, not inside the corridors of the World
> > > Bank, the inner sanctum of the China's communist politburo, nor in the
> > > steamy sex antics of cockroaches on Jupiter. But for decades, hordes
> > > of African leaders travelled abroad and blindly copied all sorts of
> > > foreign paraphernalia to transplant to Africa. The continent is
> > > littered with the putrid carcasses of such failed imported systems.
> > > Now, we are being told to emulate China. Enough.
>
> > > On Jul 17, 8:19 pm, Ally Ulanga <ulang...@gmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ulang...@gmail.com> > wrote:
>
> > > > [image: China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know]
> > > > *China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know*
> > > > Publisher: Oxford University Press | 2010 | ISBN: 0195394127 | PDF | 192
> > > > pages | 1.1Mb
>
> > > > The need to understand this global giant has never been more pressing: China
> > > > is constantly in the news, yet conflicting impressions abound. Within one
> > > > generation, China has transformed from an impoverished, repressive state
> > > > into an economic and political powerhouse. In China in the 21st Century:
> > > > What Everyone Needs to Know, Jeffrey Wasserstrom provides cogent answers to
> > > > the most urgent questions regarding the newest superpower and offers a
> > > > framework for understanding its meteoric rise.
> > > > Focusing his answers through the historical legacies--Western and Japanese
> > > > imperialism, the Mao era, and the massacre near Tiananmen Square--that
> > > > largely define China's present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom introduces
> > > > readers to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and
> > > > the environmental fall-out of rapid Chinese industrialization. He also
> > > > explains unique aspects of Chinese culture such as the one-child policy, and
> > > > provides insight into how Chinese view Americans.
>
> > > > Wasserstrom reveals that China today shares many traits with other
> > > > industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular
> > > > the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century.
> > > > Finally, he provides guidance on the ways we can expect China to act in the
> > > > future vis-а-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian
> > > > neighbors.
>
> > > > *Download Links*
>
> > > >http://hotfile.com/dl/54331948/0deb33c/0195394127.pdf.html<http://hotfile.com/dl/54331948/0deb33c/0195394127.pdf.html%3C%21--Quo...>
>
> > > > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 5:31 PM, <mauricejod...@yahoo.ca <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mauricejod...@yahoo.ca> > wrote:
> > > > > Leila,
>
> > > > > Wht you say is very true and I can give you examples from Kenya. The
> > > > > colonials ha e no concern for Africa completely. They only care about the
> > > > > resources they can get from us. The problem I have is that if a Kenyan
> > > > > applies for a job in TZ the job will be given to a British expatriate
> > > > > instead of the Kenyan. We are helping these folks.
>
> > > > > Courage
>
> > > > > Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
>
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: Leila Abdul <hifa...@gmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hifa...@gmail.com> >
> > > > > Sender: wanabidii@googlegroups.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wanabidii@googlegroups.com>
> > > > > Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:15:23
> > > > > To: Wanabidii<wanabidii@googlegroups.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wanabidii@googlegroups.com> >
> > > > > Reply-To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wanabidii@googlegroups.com>
> > > > > Subject: [wanabidii] Re: What Is China Doing In Africa?
>
> > > > > The west has taken Africa for a ride for over a century, looting its
> > > > > resources and all Africa got back was mounting debts and negative
> > > > > propaganda. They portrayed Africa as being a continent which can't
> > > > > achieve anything without the help of it's colonial powers and the IMF
> > > > > and the World Bank. After decades of neglect and false promises, the
> > > > > western powers have got only themselves to blame for not being trusted
> > > > > in Africa. .
>
> > > > > On Jul 17, 7:07 am, Ulanga Ally <ulang...@gmail.com <http://us.mc593.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ulang...@gmail.com> > wrote:
> > > > > > China in Africa myths and realities
> > > > > > By Laura Freschi | Published February 9, 2010
>
> > > > > > In recent years, journalists and pundits in the West have looked on
> > > > > > China's economic engagement with Africa, including foreign aid, with
> > > > > > growing alarm. An NYT op-ed a few years ago called China a "rogue
> > > > > > donor," giving aid that is "nondemocratic in origin and nontransparent
> > > > > > in practice, and its effect is typically to stifle real progress while
> > > > > > hurting ordinary citizens."
>
> > > > > > Other negative stories about China in Africa include China abetting
> > > > > > genocide in Darfur by supplying arms in exchange for Sudanese oil;
> > > > > > propping up corrupt government in Zimbabwe; swooping in to undo the
> > > > > > anti-corruption work of the IMF or the World Bank in Angola or Nigeria
> > > > > > with offers of no-strings-attached loans; and generally ignoring
> > > > > > environmental, safety and labor standards on projects in Africa.
>
> > > > > > So the idea that China's aid to Africa could be in any possible way
> > > > > > better, more credible, or more effective than Western aid to Africa
> > > > > > may be a hard sell. But Deborah Brautigam, author of the new book The
> > > > > > Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, argues that focusing
> > > > > > only on the China threat makes us blind to the real opportunities
> > > > > > Chinese engagement offers for African development.
>
> > > > > > Part of the problem, says Brautigam, is that there is very little
> > > > > > information about what China is really doing in Africa, and in this
> > > > > > vacuum, "myths sprang up and were rapidly accepted as facts."
> > > > > > Brautigam fills this void and dispels, or at least complicates, some
> > > > > > commonly held beliefs about China in Africa.
>
> > > > > > In other areas she finds evidence to back up criticism of China's
> > > > > > Africa policies, but argues that we should not see China's stance
> > > > > > towards Africa as static; it is evolving and can sometimes be
> > > > > > influenced by international pressure. Throughout, some of Brautigam's
> > > > > > best insights come from
>
> ...
>
> read more >>
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