USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fear China? Nyet!

The West butchers us and threatens or eliminates any Afrikan leader who does not toe its self-interest line, China gives us very low interest loans for infrastructure and agricultural development; yet, we are told to fear China which never enslaved or colonized us, despite the fact that it has been in Afrika longer than the West.

With $20 Billion Loan Pledge, China Strengthens Its Ties to African Nations

By JANE PERLEZ

Published: July 19, 2012

BEIJING — President Hu Jintao said Thursday that China would lend $20 billion to African governments for infrastructure and agriculture in the next three years, in a speech to a gathering of African leaders.

Andy Wong/Associated Press

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, left, was greeted by President Hu Jintao, center, at the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Thursday.

The loans outlined by Mr. Hu, which doubled the amount offered at the last such conference here, in 2009, signaled that China was pressing ahead with aid programs in African nations with abundant energy and mineral resources but with more focus on grass-roots projects.

China's aid to Africa has expanded rapidly in the last decade as the continent has become a major source of oil from Sudan and Angola, and copper from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. China has come under heavy criticism for offering its aid without conditioning it on human rights performance or governance, especially in the case of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan.

At the same time, its projects — roads, pipelines and ports — have focused on benefiting China's extractive industries, not African people, critics say. The infrastructure is generally built with Chinese labor.

The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, addressed the meeting and praised China's approach, saying it was preferred to Africa's experience with Europe. "We are particularly pleased that in our relationship with China, we are equals and that agreements entered into are for mutual gain," Mr. Zuma said.

However, he was also quoted as saying: "Africa's commitment to China's development has been demonstrated by supply of raw materials, other products and technology transfer. This trade pattern is unsustainable in the long term. Africa's past economic experience with Europe dictates a need to be cautious when entering into partnerships with other economies."

In his speech, Mr. Hu said China would train 30,000 Africans, offer 18,000 scholarships and send 1,500 medical personnel to Africa. He said China would mount programs to improve drinking water and protect forests, new endeavors for China.

Li Xinfeng, an African studies scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the change was notable.

"Before," he said, "China had more of an attitude that 'We'll give what we want to give you,' but now the aid is more focused on African needs."

But how much of the aid promised by Mr. Hu will be disbursed, and where exactly it will go, was unclear because China's aid programs to Africa are not clearly documented, development experts said.

"An accurate number of what China actually gives is difficult to come up with because Western countries have different definitions of foreign aid to China," said Yun Sun, a foreign policy expert on China and Africa at the Stimson Center, a nonprofit research group in Washington.

For example, China can say building roads and infrastructure benefits the people, she said, but the real aim is to strengthen the legitimacy of the government and get natural resources.

In an assessment of how Chinese aid works, the Congressional Research Service, an independent arm of Congress, said, "China appears to administer foreign aid in an ad hoc fashion, without a centralized system, foreign aid agency and mission or a regularized funding schedule."

The conference of African leaders held at the Great Hall of the People seemed a lower-key event than in the past when Beijing was decorated with banners announcing "Amazing Africa."

Many leaders were not present, perhaps a reflection that the timing of the conference was pushed forward so it would not clash with the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, which will choose China's new leadership in the fall.

China's experience in Africa has not been so smooth in the last year. The flow of oil from Sudan has stopped because of a feud between Sudan and South Sudan, which became independent in July 2011.

The China National Petroleum Corporation has pulled most of its engineers from the oil fields in South Sudan, and Chinese-built infrastructure, including a pipeline from the fields to Port Sudan, and a refinery near Khartoum, are virtually abandoned.

In Libya, China was a longtime backer of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and since the revolution and his death, the new leaders have failed to honor China's contracts.

Criticism from some quarters in Africa became so intense last year that a senior Chinese official felt compelled to answer.

In an interview with an African magazine called Jeune Afrique, the director general of the Department of African Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Lu Shaye, defended the sending of Chinese workers to Africa. In doing so, China was more efficiently spending its assistance than Western donors to Africa, he said.

"They work in three shifts a day and work all day and all night to speed up project schedules," Mr. Lu said of the Chinese workers.

"Take government assistance projects as an example," he said. "China spends 95 percent of the money on the project and on the recipient countries, while the West may spend 80 percent on their own staff."

The Congressional Research Service reported that total United States foreign assistance to Africa in 2009 was $8.2 billion. Under the Obama administration, a new emphasis has been placed on health care, and more than half the $8.2 billion went to health-related programs.

Bree Feng contributed research.