[A-List] China-Africa

[Patrick Bond]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu at mindspring.com>
> To begin with, Sino-Africa trade is mostly conducted by the Chinese 
> government not private companies and as such it is conducted not for 
> private profit but to implement national polices ...

Henry also posts this Chinese news service post:

PRETORIA, Jan. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Africa welcomes China's African Policy
Paper, which comes timely and will be conducive to peace and development
on African continent, senior African specialist John Tesha said here on
Thursday. Tesha, acting director of the African Institute of South Africa...

***

Right, then. Amongst the SA intelligentsia, the Africa Institute is also the 
main proponent of Mbeki's New Partnership for Africa's Development, a 
neoliberal (indeed subimperial) plan described by the Bush State Department 
as 'philosophically spot-on'. I assume that this pro-China line of argument 
also reflects the SA government line. That's ok, just so we know where this 
institution's inconsistent argument is coming from: the SA Department of 
Foreign Affairs.

What Henry is incapable of addressing is China's contribution to slaughter 
in Darfur, corruption in Luanda, environmental degradation in Nigeria and 
political repression in Harare - not to mention other crimes and 
superexploitative relationships in oil-producing African countries. These 
are struggles all progressives should be involved in supporting (because 
there are progressive networks through which to offer solidarity), and 
Beijing is so clearly on the wrong side that comrade Henry is reduced to 
silence.

That's a big problem, because as a result it allows the international 
reactionary forces to run a humanitarian-imperialist line, such as that 
below. My guess is that in coming years, the State Department - also 
involved in Sudan in competition with China over oil - will clobber Beijing 
and use human rights violations as an excuse. And without comrade Henry and 
organic Chinese activists speaking out in a balanced way against Beijing's 
*actual* Africa policy (maybe changing it, maybe not), the left will be as 
tongue-tied as it was over handling Saddam's Iraq pre-invasion. Quoting the 
new White Paper is as meaningless as citing anything coming from SA's own 
campaign to reform global power structures; our phrase for it is, simply, 
'Talk left, walk right.'

***

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VQNVSPD

China and Africa
No questions asked
Jan 19th 2006 | BEIJING AND LAGOS
>From The Economist print edition

     Human rights are no bar to China's hunt for resources

     CHINA has long been an advocate of keeping human rights and other pesky
political issues separate from business, and in Africa it is practising what
it preaches. In recent years, China has rapidly stepped up its involvement
there, finding not only the resources it so urgently needs, but also willing
business partners in places-Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Libya,
among others-where many western nations have been reluctant to do business
at all. In 2004, the new Chinese president, Hu Jintao, made Africa one of
his first foreign destinations.

     China is hardly new to Africa. Nearly six centuries ago, Ming Dynasty
seafarers reached the continent's eastern shores, and brought back a giraffe
to satisfy the curiosity of their emperor. Today, Chinese vessels are
regularly plying those same sea lanes, bringing back oil, iron ore and other
commodities to satisfy the voracious appetite of a huge and growing economy.

     Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneurs are pouring investments worth billions
of dollars into Africa. On January 9th, China's state-run energy firm,
CNOOC, announced the purchase, for $2.27 billion, of a 45% stake in a
Nigerian oilfield (see article). Apart from mines and oil, China has
invested in resort hotels, agricultural and infrastructure projects, retail
ventures and much else. China reckons its trade with Africa last year at
nearly $40 billion (see chart), and rising fast. China now gets 30% of its
oil from Africa, mainly from Sudan, Angola and Congo-Brazzaville.

     Since Mr Hu's 2004 visit, China has secured oil from Gabon, an $800m
deal to buy 30,000 barrels a day from Nigeria and a loan of $2 billion to
Africa's second-biggest oil producer, Angola, for infrastructure development
in return for oil. Chinese firms have tendered for contracts in telecoms and
infrastructure across the continent. The strategy has been to widen trade
and investment links while continuing the tradition of goodwill by boosting
help for anti-AIDS programmes, education, culture and infrastructure-and in
the case of Nigeria, launching satellites into space.

     In its latest push, China this week sent its foreign minister, Li
Zhaoxing, on a six-nation African visit, coinciding with the release on
January 12th of a government white paper outlining its African policy. Amid
the usual talk of mutual benefit and friendly co-operation, the paper called
for greater Sino-African military co-operation, and said China would, "when
conditions are ripe", be willing to negotiate a free-trade agreement with
the continent.

     European governments are increasingly concerned at China's involvement,
because it undermines their own efforts to tie trade and aid to human
rights, and to help Africa overcome corruption. They fear that Chinese
companies show scant regard for either consideration. In Ethiopia for
instance, which has seen much of its European aid suspended because of gross
human-rights abuses, China is believed to have offered to make good any
shortfall. In Sudan, which has been accused of genocide, Chinese state firms
have built a refinery and are getting involved in production. In repressive
Equatorial Guinea, China is also sniffing out opportunities to rival the
dominance of western companies.

     The CNOOC deal in Nigeria has in particular raised eyebrows, partly
because the company has bought a block that a rival energy consumer, India,
had shunned after an initial bid. The stake was sold by a former Nigerian
defence minister, who was awarded it when Nigeria was under military rule.
That China has entered into this deal, when details of the ownership
structure and contractual stipulations are so unclear, speaks volumes about
the kind of risks it is willing to ride out in Africa to secure energy
supplies.

     While western governments may fret about China's growing influence in
the region, some Chinese analysts see a measure of irony in the country's
new role. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, China was more interested in
world-wide revolution, third-world solidarity and the backing of African
liberation movements. Now, according to one scholar at the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, China's behaviour has more in common with that of the
colonisers. "Since we are mainly there to make money and get hold of their
resources," he says, "it's hard to see the difference."