China still beating the African
drum By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - China is playing a rare host to
this year's annual meeting of the African
Development Bank (AfDB), hoping to assert its mode
of growth as a role model for the impoverished
African continent and benefit from its rich
resources and economic potential.
The
summit, convened in Shanghai this week, marks the
first time the AfDB meeting has been held in Asia
and only the second time outside Africa. It
highlights China's ambitions regarding Africa's
development and its increasingly high economic and diplomatic
profile there.
"It is
not fortuitous that we are meeting on this
continent, in China, and at this juncture," Donald
Kaberuka, president of AfDB, said at the opening
of the summit on Wednesday. "This annual meeting
is an opportunity to exchange experiences and
enhance opportunities."
"You are an
example of transformation," Malagasy president
Marc Ravalomanana told his Chinese hosts. "We in
Africa must learn from your success."
China - with an economy that has been
growing at 10% annually in the past decade - has
been praised for lifting millions out of poverty.
Its leaders are often quoted stressing the
importance of robust economic growth for keeping
the lid on social tensions.
Since it
joined the bank in 1985, China has grown into one
of the most important non-African shareholders in
the organization. Driven by its growing needs for
energy and raw materials to power its booming
economy, over the past five years Beijing has
poured billions of dollars of investment into
various African countries.
At the end of
2006, Chinese investments in Africa reached
US$11.7 billion and spanned the range of
manufacturing, trade, transportation and
agriculture, according to AfDB. Two-way trade
soared to $55 billion last year, four times the
2000 level. Chinese leaders say they want to
increase trade volumes to $100 billion by 2020.
China is soon to become one of the
continent's largest foreign direct investment
(FDI) sources, says a new report on Asian FDI in
Africa jointly released by two United Nations
organizations. The paper from the United Nations
Conference for Trade and Development and the
United Nations Development Program documents
Chinese companies' growing presence in Africa.
Some like Huawei, China's top
telecommunication services provider, feature
prominently on the African map. The company is now
one of Africa's leading code division multiple
access product vendors, with business operations
stretching from Egypt to South Africa. Other
companies, like household consumer goods maker the
Chunnan Group, are taking growing stakes in
African markets, selling anything from
air-conditioners to electric bicycles.
China's investment push in the continent
has been facilitated by generous aid and loan
packages. Beijing has cancelled 10.9 billion yuan
(US$1.4 billion) of African debt and announced
additional debt relief of more than 10 billion
yuan. At a summit of African leaders in Beijing
last autumn, China said it would also double its
level of assistance to Africa by 2009.
"We
will fully deliver on our commitments and are
working with African countries to implement these
measures," Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said
at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai AfDB
meeting.
Chinese leaders are using the
forum to defend their increasingly scrutinized
largesse to Africa as the only viable way for
resolving the humanitarian and political conflicts
plaguing the continent. Beijing has been
criticized for its indifference to political
conditions in African countries and its apparent
single-minded pursuit of the continent's riches.
"I'm convinced that stronger Sino-African
cooperation not only benefits the people of China
and Africa but also contributes toward peace and
development," Wen told the participants.
Human-rights activists and even
international lenders like the World Bank have
warned that China's self-described "no political
strings attached" lending ignores human rights and
risks increasing corruption and the financial
burden of poor African countries.
"Plans
by the AfDB and China to intensify investment in
the extractive industries and infrastructure in
Africa could pose significant risks to people and
the environment," said Niki Reisch, the manager of
the Bank Information Center's Africa program.
"Civil society organizations in China, Africa and
abroad should work together to hold their
governments accountable."
China, which has
built a vast network of huge dams across the
country without soliciting the opinions of civil
groups and local populations, is now involved in
various hydrological projects in Africa.
International Rivers Network, a US-based
group that opposes dams, says the Merowe Dam built
by Chinese companies in Sudan would displace
70,000 local people from the fertile Nile Valley
into the Nubian desert. Another project, the
Mpanda Nkuwa Dam, to be built with Chinese
financing in Mozambique, will have major
environmental impacts on the Zambezi delta, a
protected Ramsar site, opponents say.
"Projects that do not address the needs of
affected people will fuel conflicts and social
disintegration," warned Ali Askouri, a leader of
the communities affected by the Merowe Dam in
Sudan. He said peaceful protests against the
project have been violently suppressed by the
Sudanese authorities.
Sudan crystallizes
the conundrums China faces in Africa. Beijing,
which has deep economic and military ties with the
government in Khartoum, has been assailed for not
having done enough to support peace efforts in
this war-torn country.
As a veto-wielding
member of the UN Security Council, China has
blocked efforts to send UN peacekeeping forces to
Darfur without Sudanese consent. At least 250,000
people are said to have died from violence and
disease in Darfur, and about 2.5 million have fled
their homes since the conflict broke in 2003.
Chinese officials, however, reject
criticism that Beijing's support for Khartoum is
prolonging the humanitarian crisis. They insist
that strong economic growth through trade and
investment will reduce social conflicts by raising
incomes and improving the quality of life.
"Chinese aid and investment will, in the
long run, help in the resolution of the Darfur
problem," Li Ruogu, chairman of the state-owned
Export-Import Bank of China, which deals with the
country's overseas aid loans, was quoted as saying
in Shanghai.
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