China keeps its purse open for Africa By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - China, which pledged this week to offer full assistance to Africa in
agriculture and infrastructure, hard on the heels of a decision to extend US$10
billion over the next three years in concessional loans to the continent's
countries, has garnered applause for its no-strings-attached foreign aid.
At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the Egyptian resort of Sham
el-Sheikh, Beijing's approach was held as an example for development worth
emulating by countries around the world.
Brushing off accusations that its investment is denuding Africa of precious
natural resources, China has pledged "going all-out" to
help African countries overcome poverty and fight new threats like climate
change.
"China has been able to develop its economy without plundering other countries,
and the Chinese economic miracle is indeed a source of pride and inspiration,"
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe told the forum. Beijing's engagement with the
continent was a model the rest of the world should adopt, he said.
But on the sidelines of the forum, Beijing has had to fight criticism that its
expansion in Africa is driven solely by interests in the continent's vast
natural resources.
Zhai Jun, an assistant foreign minister, told the media that China was not
seeking to impose its "hegemony" in Africa. "China will not treat Africa in an
imperialist way. China will not be pointing fingers or bullying African
countries," he said, reiterating that China would not "practice colonialism in
African countries".
Zhai's remarks echo some Chinese commentators in Beijing. They have launched a
counter-offensive, saying criticism of China is driven by envy because Western
countries continue to treat Africa like a colony.
"The West envies China's engagement with Africa," said an editorial in the
Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist Party's flagship newspaper,
the People's Daily. "Europeans view Africa as their own backyard," the paper
quoted Xu Weizhong, an expert on Africa, as saying. "Of course, they don't like
to see China encroaching on their 'territory'."
Beijing has always denied it harbors any intentions of replicating the West's
colonial expansion in Africa. But earlier this year, delegates to the annual
session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China's parliament, debated a
proposal to seek employment for up to 1 million Chinese in various African
countries.
The proposal was put forward by delegate Zhao Zhihai, a researcher with the
Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences in China's breadbasket province of
Hebei.
Zhao, who had visited Ethiopia and Guinea to explore possibilities for
agricultural cooperation in cultivating hybrid rice on the continent, told
delegates that Africa's vast land and underdeveloped agriculture could provide
employment for up to 1 million Chinese laborers.
"In the current economic climate, with so many of our people unemployed, China
can benefit from finding jobs for them and Africa can benefit from our
expertise in developing any type of land and crop," Zhao told the parliament.
He suggested Beijing should draft a long-term strategy of dispatching Chinese
laborers to Africa in order to solve two of China's greatest challenges - food
security and unemployment.
Zhao's proposal may have not been endorsed at the top level, but publication
provoked comments of approval in some of the popular Internet forums here.
"At last we have heard of something useful from our delegates to the
parliament," one person wrote in a sarcastic jab at the NPC, often derided in
the country as a "rubber stamp".
Another, writing on "tianya" forum (www.tianya.cn), suggested that Angola and
Equatorial Guinea should be developed as "outposts" of China's overall strategy
of transforming Africa into a "China-friendly backyard" and Beijing should seek
to buy land and send laborers to those countries in order to relieve China's
"food and land bottlenecks".
China's push into Africa is part of a global competition to tap the continent's
energy resources and mineral wealth. Prices of many commodities have been
soaring recently, making Africa's vast deposits of copper, bauxite, cobalt,
iron ore and gold all the more attractive.
While Beijing is not alone in its pursuit of Africa's oil, gas and precious
materials, it has invited more criticism than other governments for its huge
diplomatic and commercial expansion in the continent.
The aid offered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the China-Africa forum was double that
unveiled by President Hu Jintao at the last summit in Beijing in 2006. Then
Beijing pledged $5 billion in assistance over three years and signed agreements
to relieve or cancel debts owed by 31 African states.
Critics say Beijing has been unscrupulous in grabbing African resources,
disregarding human rights and environmental issues. The Chinese government and
its state-run companies have struck deals with some of the most unsavory
governments in Africa.
In October, China International Fund struck a $7 billion deal for oil and
mineral rights in Guinea, a country run by a military junta, which was
responsible for the recent massacre of about 150 pro-democracy protesters.
Beijing says it would refrain from interfering in the internal politics of any
African country.
"China's support and aid for Africa has never and will never attach any
political conditions," Wen said in his address at the summit, held on November
8-9.
But lack of transparency surrounding much of Beijing's expansion in Africa has
hurt China's attempt to set itself up as a pioneer of new diplomacy.
Experts say that China's advance on the continent appears a little ad-hoc and
few in the Chinese government, if any, know the full extent of overall aid and
investment and how these are being utilized in Africa.
"The problem is, we don't know what the volume of aid from China is," Brian
Atwood, who served for six years as administrator of the US Agency for
International Development during the Bill Clinton administration, told the
Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing recently. "There is a lack of
transparency about what is actually happening. It is not a conspiracy, but it's
not joined up; no one is keeping track of it all."
The largely obscure nature of China's aid-giving has given rise to fears that
it does not lay a base for sustainable development on the continent and that it
only benefits Chinese companies and laborers.
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