“China Seduces Africa While West Watches”
Posted November 6, 2006 on 6:50 pm | In the category China, Africa | by JeffThe above is the title of a piece from Reuters that follows up very nicely on Kiwi’s earlier blog here on China buying Africa for its oil. The price is cheap - $1.9billion and the use of its veto in the UN - when needed. The fact that the deal is in China’s current national interest and not in the national interest of the U.S. or other Western countries points out the fundamental weakness of current Western policies and diplomacies in Africa.
And, in a not-so-funny way we in the West end up complicit by demanding cheap goods from China which contributes to China’s increased demand for oil which leads to a new Chinese colonialism in Africa which will in all probability lead to increased human rights problems in Africa.
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Well done, Jeff. The Reuters piece is a comprehensive survey of the quality UK press commentary on the China/Africa alignment. A couple excerpts from the Guardian’s editorials worth emphasis I think :
“…Beijing is variously accused of propping up corrupt and vicious regimes, as in Angola and Zimbabwe, exploiting cheap African labour, dumping manufactures and destroying indigenous industries, and of quasi-colonialist political interference, as appeared to be the case during Zambia’s recent presidential election.”
AND:
“In its new report, the IPPR [Institute for Public Policy Research]draws particular attention to Sudan, where China has significant oil investments. It notes China’s blocking of UN action over Darfur and its weapons sales to Khartoum and urges increased international pressure on Beijing to help end the crisis.
“Managed well, China could bring real development benefits to Africans,” Leni Wild and David Mepham, the report’s authors, say. “Managed badly, China’s role may lead to worsening standards of governance and more corruption. As a one-party state, China’s foreign policy is not driven by a concern to promote human rights, in Africa or elsewhere.”
Managing badly sounds pretty innocuous. What it means is more death, dislocation,poverty, injustice and inhumanity. We can’t just hope China will manage this well. We have to keep the focus on seeing that China doesn’t take a bad situation and make it much worse. I fear China is doing just that in Africa and the US, the UN, and the EU is letting it happen.
Comment by Kiwi — November 6, 2006 #
The Chinese powered genocide in the Sudan has migrated from Darfur to Chad. Here’s the link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6124538.stm
The BBC is good to remind us that this is a 3 and 1/2 year long attrocity, killling something like 200,000 people and displacing about 2million more. It is now becoming a war between 2 African nations.
What the BBC doesn’t do is remind us that no one is intervening.
The EU, US and UN are complicit in this by allowing the Chinese to protect their Sudanese oil suppliers from intervention.
Comment by Kiwi — November 7, 2006 #