Beijing makes play for Africa

The Sunday Times ^ | November 5, 2006 | Michael Sheridan

[durasell]

And there is a very easy way to prevent Chinese inroads into Africa: Western countries should offer Africa BETTER deal. Simple like that!


Won't happen because:

A)Western good too expensive for Africa to ever become a large market.

B)Voters are short-sighted and think that Africa is just a sink hole of charity dollars.

C)Being a commie country the Chinese can move official aid programs in parallel with opening markets.

[SauronOfMordor]

China needs lebensraum and Africa fits the bill

Southern Africa particularly fits the bill. It's climate is temperate, the land is fertile (when farmed by people who know how to farm), and it's not in the malaria zone.

If the Chinese settled a few million energetic young men who knew how to shoot a gun as well as farm, they would do well

[diesel00]

No need. I just got back from there in March. You may believe what the newspaper says. I will believe my not lying eyes.

Nice bluff, but I don't believe you one second that you visited 42 African nations and inspected the Chinese investments in each one.

[durasell]

The Chinese aren't interested in land, they're interested in things like coltran and oil, and access to markets.

[Dr. Marten]

You can now add a deployment to Beruit to their world mission.

[dennisw]

Rhodesia has incredible farmland. The Chinese farmers can take over and make their own plantations once the whites are all dead and driven out. The blacks will work under Chinese who will be ruthless compared to the white farmers


http://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Forty-Centuries-Organic-Farming/dp/0486436098

[diesel00]

Hell,the Chinese Americans I know will in their moments of honesty tell you that most Chinese think they are more gifted than white people,not to mention blacks and Latinos.

Well, Asian-Americans do have the highest average household incomes in the US and do score the highest on composite SAT scores. Saying that doesn't make one a racist. So why are we playing the race card?

[SauronOfMordor]

The Chinese aren't interested in land, they're interested in things like coltran and oil, and access to markets

Looking at African history, it seems the best way to be sure that you get products out of Africa is to exclude the Africans from being involved

[diesel00]

China needs lebensraum and Africa fits the bill

Russia Far East is a lot closer and less populated. It also doesn't need a Chinese navy (oxymoron) to get there. The reality is that there are more Chinese in Canada than Africa. This China in Africa thing is nothing but hype to stir Westerners to give more charity and aid to Africa as "competition."

[dennisw]

Siberia is too cold. Africa has lots of climate zones similar to China

[Riverman94610]

No,in fact the stats you indicated would justify some of the Asian claims.
And the only reason I put the race card in play was because I think that Chinese involvement in Africa is going to present some racial strife of a very interesting nature should they "colonize"that part of the world.

[durasell]

Looking at African history, it seems the best way to be sure that you get products out of Africa is to exclude the Africans from being involved




Mining coltran and other rare earths is labor intensive. Africa has relatively cheap labor, something the Chinese understand. Other exports require intimate knowledge of the area and people, something the Africans understand.

As I've stated in previous posts, there really are fortunes being made in Africa today for those with the gumption. Probably one of the last places on earth that require very, very little start-up money.

[Riverman94610]

I agree with you on the Western option being the better choice.
I think Africa will never succeed till they clean up their massive corruption and tribalist inclinations.
True,China has changed a lot since Mao.Yet their forced abortion policy and totalitarian Communist control of the media still means they have a long way to go before being a country I can respect.

[diesel00]

Siberia is too cold. Africa has lots of climate zones similar to China

China has roughly the same lattitudes as the United States. China's climate stretches from the tundra cold of Manchuria to the tropical zones of Hong Kong and Hainan (location of spy plane incident). 300 million Chinese live in Manchuria, which is just under the Russian Far East and experience colder weather than the Dakotas, so I would say they are used to it. The majority of Africa have climate too dry and hot for the rice-farming Chinese. One exception is South Africa. The Chinese aren't in Africa because they like to live in Africa, they are there because of business.

[diesel00]

I think that Chinese involvement in Africa is going to present some racial strife of a very interesting nature should they "colonize"that part of the world.

Oh I believe there already are some racial tensions. However, I don't think it will matter because the Chinese don't deal with the African people, but rather the African governments. And it'll take a lot of Chinese repression for the African people to reject the Chinese and overtopple the African governments that are pro-Chinese. You probably won't see the Chinese imposing blatantly racist policies on these African countries (times have changed, this ain't the 19th century anymore), and so it will be hard to inspire the average African to blame everything on Chinese repression.

If the Chinese play their cards right, they have a lot to gain from this. If the Chinese turn a "Japanese" (turn militarialistic and arrogant) on the Africans, then the Chinese have a lot to lose in Africa. The Japanese before WWII could have been the leader of East Asia without firing a bullet had they played their cards right, but they blew their chance. The Chinese before WWII were more than happy to join the Japanese, but not in the style that the Japanese later devised.

[dennisw]

You are mostly correct but millions of overseas Chinese live in tropical nations. Tropical Asian nations. Chinese can thrive in hot climates. Chinese would be right at home in Uganda's climate if they could somehow colonize it and drive the Africans out. AIDS will help the Chinese

[dennisw]

Africans hate the white man who is seen as a colonizer and exploiter. But will welcome the Chinese who will turn out to be more ruthless colonizers and exploiters.

[Riverman94610]

As I read more on the Japanese in WW2,I can see that if they had played their cards right,junked their racial superiority delusions and eased up on the brutal depredations of their occupation troops,they could have very easily had their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperiy Sphere and perhaps been the leaders of an"anti-imperialist"movement before the Communists hijacked them Post WW2.
I had a History teacher in Junior College who swore if the Nazis had not been so rabidly anti-Semetic,they could have won WW2 with the aid of their very talented Jewish Germans who could have added tremedously to the war effort.

[Joe Boucher]

Chi-coms can have that basket case Haiti. And yes the did send in troops. Kind of funny it was.

Billions wasted on Haiti. Fears, psudo religions, intimidation and ignorance is all a factor there. Add to the fact the people have used up every bit of resources available, fish, trees everything and there is nothing there but misery.