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Posted on 02/22/2008 2:35:35 AM PST by Flavius
China's Africa policies are widely welcomed by African nations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular press conference on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.people.com.cn ...
By Colin Freeman in Chambishi, Sunday Telegraph
EXCERPT:
The poor conditions in the Chinese mine were highlighted in a Christian Aid report released last week. It said that while other foreign mine operators, including Swiss and Indian firms, were often slipshod too, they provided at least some social benefits, sponsoring anti-malaria programmes and football teams. The report also described how two miners were shot and injured during a wages protest outside the Chinese managers' compound last year, either by Chinese-hired security guards or by Zambian police. The shooting, it said, "confirmed in the popular imagination the idea that Chinese bosses were uniquely brutal and exploitative, and that the Zambian state's relationship to them was too close".
Fears about the Chinese way of doing business are not just confined to the Copper Belt. In Zambia's capital, Lusaka, traders and manufacturers say the flood of cheap Chinese goods into their markets has made it all but impossible to earn a living. It is a complaint repeated in marketplaces in nearly every African country that has done a trade-for-aid deal.
Zambia, however, is unusual in Africa in that the Chinese presence has become a major political issue. Last October, Michael Sata's opposition Patriotic Front party nearly unseated Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president, after campaigning on a populist anti-Chinese ticket, benefiting partly from resentment over conditions in the mines.
Guy Scott, the Patriotic Front general secretary, believes Beijing already wields unhealthy influence over African governments, effectively turning whichever party is in power into a client faction. "They are out to colonise Africa economically," he said.
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/04/wzambia04.xml
While all this is going on people are simply oblivious ....a week ago someone (a FReeper) even stated that the only thing in Africa is beetle-dung.
What is interesting is that (and i said it a week ago too) if Russia moved into Norway and took over ONE off-shore oil-well, people would be screaming to high heaven how the 'evil Ruskies' are trying to take over the world.
China moves in and takes over (more or less) an ENTIRE continent, and people talk about beetle dung.
Anyways, China has been rapidly diversifying its resource base (and not just in Africa but also in Latin America), and it has also been putting a lot of those nations (in Africa and L.America) under its geo-political footprint. But people either do not seem to see it, or do not seem to care.
Let's put it this way ....for all of Africa's woes and issues (and there are many), it is still one of the most resource rich areas in the globe. It is hugely untapped, and those resources are at a very low price point relatively (particularly if you throw in political concessions). Those Governments are largely tired of Western aid (which does have certain fiscal requirements ....call them strings ....that China does not appear to have). And China is also heavily marketing to the African middle-class (and contrary to perceptions, it is present, substantial and growing .....it is not India or anything like that, but the vast majority of african nations have good middle-class populations that have consumer power .....it is just that the Discovery channel prefers the starving hut-dwelling masses).
China is making heavy moves, and no one seems to notice or care. Yet, a decade or so from now, China will basically have a continental base .....yet if Cuba said we get out of Guantanamo, or the Russians decided to send some conscripts to take over a simple offshore oilwell, we would be bursting veins in ire.
The Chinese are not European. The Africans have a hard time slapping a colonialist label on them. They are looked up as fellow third worlders not the white oppressor. This is most of why the Chinese are taking over Africa...along with the Muslims. The Jihadists dearly want to make Africa into a base of operations
Well, it hsould be interesting watching the Chinese fight the Jihadis for land, a base of operations, and resources.
Ironically the Chinese might be instrumental in getting the Jihadis wiped out. As for the Africans, I don’t think they’ll like China’s way of dealing with belligerant natives.
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