China’s Africa policy poses risks: German official

BERLIN – China’s pursuit of raw materials in Africa could hurt efforts by leading industrial powers to improve governance on the continent, a senior German government official was quoted as saying yesterday.

Asked by German business daily Handelsblatt whether China’s policy towards Africa undermined efforts by the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations to promote “good governance”, Deputy Economy Minister Bernd Pfaffenbach said: “I find it hard to criticise China. But it’s certainly a problem to pursue a policy whose sole interest is to secure raw materials, and thereby sometimes achieve the opposite of what we are striving for.”It would be a purely capitalist, almost colonial approach to simply exploit the raw materials,” added Pfaffenbach, who is Germany’s G8 sherpa, responsible for preparing G8 summits.”That weakens Africa’s position and is not our objective.”China has been criticised for investing in or aiding countries such as Sudan, under fire over its human rights record, in return for access to oil and gas supplies.Berlin assumed the rotating presidency of the G8 at the start of this year, and China is one of the nations from outside the group due to attend a G8 summit in Germany in June.Nampa-ReutersBut it’s certainly a problem to pursue a policy whose sole interest is to secure raw materials, and thereby sometimes achieve the opposite of what we are striving for.”It would be a purely capitalist, almost colonial approach to simply exploit the raw materials,” added Pfaffenbach, who is Germany’s G8 sherpa, responsible for preparing G8 summits.”That weakens Africa’s position and is not our objective.”China has been criticised for investing in or aiding countries such as Sudan, under fire over its human rights record, in return for access to oil and gas supplies.Berlin assumed the rotating presidency of the G8 at the start of this year, and China is one of the nations from outside the group due to attend a G8 summit in Germany in June.Nampa-Reuters