Hopes, fears rise as China quickens Africa push

JOHANNESBURG – At Johannesburg’s bustling Oriental Plaza, the Chinese are ruffling feathers.Established under apartheid for South Africa’s Indian traders, Oriental Plaza has in recent months seen an influx of Chinese businessmen selling goods so cheap that long-established shops cannot compete.

About 3 000 km away in the oil-rich seas off Angola, the Chinese are busy bidding for concessions to power their economic boom, while Chinese-made jet fighters swoop over Zimbabwe in exercises that are a reminder of Beijing’s support for President Robert Mugabe. Across Africa, China’s economic and diplomatic presence is expanding in an accelerating push that is raising both hopes and hackles far beyond African shores.Since China’s President Hu Jintao used a visit to Gabon last year to announce a new drive to strengthen relations with Africa, the Chinese have been working to cement the gains of the past several years.Chinese diplomats feature at African summits, flying the flag of Third World friendship and offers to cancel some US$1,3 billion (N$8,19 billion) in bilateral debt.Chinese businessmen snap up commodities, while Chinese doctors treat Africa’s sick under assistance programmes that win friends among people often forgotten by the rest of the world.”China’s move into Africa is displacing traditional Anglo-French and US interests on the continent,” said Martyn Davies, director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.”The United States, and the British, are particularly concerned about increased Chinese movements.”Reminders of China’s ties to Africa stand in many African capitals where Chinese-built stadiums echo an era from the 1950s and 1960s when Chairman Mao’s engineers forged anti-Imperialist solidarity with Africa’s independence leaders.But the current Sino-African business boom is unprecedented, driven by China’s increasing hunger for raw materials to power a market-driven economy growing at over nine per cent per year.In 2004, China’s total exports to Africa hit US$13,82 billion, up 36 per cent over the previous year while imports – largely raw materials – surged 81 per cent to US$15,65 billion, according to Chinese statistics.Chinese diplomats, while recognising African concerns over competition that has all but destroyed some low-tech industries such as textiles, say the two are ideal partners.”China now finds herself in a position to offer what African countries need, namely, sophisticated technology appropriate to African conditions at relative low cost,” Liang Guixuan, an economic expert at China’s embassy in South Africa, said.Beneath the diplomatic veneer, however, it is clear that China’s immediate interest in Africa is oil and Chinese state companies are moving fast to sew up deals in key producers such as Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Congo.In Angola, China stepped in with a US$2 billion credit line secured by future oil deliveries to upgrade war-damaged Angolan infrastructure after talks between Luanda and western lenders stalled over issues of transparency.China has since displaced the United States as Angola’s biggest oil customer – buying an estimated 323 000 barrels per day in 2004 against 306 000 barrels per day in US sales – and close political ties promise an increasing flow.”Angola needs China for its reconstruction efforts.When donors and the IMF were turning their backs, China was the only way for Angola to get funding to rebuild the country,” one Luanda-based energy source said.China has also become a key supporter of Mugabe, who has increasingly highlighted his government’s “Look East” policy.Davies of Stellenbosch University said China’s activities in Angola and Sudan, where China has ignored concerns over atrocities in lawless Darfur to become the biggest foreign investor with US$4 billion in projects, showed Beijing was adept at exploiting political openings.China’s deep-pocket strategy is showing political pay-offs for Beijing by limiting the activities of their rivals on Nationalist-ruled Taiwan.Senegal in October switched diplomatic recognition to China, reportedly with the curt reminder to Taipei that “states have no friends, they have only interests”.But China’s influence in Africa extends beyond oil fields, and is moving deeper into the continent.China is busy improving one of its 1960s era political gifts to Africa – the Zambia-Tanzania railway – which is now proving useful as a conduit for Zambian copper that China uses to make telephone lines, electronics and construction materials.Chinese tourism to Africa is a fast-growing market, while environmentalists blame China’s appetite for ivory for a new round of elephant poaching across the continent.-Nampa-ReutersAcross Africa, China’s economic and diplomatic presence is expanding in an accelerating push that is raising both hopes and hackles far beyond African shores.Since China’s President Hu Jintao used a visit to Gabon last year to announce a new drive to strengthen relations with Africa, the Chinese have been working to cement the gains of the past several years.Chinese diplomats feature at African summits, flying the flag of Third World friendship and offers to cancel some US$1,3 billion (N$8,19 billion) in bilateral debt.Chinese businessmen snap up commodities, while Chinese doctors treat Africa’s sick under assistance programmes that win friends among people often forgotten by the rest of the world.”China’s move into Africa is displacing traditional Anglo-French and US interests on the continent,” said Martyn Davies, director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.”The United States, and the British, are particularly concerned about increased Chinese movements.”Reminders of China’s ties to Africa stand in many African capitals where Chinese-built stadiums echo an era from the 1950s and 1960s when Chairman Mao’s engineers forged anti-Imperialist solidarity with Africa’s independence leaders.But the current Sino-African business boom is unprecedented, driven by China’s increasing hunger for raw materials to power a market-driven economy growing at over nine per cent per year.In 2004, China’s total exports to Africa hit US$13,82 billion, up 36 per cent over the previous year while imports – largely raw materials – surged 81 per cent to US$15,65 billion, according to Chinese statistics.Chinese diplomats, while recognising African concerns over competition that has all but destroyed some low-tech industries such as textiles, say the two are ideal partners.”China now finds herself in a position to offer what African countries need, namely, sophisticated technology appropriate to African conditions at relative low cost,” Liang Guixuan, an economic expert at China’s embassy in South Africa, said.Beneath the diplomatic veneer, however, it is clear that China’s immediate interest in Africa is oil and Chinese state companies are moving fast to sew up deals in key producers such as Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Congo.In Angola, China stepped in with a US$2 billion credit line secured by future oil deliveries to upgrade war-damaged Angolan infrastructure after talks between Luanda and western lenders stalled over issues of transparency.China has since displaced the United States as Angola’s biggest oil customer – buying an estimated 323 000 barrels per day in 2004 against 306 000 barrels per day in US sales – and close political ties promise an increasing flow.”Angola needs China for its reconstruction efforts.When donors and the IMF were turning their backs, China was the only way for Angola to get funding to rebuild the country,” one Luanda-based energy source said.China has also become a key supporter of Mugabe, who has increasingly highlighted his government’s “Look East” policy.Davies of Stellenbosch University said China’s activities in Angola and Sudan, where China has ignored concerns over atrocities in lawless Darfur to become the biggest foreign investor with US$4 billion in projects, showed Beijing was adept at exploiting political openings.China’s deep-pocket strategy is showing political pay-offs for Beijing by limiting the activities
of their rivals on Nationalist-ruled Taiwan.Senegal in October switched diplomatic recognition to China, reportedly with the curt reminder to Taipei that “states have no friends, they have only interests”.But China’s influence in Africa extends beyond oil fields, and is moving deeper into the continent.China is busy improving one of its 1960s era political gifts to Africa – the Zambia-Tanzania railway – which is now proving useful as a conduit for Zambian copper that China uses to make telephone lines, electronics and construction materials.Chinese tourism to Africa is a fast-growing market, while environmentalists blame China’s appetite for ivory for a new round of elephant poaching across the continent.-Nampa-Reuters