Africa: China’s Ticket to Ride
by Tristan Edmondson

To the eyes of a Chinese imperialist, Africa is a land brimming with potential. Rich in natural resources, neglected by the West and often run by inept and corrupt governments, it is China’s one-stop-shop for raw materials, oil, markets and influence. Yet very few in the media who trumpet the “rise of China” have taken the time to investigate how that rise is being facilitated.  China has pumped millions of dollars of “moral-lite” investment into Africa, propping up the world’s last remaining tyrants. Are China’s actions simply the natural recourse of a flexing economic power, or should we be shocked by the moral vacuum in the investment practice of ex-Communist apparatchiks?
 
Premier Wen Jiabao seems to have a keen sense of irony. He told an Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta in April: "In pursuit of world peace and common development, China will always stand by, and work through thick and thin, with developing countries". China is already working through thick and thin in Africa with very controversial regimes in Sudan and Zimbabwe, as well as questionable ones in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Gabon. Tens of billions of dollars have been spent on natural resources, infrastructure projects and soft loans.

There is little question that China’s involvement in Sudan is perpetuating the bloody conflict and alleged genocide in the Darfur region. Sudan has become a client state in China’s desperate scramble for oil; it is the leading recipient of Chinese economic aid with $16 billon already invested in oil rights, refineries and pipelines. The Chinese money also insulates Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from international pressure and China is willing to block UN action - it pledged to block UN resolution 1564 threatening oil sanctions unless the violence in Darfur was curbed. 

Without the Chinese energy and mining deals worth £700m Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe would be in much deeper economic trouble. The deal allows Chinese access to gold, platinum, chrome and coal mines in return for turning a blind eye. China’s economic prosperity is given precedence over dealing with a torturing tyrant bringing the country to it knees.

‘To accuse China of a particularly evil form of economic self-interest is to misunderstand the necessarily Machiavellian nature of developing economic and geopolitical power.’

The Chinese have become investors in the booming copper industry in Zambia and Congo. They have been major buyers of timber in Gabon, Cameroon, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia. Chinese companies were widely criticized for keeping former president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor flush with cash and prolonging Liberia's devastating civil war.

‘China is not simply looking to strip Africa of its resources but to accumulate power, just as the West does across the world.’

But China is not acting any differently from any other manufacturing superpower: it simply seeks the resources it needs. It is no secret that the US government sees economic prosperity as its overriding aim; in South America, the Middle East and Central Asia American US policies have backed questionable regimes for economic reasons. This is the nature of global capitalism, and has been since the days of empire. To accuse China of a particularly evil form of economic self-interest is to misunderstand the necessarily Machiavellian nature of developing economic and geopolitical power.

China’s investment in Africa is of course partly based on the instant need to supply its ravenous economy, but not all the money is directed this way. Much of China’s money goes towards state-run infrastructure projects which are unlikely to bring any short-term return. This kind of behaviour is consistent with an international power starting to flex its muscles. China is not simply looking to strip Africa of its resources but to accumulate power, just as the West does across the world. As China uses Africa’s resources and becomes richer, so it will be able to afford to invest more and will be able to motivate client states closer to its desired diplomatic and economic positions. Wen Jiabao’s recent tour of seven African nations was not only to secure natural resources and trade, but also to gain support for denying Taiwan diplomatic status.